Two Brits, one Yank, one Arab and few laughs. These four comedians may be popular in their home of Dubai, but they need to improve if they wish to make it big at the competitive Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Rule number one is not to insult your audience - something the ‘headliner’ Ali Al Sayed failed to adhere to. His jokes began discussing his travels across the globe, but gradually descended into attacking the audience; it was awkward to witness and lost him a lot of respect. His humour was equally self-deprecating, even if it did rely on racial stereotypes, but ultimately was just covering for a lack of material.
Elsewhere, the two Brits contrasted greatly. First up was Ray Addison. Given the shortest place in the set, there was less room for laughs but his anecdotes on life in Dubai and his family were honest and amusing. Jamie Johnson followed with a very under-rehearsed set, relying on a paper in his back pocket to keep him on track. Even then, his flow was stilted with frequent silent gaps. When the jokes came, they were aimed specifically at a gay audience which fell on the wrong ears. Filled with crude, misogynistic jokes on sexuality, the set was utterly derogatory.
That left our host for the evening, Nina Liccione, to raise the standard. Loud and brash, she was confident chatting to the audience and provided a string of good-natured jokes filled with pop references and impressions. That said, when the funniest part of the night is an (admittedly realistic) impression of Janice from Friends, it’s clear that more work is needed.
