Kamal Soltan interviews veteran comedy actor Mohamed Sobhi The comedian Mohamed Sobhi has carved a niche for himself in theatre, television, and cinema. After beginning his career with small roles in stage plays by Fouad El-Mohandes, Hassan Youssef, Mahmoud El-Meligui and other eminent actors, he created Studio 80 in 1980 and, together with the writer Lenin El-Ramli, has since come up with some of Egypt's most memorable shows. Their first stage play, Intaha Al-Dars Ya Ghabi (The Lesson is Over, Stupid), proved to be a great success. It was followed by Inta Horr (Do What You Want), Al-Mahzuz (The Shaken), Al-Jokar (The Joker), Al-Baghbaghan (The Parrot), Al-Hamagi (The Barbarian) and Takharif (Hallucinations) . In all, Sobhi appeared in 28 stage plays. Sobhi's cinematic career spans 21 films, including Al-Garih (The Wounded), Balagh Didd Imraah (Police Report Against A Woman), Al-Amil Raqam Talattashar (Agent 13) and Al-Shaytana Allatti Ahabbatni (The She-Devil Who Loved Me). He acted in 20 television series including Rihlat Al-Omr (Life's Journey) in the mid-1970s and Rihlat Al-Million (Trip for a Million) in 1984. His most memorable series, however, was Yawmiyat Wanis (The Wanis Diary), which started in 1996 and lasted for six seasons. Sobhi also appeared in Ana Wa Haoulaa (I and Them), Malh Al-Ard (Salt of the Earth), Ayesh Fil Ghaybuba (Living in a Coma) and Ragul Ghani Faqir Geddan (A Very Poor Rich Man). Now Sobhi wants to resuscitate Wanis, the hugely popular series that he started over 10 years ago and that achieved cult status both inside and outside Egypt. Just to give one example of about how enormously popular the show was, there was an episode when Wanis and his children took it upon themselves to do some street cleaning. Next day several Cairo families took up their brooms and went out a-sweeping. Sobhi never expected the series to be that popular. "When I first did Wanis, I wasn't thinking of a second season. And when I started working on the second season, I wasn't doing so to bank on the success of the first season, but because I had something to say. Then when we had finished the fifth season, I decided that enough was enough. It is hard to find something new to say after 152 episodes that addressed almost every topic under the sun." What changed Sobhi's mind was a recent conversation with his children, Karim and Mariam. "If we may so, Dad, we have to tell you that you brought us up the wrong way," they said. "How is this?" asked a stunned Sobhi. "You told us not to lie, but you didn't tell us how to deal with liars. You told us not to be hypocrites, but you didn't tell us that hypocrites can do better than the rest of us." Sobhi recalls a saying by Imam Ali. A man once said to Imam Ali: "I will bring up my children the way I was brought up." The imam retorted: "Don't do that, because they will be living in different times." In the revived show, Wanis wants to bring up his 12 grandchildren his own way, and his children are concerned about the consequences. "I insist on teaching them in the same old way. Then I tell my children that if the worst has to come, at least we'll have strong men and women to deal with it." In one of the new episodes, Wanis asks his grandchildren, aged between five and eight: "What would you do if you were faced with a strong enemy?" "We would fight and kill him," they answer. "But can you fight? You're way too young to fight. But there are things you can do. Our enemy doesn't want us to have brains or culture. Our enemy does not want us to have good cinema or remember our past. Our enemy doesn't want us to have our own music. But you can do all of that. You can keep us alive," Wanis says. The new season starts three years after the death of Wanis's wife, Maysa. "Wanis is a widower, because I can't imagine another actress who could take the place of Soad Nasr, whose death was such a great loss to me. Nasr wasn't just an actress who I trained and shared most of my work with. She was like family to me," Sobhi says. In the new season, Wafaa Sadeq will take over as a surrogate Maysa role playing Maysa's sister who, having lived in America, is shocked by the way Wanis is bringing up the grandchildren. The new season will keep the same cast of Hanaa El-Shorbagui, Gamil Rateb, Hassan Mustafa, Aida Abdel-Aziz, Magdi Sobhi, Shaaban Hussein, Mahmoud Abu Zeid, Abdullah Moshref, Nesrina, Sameh El-Shagie, Rim Ahmed, Fadi Khafaga and Hoda Hani. "They are all great actors and we've had great time together in the past," Sobhi says. In a break with tradition, however, Sobhi does not want to screen the series during Ramadan. "I hope that the series is not shown in Ramadan. Had I been able, I would have made this a condition in my contract with the production company. I don't believe that Ramadan has the highest ratings. It is actually too crowded with shows for viewers to enjoy any of them."
