London venue 2Northdown is to stage what is claimed to be the UK's first Middle Eastern comedy festival this week.
It is organised by BBC New Voices Winner Jenan Younis, a founder of “Weapons of Mass Hilarity” - a comedy night showcasing acts from the Middle East/SWANA region. Younis created the night mainly to tackle racism in the industry after she ran an experiment contacting promoters in her first year of comedy using her real name and an anglicised name and had an overwhelmingly higher response rate when using her pseudonym.
The festival will take place over the Bank Holiday from June 2 - 4.
The festival is running a compilation show on the opening night following by 10 other one hour shows from a range of performers encompassing traditional stand up, storytelling, musical comedy, sketch and character comedy.
Acts include Mara Shehata, Amir Khoshsokhan, Darius Davies, Yasmin Audisho Ghrawi, Jenan Younis, Shirley & Shirley, Victoria Howden, Daphna Baram, Anoushka Rava, Yazan Fetto and Patrick Monahan.
Further details on the shows are here: https://www.2northdown.com/weapons-of-mass-hilarity-comedy-festival
