CAIRO // When George Azmy took the stage last Friday, he was ebullient, energetic and - despite being a 26-year-old amateur, stand-up comedian - supremely confident. "In the West, they're making documentaries about us as if we're wildlife," Azmy said before shifting his voice to mimic the high-minded narration of a nature show about Egyptians. "It's the mating season of the Egyptian male, which lasts all year long but gets worse in the summer. Here, we can see Egyptian males gathering at bus stops and corners. To attract the female Egyptian, the male may make irritating noises." On stage, Azmy aped the signature kissing noise of the "Egyptian male" that was so instantly familiar to audience members. They cheered wildly. If audiences at last week's show recognised the comic foibles of Egyptian life, they were less familiar with the comic medium with which it was conveyed. Comedy is currency to Egyptians, whose humorous plays and screwball films have fuelled the Arab world's funny business for generations. But stand-up comedy remains a rare foreign import here, known mostly to an exclusive slice of the English-speaking upper-class.
And it was members of that class that made up most of the audience at Egypt's 1st Comedy Rumble, a set of three shows in Cairo and Alexandria that featured four Egyptian comedians alongside venerable American talents, including two former members of the Axis of Evil comedy troupe. By connecting global star-power with Egypt's nascent local talent, the show's promoters hope to cultivate an Egyptian comedy community that can stand up on its own. "It's obvious. I don't know why nobody did it before," said Mohammed Amin, the general manager of Benchmark, an Egyptian marketing firm and the organiser of the largest stand-up tours that have visited Egypt since the company first introduced the art form in 2007. "The vision is not only to bring in comedians from abroad but also to start developing local talent as well. Hopefully, what we will end up with is a local Egyptian stand-up comedy scene," said Mr Amin, who called such big shows as Egypt's 1st Comedy Rumble an "investment" that he hopes will put Benchmark in front of other promoters once stand-up becomes a hit.
But until it does, most Egyptians have never heard of it. Perhaps what is most confusing for Egyptian audiences is not what stand-up is, but what it is not. It is not, Mr Amin has had to explain, a humorous play. Nor is it an actor performing an in-character monologue - a popular format for live Egyptian comedy. Instead, stand-up comedians appear as themselves and speak directly to an audience without a theatrical "fourth wall", relaying observations and stories from their own lives. Most importantly, it is funny. And for Egyptians, who consider themselves to be the best wits in the Arab world, it is likely to catch on quickly. Turning Egyptian stand-up into a cash cow, however, is a different matter altogether. "It's not a disconnect with the people. The people love it," Azmy said in an interview after his show. "When you're talking with a producer and you say I want to do stand-up comedy, he doesn't think it's big enough. "He wants a proper, ready-made mould, or example, or a model of something that has been done before here. They're not ready to accept the medium on its face." So Mr Amin has taken a top-down approach to building Egyptian stand-up from the ground up. Last weekend's performances were Benchmark's fourth and largest event. The company's foray into stand-up promotions began in Dec 2007 when the Axis of Evil - a trio of American comedians of Middle Eastern decent - toured the Middle East. Two thousand people came to see the Americans alongside Egyptian rookies who had been chosen in a cattle-call audition. In May of last year, 3,500 went to another performance of the Axis of Evil, followed by "Arabs Gone Wild" in November, which drew 4,000. The mixed English and Arabic performances have provided big venues for Egyptian stand-up artists, but they cannot replicate the small-time bars and cafes where most American comedians make their starts, said Maz Jabrani, one of two Axis of Evil alumni who performed in Cairo last week. "I think for George Azmy to get to the point where he's huge, it will take more years of continuing to do it, hopefully more opportunities to do it. "What you ultimately need is a comedy club, where there's comedy three or four nights a week; a smaller venue, where it's a club and you have a lot of young people who can go through there and get better and better." While it will take time and money to endear Egyptian audiences to western-style stand-up, it is almost unimaginable that a full expression of stand-up comedy as it is found in the West - with its candid jokes about sex, religion, drugs and politics - will ever be welcome in most Middle Eastern venues. Indeed, Mr Amin tells his performers to stay clear of religion and to avoid politics as much as possible. Jabrani agrees. "There are some comics who, their pure purpose out there is to offend the audience. The offence taken by their audience becomes their entertainment almost. I don't think those kinds of comics would do well in this part of the world." mbradley@thenational.ae