Stand-up comedy in Riyadh

Last year some friends went to a comedy event at a Riyadh venue, and everyone that we spoke to had really enjoyed the night. A few weeks ago we heard about another comedy night which ended up being a sell-out. A second show was then organised, which Maree and Peter were able to attend.

As with the show we heard of last year, all of the event communication was kept very low key. You could say that the function was of an unauthorised nature ...

The map and instructions on how to reach the venue were unfortunately diverted by our spam filter, however we knew the final location and so we headed off with plenty of spare time. After more than 30 minutes of fruitless searching for the highway exit we finally found some small off-road tracks, and after that we were able to follow our noses (and the GPS).

After the adventure of finding our way there, we were amazed to see how many other people had also turned up - there were at least 400 in the crowd. There was a broad mix of nationalities, with perhaps a small majority being Saudi. It was quite a surreal experience - being at a somewhat surreptitious event is something we've done before, but nothing of this scale ... and definitely not one with so much corporate sponsorship!

The actual entertainment was great fun. The headline act was a US-based comedian called Ahmed Ahmed who was very polished. We believe that all of the other performers are based in Saudi; most being young Saudi nationals. One of these comedians was quite experienced and had a very smooth routine; this was the first performance for almost everyone else. All of the new comics had clearly been rehearsing - each person had at least one part of the act that was very funny, and everyone kept the crowd engaged. We also thought that all of the comedians were really well-attuned to their audience, and did a good job of making fun of various people without being offensive.

Our final surprise was to see an article about the comedy shows in yesterday's Arab News. It will be interesting to see whether there is any loosening-up to permit such events in the coming years. Over time it would be good to see some more entertainment options available in the Kingdom, and live performances are a key part of that.