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Ahmed Ahmed Comedian
Comedian Is Serious About Bridging Cultures
As a budding actor, Ahmed
Ahmed wasn’t having
much fun being typecast
as a terrorist or cab driver. So he
started using his Arab heritage to
make people laugh.
After a few years in small clubs,
Egyptian-born Ahmed was invited
to join comedians Aron Kader,
of Palestinian heritage, and Maz
Jobrani, of Iranian descent, at the
Comedy Store in Hollywood in
2000. They were the first comics
to appear there in an all-Middle
East act first billed as “Arabian
Nights” and later changed to “The
Arabian Knights.”
The show’s success inspired the
trio to go on the road in November
2005 as the “Axis of Evil Comedy
Tour,” using a well-known
phrase coined by President
George W. Bush. They played to
largely Arab-American
and Persian-American
audiences who
identified with
their use of
humor to
b r e a k
d o w n
cultural
barriers.
In 2007, the
trio hit prime
time when
they starred in the
first television show
in the U.S. to feature
all Middle Eastern-
American comedians,
Comedy Central’s “The
Axis of Evil Comedy
Special,” which Time
magazine dubbed
“stand-up diplomacy.”
The show later toured
Middle Eastern cit-
ies, including Cairo,
Dubai, Kuwait, Amman (where
King Abdullah attended), Beirut
and Riyadh.
Ahmed continues to perform with
the tour and at the Comedy Store,
but recently he took his laughter-
is-the-best-medicine approach
to another level. He donned the
roles of director and producer to
create his first documentary film,
Just Like Us, released at the 2010
Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
The film documents several
mixed-heritage comedians
(Ahmed is the only Arab) touring
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon, but
its focus is not the performers.
It is the people watching them.
Ahmed said the movie’s goal is
to demonstrate to Western audi-
ences that people in the Middle
East have a sense of humor and
like to laugh — just like people in
other parts of the world.
The comedians in the film strike a
subtle balance, since the concept
of Western stand-up comedy — no
topic is off limits — is not always
accepted elsewhere. They avoid
politics, religion and royalty, but
they touch other delicate subjects
just enough to make them funny
— to everyone.
Ahmed believes comedy allows
people to re-evaluate situations
without stirring negative feel-
ings. At Generation Change, an
event held for young Muslims in
September 2010 in Washington,
he advised the attendees to think
critically. “Don’t be afraid to speak
your mind. Don’t be afraid to be
self-deprecating.”
A video trailer for the documen-
tary Just Like Us is available on
YouTube.
Embassy of the United States of America PROMINENT ARAB AMERICANS
Rashid Abdu, Physician
Ahmed Ahmed, Comedian
Moustapha Akkad, Film Director
Michael DeBakey, Heart Surgeon
Farouk El-Baz, Geologist
Gaida, Singer
Kahlil Gibran, Artist and Poet
Joseph Haiek, Publisher
Salma Hayek, Actress
Casey Kasem, Radio Broadcaster
DJ Khaled, Rap Music Artist
Khalid Khannouchi, Marathon Runner
Ferial Masry, Community Activist
Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space
Naomi Shihab Nye, Author
Ameen Rihani, Poet
Edward Said, Author and Activist
Kareem Salama, Singer
Betty Shamieh, Playwright
Rashida Tlaib, Politician
Elias Zerhouni, Medical Vanguard
Ahmed Zewail, Chemist
Prominent Arab Americans
U N I T E D S TA T E S D E P A R T M E N T O F S TA T EB U R E A U O F I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N F O R M A T I O N P R O G R A M S
Ask us using your phone.
Prominent Arab Americans Featured in This Series
El-Baz
Gaida
DeBakey
Akkad
Abdu
Ahmed
Gibran
Haiek
Khaled
Rihani
Shamieh
Shihab Nye
Kasem
Zewail
McAuliffe
Said
Zerhouni
Masry
Hayek
Tlaib
Khannouchi
Salama
Published May, 2012