The Day I Harassed The Axis of Evil Trio | December 8th 2007
I’m finally getting around to posting this; I wrote part of it the night I returned from The Axis of Evil show last Monday, I just haven’t been able to post anything about it due to the immense feeling of joy I’ve been experiencing. Hell, joy’s an understatement, I just can’t think of any other word at the moment.
Brief description:
In a time when East and West do not seem to understand each other, top stand-up comics of Middle Eastern descent Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader, and Maz Jobrani take it upon themselves to single-handedly bridge the gap with an original comedy tour that has become one of the hottest concert tickets in the country. Nothing is off-limits. Whether it’s gay terrorists or the difficulty of flying in post 9/11 America, The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour blasts stereotypes with outrageous humor. (Amazon)
Exactly a week ago, my friend S called me and told me he had an extra ticket for me to attend The Axis of Evil show, fab news!
On the night of the show, Susu and I reached AUK at 5:10 (in hopes of getting her an extra ticket somehow - unfortunately we weren’t as lucky as we hoped.) After a grueling hour and a half of waiting, S and I headed into the auditorium and to our seats, which were 5 rows from the back wall. Needless to say, we couldn’t see the stage very clearly because we were extremely far away, but the fact that we were there to see them live was enough.
Ahmed Ahmed was the first to appear, and he was simply fantastic, the man is funny beyond measure! He told a few new jokes (thank God, because at one point I was able to recite the jokes the guys were telling - not that I minded, but I mean come on…) He then introduced Wan Ho Chung, a Korean who was born in Saudi and raised in Jordan, I was in for the shock of my life when he started speaking fluent Arabic! After Wan-Ho’s segment was over, Aron Kader came dancing on stage. He waved his microphone stand a bit, then before we knew it he started doing the dabké. Before watching him live, I never was a fan of Aron, I thought his jokes were silly and his intentional Middle Eastern-English accent overdone. Now, I love, love Aron - and it’s not because he’s really, really, really good looking in real life (okay, maybe it partially has something to do with the fact that he’s painfully good looking in real life). No, no, that’s unfair, he’s genuinely funny, and he did make me laugh, I liked his new jokes on the dabké dance and the fact that Arabs should never tell one another how much they paid for something. Following Aron was Ahmed again, he said a few jokes, then introduced the man I was waiting for, my favourite out of the Axis trio, Maz Jobrani.
Remember in Jerry Maguire when Zellweger’s character said, “You had me at hello”? Well, yeah, Maz had me at “Call the FBI and tell them to bring lollipops!” I remember watching him do the ‘Ecstasy Dance’ on YouTube last year and I was hooked, hooked, hooked!
All in all, the show was fantastic and it was worth every dinar I spent! Sure my wallet was crying tears of blood (and still is) after spending 20KD ($73) on the ticket, but it was SO bloody worth it, so, so, so, so bloody worth itttt!! Plus, I got to meet the guys after the show, and that’s where my post got its title.
My friend S and I left the auditorium along with what seemed like a stampede of people, to get our DVDs signed by the Axis guys; I have never seen so many people squished up together in my life! Anyways, almost 45 minutes of waiting, singing Grace Kelly in the line, almost getting shot by S for singing Grace Kelly, chatting to the guys’ tour manager (who happens to be such a sweetheart), then “slightly” panicking (although S would beg to differ - he’ll say I totally lost my marbles) when I reached the signing table, it was finally our turn to meet the guys.
Finally face to face with Ahmed and I tried to be like S, who was being his cool, calm and collected self while talking to Ahmed about seeing him on Punk’d, then all of a sudden my cool went fleeting when I shouted out, “YOU’RE REAL!! YOU’RE REALLY REAL!” to Ahmed followed by gently poking him on the shoulder and arm (to make sure he really was there!). He was such a sweetheart, he took my hands in his and said, “Yes! Yes, I’m real!” I was excited beyond belief! As Ahmed’s of Egyptian origin, I kicked into “Egyptian pride” mode and when he signed my DVD, he wrote my name followed by ‘Go Egypt!” Some more “You’re real!” exclamations and Egyptian talk, then I moved to Aron, well my DVD did. I was seriously miffed when he just scribbled down his autograph then slid my DVD to Maz, he didn’t even look up! I couldn’t stay quiet, honestly! I didn’t wait that bloody long amidst the crowd to get ignored. Yes, I called him rude, yes I called him mean. He looked up at me with the most shocked expression in the world then grabbed my DVD back from Maz, looked down at my name, apologised and said, “Sou, I was going to look up, I really was!” Right, of course he was.
