Event Details

Date/Time: 

Dec 9 2010 8:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

$20 general admission, $40 VIP (prices slightly higher at the door)
Visit Funatical Comedy Tour/ for info/tickets.

Where: 

Thurs, Dec. 9, World Famous Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

FUNATICAL is a new and exciting multicultural comedy mega-event that launches in Los Angeles on December 9th, 2010 with five shows throughout the southland from L.A. to Orange County. It continues on to New York City in late January 2011 and stops in Washington, D.C. early in March! Join the fun and check out the shows in town, at the world-famous Comedy Store (WeHo), the Beyond the Stars Palace (Glendale), the Los Angeles Theatre Center (downtown LA) and the Caspian (Irvine).

The tour features hilarious comedians who poke fun of stereotypes, American and Middle Eastern culture and current events, which they lampoon with humor and satire. There's the hysterical and very physical stand-up Max Amini aka the ironic Iranian; Mike Batayeh, who with his elastic facial muscles and shrewd humor lampoons all of our worst Arab stereotypes, while making fun of everyone else in the bargain; Tissa Hami, a national headliner in a hijab who stops at nothing to skewer our sacred cows, Muslim and otherwise; Noel Elgrably, the only Middle Eastern Jewish comedian featured in the New York Arab American Comedy Festival; plus one of the greatest female comedians ever to come out of Iran—Elham Jazab, who can explain why "Persian girls don't buy Persian rugs; we marry them," and tell you the difference between Al Qaeda and Hezbollah; not to mention Omar Regan and Samson Koletkar, the world's only known Indian Jewish comic. Last but not least comes Ara Basil, the hilarious yet shrewd, politically-astute Armenian comedian.

Shohreh AghdashlooShohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian-American Hollywood actress who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the film "House of Sand and Fog." She has also starred in "X-Men" and "House of Saddam" among many other film and television roles. Aghdashloo was born in Tehran in 1952 and left after the Iranian revolution. She studied journalism in London and also pursued theatre. She eventually came to Los Angeles for acting and is considered a pillar of the Iranian community here. In 2007 she was awarded the Arpa Career Achievement Award.

Abby Johnston
The Daily Pennsylvanian

Comedy and Islamophobia: panelists Jordan Elgrably, Mike Batayeh, Mucahit Bilici, Noel Elgrably, Elham Jazab and Dr. Armat. Comedians may be more effective than politicians in addressing the tensions surrounding the current conflict in the Middle East.

Noel Elgrably, Elham Jazab and Mike Batayeh, a group of Middle Eastern comedians who call themselves the Sultans of Satire, held a panel discussion Friday, Jan. 16 on the role of comedy in alleviating Islamophobia. The University of Pennsylvania Middle East Center, Levantine Cultural Center an Kodoom Cultural Event Search Engine cosponsored the panel, followed by a live comedy performance that evening at Rosemont College's Lawrence Hall.