DUBAI: CNN is set to air the latest episode of “Inside the Middle East,” which will feature three boundary-pushing Arab talents, including a Saudi comedian and YouTube star.
The episode invites viewers to “go inside the creative mind to see how the region’s top cartoonists, comedians and composers transform a blank canvas into a masterpiece,” according to CNN.
Hosted by Becky Anderson, this episode will introduce viewers to Yaser Bakr, a young Saudi comedian who started on Twitter and YouTube before founding the first comedy club in Saudi Arabia in late 2012.
Yaser Bakr tells Inside the Middle East: “When I first started doing comedy in 2011, I didn’t have a place to practice…We didn’t have a comedy club in Saudi, and instead of whining about that I said well, let me just start one.
“It’s an outlet. We really take a lot of pride in people attending. People come here looking at us and saying, you better help us start the weekend right.”
The comedian says that daily life in Jeddah is the source of his material.
“I am an observational comedian. Most Arabs, most Arab comedians are story-tellers, because as Arabs we laugh at stories. But I grew up watching Western comedy and I grew up watching comedy in the 90s and that’s mostly observational comedy. So that kind of trickled in I think.”
The episode also features Hatoon Kadiis, the host of “Noon Al Niswa” which is one of Saudi Arabia’s first comedy shows fronted by a woman. She has more 300,000 subscribers on YouTube and is interviewed about her success on the show.
Kadiis was inspired by watching Saudi men perform comedy online: “They were really, really successful, and people were watching, and then I was like, female perspective is lacking. I was like, yes, we can do this, we can bring in the female perspective of social issues. Let's start. And then the idea came.”
The episode is slated to air on Saturday April 8 at 21:30 GST, April 9 at 15:30 and 16:30 GST, April 12 at 19:30 GST, April 13 at 02:30 GST April 15 at 15:30 and 16:30 GST and April 16 at 21:30 GST.