On a lighter note, Aron is actually a billion times better looking in real life than he is on TV and YouTube…I’ve mentioned that before, haven’t I? Well anyways, he just is, and I just had to tell him - and you guess it, I did tell him. He told me everyone looks better in real life (a little of an overstatement there, don’t you think?), then he asked me how much better looking he looks in real life (ego?) and I’m not really sure what the hell I was thinking when I replied: “Like, I’d so jump you kind of good looking.” Good grief! What the hell did I say?!!
To avoid further embarrassment (haha, yeah right!), I grabbed my DVD, tried to pretend I didn’t just tell Aron Kader I’d jump him, and moved along to Maz. It was there and then that my plan of remaining calm and refrain from further idiotic actions disappeared. The table they were signing DVDs on was really, really wide, and it would be very hard to do anything but shake hands (which was probably the whole point - to keep the guys safe from crazy fans such as yours truly). Did you really think a table would come in my way? I couldn’t contain my excitement, so I sort of did a Super Woman fly/glide across the table to give Maz a hug. Mind you, I don’t ever, ever, ever give hugs to the opposite sex, not sure why, but it must have something to do with my personal space, or the issues I have - not sure. Enough with the psychobabble crap and back to Maz. So I flew across the table, gave him a hug, and mid-hug I said, “Maz, you’re the ecstasy man, you’re bloody amazing!” I wonder if they go through ridiculously crazy fans like me often, I suppose they do. He was very nice about my “attack”, hugged me back and said, “Yes! I’m the ecstasy man!” I told him I watched the video of him doing the dance before I left the house just in case he didn’t do it at the show. Can’t remember what else I told him, but right after I was done talking with him, a man in a suit, I think it was a suit, hell everything after I half-jumped Maz was a blur. Anyways, the man in the suit took my camera to take pictures of me and the guys; however, right before I took my picture with them, I spoke to Wan Ho for a bit, then went round the table they were sitting at to take the photo, and erm…sort of demanded them to stand up because I wasn’t going to bloody stand behind them while they sat, no siree, that definitely wasn’t going to happen - and it didn’t. Aron said, “Why do you want us to stand up? You’ll drown, we’re tall!! You should sit down.” (How lovely of him to remind me I’m short, such a lovely cookie Aron is). Looking around, the only option I had was the table (or Aron), “Where? On the table?!” I said as I pointed at it. “No, no..here.” Then he pointed at his own seat; I thought wow, what a gentleman, giving up his seat so I could sit down. Little did I know I had it all wrong, he moved up on his own seat leaving just enough space on it for me to sit next to him. I’ll tell you this, it was the first time that night I didn’t complain. Right before the group photo was taken, my camera decided to call it quits, did I have a panic attack? I bloody hell did! Luckily S saved the day and used his iPhone (which I know doesn’t have great resolution (2MP) but it was the next best thing after my camera (10MP) died).
Kudos to those guys for using their talent in comedy to shine a positive light and break stereotypical views on Middle Easterners. Not only are they making us laugh, but they’re making us think too, just like part of Aron’s segment, when he said:
-Where are you from?
-I’m Palestinian.
-You’re Pakistilian? Where the hell is Pakistilia?
-I don’t know!
-You don’t know where your own country is?
-No.
It might’ve sounded funny at first, but there’s so much more behind it. It took a moment for the Kuwaiti audience to grasp it, but I’m glad they finally understood it at the end. “There’s no such country as Pakistilia, guess there’s no such country as Palestine either.” It isn’t all “haha, hehe” that’s what I love about those guys, like I said, they make you laugh and think.
The night was spectacular, will I ever forget it? No. Has it made me the happiest I’ve ever been in my life? Yes. Thank you Ahmed, Aron, Maz and Wan Ho, you have filled my heart with laughter and happiness (Wasn’t that a cheesy ending? Sad but true!)
There aren’t many videos online from the show, but these are the ones I found, quality isn’t super, but hey, it’ll give you an idea of what happened.
Maz’s Ecstasy Dance:
Aron on how Arabs love making deals, “Never tell an Arab how much you paid for something.”:
Ahmed and Wan Ho Chung:
If you have problems with the embedded video, click on the following links:
Maz Jobrani’s dance.
Aron Kader on Arabs Making Deals.
Ahmed Ahmed and Wan Ho Chung
Not embedded in the post, but definitely worth the watch:
Wan Ho Chung
Aron’s Dabké
Maz on “The Application”
I can’t wait till they’re back in Kuwait, next time I hope I’ll be a little more fortunate and get tickets closer to the front!
“We [Middle Easterners] have all kind of haters, and what we’ve got to do is counter the hate with some love. Spread the love, we have enough problems without it.” - Maz Jobrani.
Till next time world.
x