It’s been five days after the show, during which I’ve finally understood the meaning of post-show depression. I can’t believe how eventful Monday was, and remembering it all brings back a wave of emotions causing me to smile, blush, laugh out loud, giggle, and think to myself “Oh my God, what the hell was I thinking?” (believe me, there’s been a lot of the latter).

The day started out with an awful and nerve wrecking event, one that almost made me sure I wasn’t going to the meet and greet session from 2-3 or the show at 6. You know when they say “everything happens for a reason”? Whoever said that wasn’t kidding! Everything does happen for a reason. Had it not been for that drastic occurrence in the morning, I would’ve never been able to go to the meet and greet at 3:15, ahh, the beauty of functioning on AST (Arab Standard Time). I left the house at 3 pm, knowing that I’d probably go there, and find that the Axis guys left Café Blanc and all my plans of recording Maz Jobrani saying a little message to Susu would come crashing to the ground. Just for the record, if it weren’t for Susu, I would’ve never, ever, ever, ever found out about those guys; she showed me a video of them a year and a half ago, and I’ve been hooked since. I thought the nicest way of thanking her would be to get her a message, since she seems to be the unluckiest fan in the world; something always came up - actually, all of hell decides to break loose on her; the poor thing.

I arrived at Marina Crescent at 3:15, ran up the stairs leading up to Café Blanc, walked in my oh-so-cool manner towards the café and realised, in total disappointment, the meet and greet was over and the guys were having lunch. Now, what I could’ve done was barge right in there and interrupt their lunch, but that would’ve been wrong, right? Of course. However, It was during my frantic phone call to Susu, right after she told me to go home that I decided to do exactly what I didn’t want to do. Yes, I walked right in, took a deep breath and said, “I know this is your personal time, I’m really, really sorry, but my friend Sarah has been a huge fan of yours [talking to Maz], and honestly, she’s the unluckiest fan alive, everytime she tries to see you live or go to a meet and greet something happens that stops her.” Finally, I breathed again, gave my phone to Maz and he said, “WOW! You talk fast!” What can I say? I’m a girl, it’s a talent I possess.

Followed by the shocked faces of everyone at the table, and thinking to myself, “Oh my God, what the hell am I doing? WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?” I spotted Aron, and just as I was about to wave, my hand collided with Maz’s bread dish, sending it flying into the air, then crashing to the ground. Embarrassing much? Yes, yes, yes. I tried to shake the embarrassment loose, whipped my camera out, recorded the guys speaking to Susu, and when they hung up with her, Ahmed asked me to give him some of whatever it was I had to drink. I don’t understand why people don’t get the fact that I’m naturally loopy. I spent most of the time with Aron and Wonho, and just for the record, Wonho is absolutely adorable, honestly, he is! The guys thought I was really funny - not sure how or why; Maz even suggested I do stand-up comedy - like that’ll ever happen, I’ve got an Egyptian mother….need I say more? I wanted to write more about Aron, but I’ll suffice by saying…he’s charming, as a matter of fact, too charming for my own good (Yes, my own good). There was something he said that made me smile, after asking me what I was planning on doing with my English Literature degree (yes, he bothered to ask me what I study, cute, yeah?), I told him I want to focus on gender studies in modern and contemporary literature, he then said, “Ahh, I’ve done a few things on gender differences. Do you know that men and women use different words about the same things? But not you, I noticed you’re different to most girls, you aren’t afraid to say what’s on your mind.” Thanks Aron. I’m not like most girls, not like most girls in the least.

To cut a long story short, after a few more minutes of chit-chatting, I got invited to meet up with them at the venue an hour before the show! (Jealous yet?) When I arrived at the venue and was led into the room the guys were in, I was flooded with warm greetings from them, and surprisingly they actually remembered my name. Although on second thought, I think it’s highly difficult to forget the name of the girl who a) sent a bread dish flying into the air, b) walked into a glass door. Yes ladies and gentlemen, “b” happened. I was hoping nobody noticed, but then Aron said mentioned my collision with the door and said something along the lines of, “We had our own comedy show, and we weren’t even in it!” I can’t remember the exact wording, I was too busy praying to God the floor would open up and swallow me.

If I were to write how down to Earth those guys really are, I’d run out of words. I was on the phone with my mother a few minutes after I arrived, and I said, “Mama, they’re normal, they’re actually normal. Reading magazines, writing, chit-chatting.” Don’t snap at me, how the hell am I supposed to know what stand-up comedians do before a show?! Oh, I need to add that Maz is much taller in real life than I imagined; it’s either that or I’m insanely minuscule. I understand now why Aron said, “Why do you want us to stand up? You’ll drown, we’re tall!!” when I wanted to get a picture with them two weeks ago after their AUK show; he wasn’t kidding, the guys are quite tall! I felt that at any moment they’d say, “Hey, what’s the weather like down there?” Grrr.

There’s a strange feeling I’m getting as I write this up, somewhat emotional rollercoaster-eqsue. I don’t like it much, it starts with a huge smile, blushing, then a terrible hollow feeling. This might sound mushy-mushy to most, if not all, but I haven’t exactly had a great year, and getting to see the Axis guys live, meeting and spending time with them has been the highlight of my year, and brought back the totally positive me; I haven’t smiled this much in a little over a year, even my friends have noticed. I guess that’s why I’m feeling a spectrum of emotions flooding me at once, I smile because I’m happy, I blush because I think and act out loud (I’m sorry Aron, lol), and I have a hollow feeling because I’m worried the happiness will fade. In hopes of making this terrible feeling go away, I keep on looking at my pictures with the guys from time to time and replay the videos from the show to remind myself of the great time I had, which explains why I know most of their jokes off by heart - even the new ones. Are you calling me borderline fanatic? Shut up.

There’s so much I’ve had to skip to avoid boring you to death.

Shall I write about the show?

I was, yet again, blown away.

The show started out with Ahmed, followed by Wonho, Aron then Maz - same sequence as their first show. Even though their order of appearance was the same as last time, their content was noticeably different. Their new jokes were highly influenced by their Middle Eastern tour. Jokes on Cairiene and Lebanese traffic, Dubai, Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, it was a good change from the stuff I practically know off by heart from their DVD. With that being said, I actually missed Maz’s “I’m Persian, MEOW!” and Aron’s “You want Starbakiss?!” (Was I the only one who noticed Maz stayed on longer than the rest?)

*The title of the post is a quote from what Aron wrote on the back of my ticket (see below), his “favorite Majnouna”, if you don’t know what “majnouna” means, it’s ‘crazy girl’ in Arabic. (I wonder what on earth would’ve inspired him to write that! haha). Oh, and for those of you wondering…yes, I jumped Aron (between you and I, I think he’s going to be emotionally scarred for life).

He didn’t write it out to ‘S’, I blurred out the rest of my name - because I’m “cool” like that.

Ahmed, Aron, Maz and Wonho, thank you for being so nice to me at Café Blanc and at ACK, I think it was quite obvious I was a nervous wreck (hello bread dish and glass door). Can’t wait till you guys are back again!

Surprisingly, there aren’t many videos from the show online, so you’ll have to suffice with these (in no specific order):

Wonho talking about a girl at a wedding who’s supposedly too shy to get up and dance - yeah right!

Aron Kader introduced by Ahmed Ahmed then joking about clubs and rap music:

Ahmed Ahmed:

Maz Jobrani on Cairiene traffic:

There are more videos, look them up “Axis of Evil ACK” or “Axis of Evil Kuwait”.

Till next time world.