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