What happens when an Arab dressed in the conventional thobe and gutra ambles down the royal mile from Edinburgh Castle through a crowded walkway?

It’s the height of summer and in the middle of the famed fringe festival which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world.
“The crowds moved out of my way like the parting of the Red Sea in a stretch that people normally have to weave their way through because of the sheer numbers. This is the kind of reaction that a dress can elicit,” says Nader Shaheen wryly, commenting that it is no laughing matter at the perception people have of Arabs.
His opening line, “I am an Arab,” and pointing at his attire continues, “and I am not armed!”
He jibes fun at himself to get rid of the stereotypical image the West has of the Middle East.
Laughter is therapeutic, a medicine for flagging spirits and minds. Laughter universally brings people together and armed with this notion, Muslim comedians all over the world are using stand-up comedy routines to dispel the image the West has of the Muslim world and the Muslims in general.
This is exactly what Nader, a Bahraini banker, does when he is not sitting in his corporate office at International Banking Corp in Manama.
Nader’s speeches at corporate do’s start with a regular address and very quickly turn into a stand-up comedy routine that leaves the sombre audience in peals of laughter.
“It started off as a one-man show as I used to do a lot of public speaking all over the Gulf. Initially it was for sporting events through the Rugby Club Association but then my audiences changed to corporate bigwigs who after a sporting event got together for a dinner and some entertainment.
“Most of the takes were about local stuff happening around us like erratic drivers and how in Bahrain inflation had hit every sector of the economy except the shawarmas.
“Then I teamed up with a friend – Jonty Crosse – and we did a show at the Bahrain Rugby Club. Later in August 2004 we took the show, ‘Taking the Peace’ to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest comedy festival in the world, and performed the 60-minute monologue and dialogue for three consecutive weeks,” he says.
According to Nader, inspiration is not easy and it’s difficult not to be political.  “I often contrive scenarios and almost always refer to the news. You have to have your facts right and then build a comedic routine around it. Take George Bush, from a distance he looks like he has one eye and it seems that he fell from a stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down!”
The very fact that Arabs are such a mystery in the West, provides enough fodder for Nader’s comedy routines.
The primary reason for him to be on stage in his traditional thobe is to try and shakedown the stereotype and do away with misconceptions that exist in the Western mind about Middle Eastern culture and tradition.
And Nader does that through a medium that he’s comfortable with.
There appears to be a dearth of information about the Muslim world, hence post 9/11 stand-up comedians have been trying to combat the newfound anxieties about Islam through humour.   
Taking up comedy as a career was never a choice for the suave banker who has been in the money market for two decades now.
He likes to be grounded and enjoys his nine-to-five grind in his corporate world. Comedy, for him, is a tool which he uses to do his bit for society and alter perceptions (he does not charge a single dinar for his routines).
He delivers his comedic routines in a heavy Arab accent which combined with good gags normally elicits a side-splitting response from his audience who are primarily Westerners.
“Remember Peter Sellers in the film The Party with his Indian accent and that of a Frenchman when playing Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the Pink Panther series! So I am using the same formula and a combination of other factors. But I don’t think I’m funny, it’s just the shock value of an Arab saying something that you desperately want him to say – like the driving, the spitting or scratching himself in public!”
Taking the Peace got recognition from several quarters. The comedic duo was on the Fred Macaulay Breakfast Show and received glowing reviews in the Guardian newspaper that said ‘give up the day job’.
Nader was also nominated for the Richard Pryor Comedy award but lost the accolade to an Egyptian/American comedian.
In 2008, he plans to go to take a more hard-hitting and punchier routine to Melbourne Comedy Show in March, Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and the ‘Just For Laughs’ Montreal Comedy Festival later in the year.

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By Asma Salman
asma.salman@gulfweekly.com