Serene Assir joins the Axis of Evil Standing before a mixed but mainly Egyptian audience of at least 500, Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed mixes self- mockery with ridicule of global racism: "Arabs, we're the new black. Finally we get the lack of respect we deserve." The audience explodes into laughter, enthralled, as they identify with the politicised stand-up craze from Hollywood: Axis of Evil. Held at the Sawy Culture Wheel, the show is part of a Middle East tour covering Cairo, Amman, Dubai and Beirut and sponsored by Showtime Arabia. In Egypt it is presented by Ahmed who, energetic yet composed, instantly holds the attention of a predominantly young audience of bilinguals aware of the tension of being an Arab in the West. Recounting anecdotes based on personal experience, Ahmed pokes fun at his name, noting how common it is in Egypt as he points up the terror it inspires at United States and European airports, where it instantly raises the suspicion that its bearer is affiliated to Al-Qaeda. "I hate flying because my name's on nine lists," he says. "I Googled my name and it matches the name of a guy in the Middle East who's a terrorist. I think he's in the Middle East Googling me, going, 'There is this guy in America, man.' People go up to him to tell him, 'Hey man, you're so funny, tell me a joke.' 'I'm not the comedian! I'm a terrorist! You want me to prove it to you?'" Then he goes on to introduce the cast members: Aron Kader (or Haroun Abu Khudeir) and Maz Jobrani, of Palestinian and Iranian origin, respectively, among others. He also describes the crew's name, Axis of Evil, as a response to US President George W Bush's 2002 characterisation of Iran, Syria and North Korea. "We looked for a North Korean, but we didn't find anyone," says Ahmed. Instead, Wonho Chung, from South Korea comes on stage, appearing timid and speaking only Korean to begin with. Encouraged by applause, Chung takes the microphone and gets ready to say something -- only to break into song in Arabic, followed by jokes in a hybrid of the Jordanian and Egyptian dialects (in honour of the Egyptian audience), which describe his experiences growing up in Amman. For his part Kader, whose Palestinian father is from Shafat just south of Jerusalem and whose mother is a Mormon from the US, makes fun of how Palestinian events will always at some point feature a rendition of the dabka -- performing a warped version of the dance. Kader's humour is less pointedly political than Ahmed's and by spending most of his act making fun of male-female relations and the differences between how the two genders communicate, he manages to make it somewhat more universal. It seems he can't resist pulling a post-11 September mood joke though, suggesting that he will namehis son Al, so that said son can be called Al "Kaidah", and his daughter, well -- Darth. Finally Jobrani, who comes on stage to perform the highly energetic finale, combines charged politics with elements of the absurd. "There are Iranians in the US who don't want to be associated with Iran," he says. "They choose to call themselves Persian. 'I am Perrrrsian, like the cat, soft, you can pat me, miaoo.'" Particularly with an imminent strike on Iran, and with the historically tense Egyptian-Iranian relations, his presence on stage in Egypt is dramatic in its own way -- and he acknowledges this. He makes a point of differentiating between Iranians and Arabs, a difference which he points out many Americans ignore. Then he jumps back into the realm of the absurd by mimicking the difference in how Arabs and Iranians speak English. Absurd though his mimicry may be, the placement of the jokes in today's context is subtle and deeply striking. In all, it appears that there is more than one goal that the Axis of Evil are seeking collectively to fulfil. Perhaps the key concept underlying their shows is the search for intercultural communication. "Like food, or music, comedy is a way to reach out and establish universality," Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly. By playing so heavily with stereotypes and images, the show also tactically deconstructs them, supplanting them with a new understanding of who the people with origins in the Middle East region really are. "Americans have a very limited understanding of what happens beyond their borders. Very few of them even travel," he added. Indeed, by performing in the Arab world, Axis of Evil are working to challenge that very lack of awareness. Showtime Arabia is documenting the shows and their journey, and the film will be aired in the US. "It's an interesting message," show-goer and teaching assistant at Misr International University Mahitab Khalil told the Weekly. "They want to show us Arabs to the Americans; they want to show them how hard we can laugh and enjoy ourselves." But at a deeper level, a process of self-exploration is also going on, admittedly in different ways, among the Axis of Evil cast members. "For us, it's therapeutic to perform," Kader said. "We laugh at our own reality. That's why we find audiences are receptive -- because it's their reality too." Kader believes strongly in overt politically critical humour, while Ahmed feels he mustn't lose sight of the key purpose of his craft, which is entertainment. In this sense, the group's search for new comedians in the Arab world bore fruit through a series of auditions held in the various cities along their route, featuring budding stars aged as young as 12. "We found several who were good, and one who was a gem," said Ahmed, sad that so much talent is so often untapped in times as trying as these for the Arab world. But for Kader, criticism emanates from a sense of responsibility. Speaking to the Weekly, he by no means appeared unaware of the risks involved. "People who go out there and are pro-war, they never get into trouble," he said, with his near- constant smile briefly fading. "It's all the anti-war people -- Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Gandhi -- it's these people who get shot down."
