Comedy superhero Nemr brings world tour to Boston on March 19
Angela Frissore
AXS
The biggest name in stand-up comedy in the Middle East is gearing up to headline Boston’s The Wilbur on Saturday, March 19, and if there’s one comedy show you attend this year, this just might be the one. Lebanese-born Nemr isn’t just the biggest name in Middle Eastern stand-up, he also happens to be the person who single-handedly pioneered the stand-up scene in that region, a feat that comes with obvious risks.
“I did it in a region where the stakes were much higher. I mean as you can imagine, I’m sure, if I did a show in Saudi Arabia and the religious police came in and found out that we were doing a show with a mixed crowd where women and men were sitting next to each other without being covered up, we would have all disappeared, for instance,” Nemr tells the AXS.com in a recent interview. “Or when I’m doing shows in Lebanon, and there are political assassinations and bombings going on, you have to worry logistically about how you can make sure that the cars get in and out of the parking area fast, and how can you make sure that if there’s an attack, that the cars can get in and out of the parking fast.”
Becoming the voice of stand-up comedy in such a region, oddly, does come with a certain advantage. While most comedians in the United States struggle with open mics, begging for stage time, and slaving away in local scenes for years, hoping for a big break, Nemr didn’t have to deal with any of that. For starters, there is no such thing as an open-mic in the Middle East. Nemr, only a year into his professional stand-up career, accomplished something no first-year comic has ever accomplished: his first (sold out) ninety-minute comedy special, This is Why I’m Hot, making him the only comic to ever perform a full feature in the Middle East. Nemr pledged, along with Mix FM, that all profits from the show would go to the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon.
“When you’re working under these circumstances, the game is a lot different,” Nemr explains. “Especially when you start to get very successful and you’re not political, and you’re not religious, it makes people upset because there is an independent voice that’s becoming very, very strong so they try to bring you down and … It’s been one hell of a ride. On top of that, just as being a comic, I could never go to a comedy club; it doesn’t exist, where there are other comics and I can do 10, 15 minutes. Every show I’ve ever done has had to be at least an hour and a half long. Every single show. I’ve never had the luxury of walking in and trying a few jokes and then leaving.”
Without the luxury of local comedy clubs and open-mics, Nemr’s talent grew through the many challenges he faced in his career – a career focused on, as Nemr cites, bringing unity to people.
“I’ve never been able to play it safe. That’s why I’ve put out six specials and now bringing out my seventh. I’ve been forced to reinvent myself and it’s made me, I think in my opinion, a great comic as a result of it. I’ve had to train in harsh conditions, and I think it was great,” Nemr cites. “I want to be the greatest. I told this to Barry, my manager, when he first met me, he asked me, ‘What’s your angle? And I said, ‘I want to be the greatest that ever lived or ever will be.’ What does that mean? I told him, ‘I want to do what I’m setting out to do, but to be a man of principle. That when I’m done with this, I did it with my principles intact, being somebody who set an example.’”
It’s important to note that Nemr’s concept of being the greatest that ever lived differs vastly from your typical stand-up comedian’s aspirations.
“A big achievement for me that I want to do is within four or five year is that I want to sell-out somewhere huge, like Madison Square Garden or something of that size, and film that show. I want the crowd that’s there to be American, Asian, black, white, Arab, whatever. And I want to film that show and I want to broadcast it on the internet, around the world, for free. And I want everyone to be tuned in from all over the world, so that everybody is laughing at the same time, at the same jokes,” Nemr states. “I want that to be something that we achieve. And I want that to be just the beginning of me trying to change things, because I’ve seen too much violence, too much suffering, and I know that comedy can make a huge difference and I know that if everyone’s laughing at the same things, that’s all we need to do to just remind people that we have a lot more in common than what differentiates us.”
Comedy is serious business for Nemr, who all-too-often experienced conflict, war, and the deaths of friends. Realizing the power of laughter and its ability to unite people from all walks of life, Nemr wants to put such power to good – for people of all races and religions.
“If I wanted to be famous and I wanted money, I would have just stayed in the Middle East. I have achieved that. What I did was I left the Middle East where I’m selling out arenas, where I’m doing shows for 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 people and I came here where I walk into a club and I can’t get 10 minutes. When I first got on stage here, they didn’t know who the hell I was. And I loved that. I love being able to walk in and be a nobody and prove myself and work myself up again,” Nemr reflects. “I didn’t come here to become famous; I came here to make a difference. I know I’ll be famous as a result of it, but the point is to bring people together. I want to do what nobody else has done.”
Nemr also leverages his talent and Middle Eastern notoriety to unite people for different causes, having introduced stand-up as a successful method of affecting significant cultural change. In an area rife with political and religious divide, Nemr was able to bring people from all beliefs together in a comedic effort supporting the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon and St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Center.
“When we did the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon, it was for two things: the first reason I did it was of course because my grandfather had passed from cancer. Obviously, he wasn’t a child, but I mean cancer was something I had experienced and the horrors of it, recalls Nemr. “Second of all, I was able to use that to go into the universities in Lebanon, where all the clubs are very, very political and the students are very divided and a lot of fights would happen and everything was religious, sectarian and political, and tell them this is a cause that we all have to unite, that has no politics behind it. I was able to do what nobody has since done or had ever done, which was get all of the clubs to promote the same event, too go down without wearing any of their colors or any of their banners or anything. We were all dressed up for the Children’s Cancer Center, and what resulted was historic. We had thousands of students and every university turning up to these shows and we would go down and collect money and it was a really big thing. Ever since that, every year I’ll do a big event where I fundraise, and all the money goes to a certain organization. I don’t really make that public anymore, but people know who buy tickets at the time”.
Nemr is an accomplished comic with six full feature specials, a prime time television show “A Stand Up Comedy Revolution”, a movie release of two of his specials, EPIC and Victorious Secret – which, when it played live and subsequently formed the basis of the movie, sold out to over 3,000 people in one night. He currently holds the record for the biggest show in every major country in the Middle East, with his latest special, Uninterrupted Funny Observations, selling out to over 4,000 people in one night in Beirut alone in July of 2014. In May of 2014 he also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine (Middle East) solidifying Nemr’s legacy as “The biggest name in Stand Up on the Middle East” in writing.
“I filmed all six shows and cut it into a movie where I cut between the six days. It actually came out really, really dynamic. I didn’t intend to release it as a movie,” Nemr admits. “It was when we were cutting it up that it felt cinematic, because it felt like it had character development as there was a bit of crowd interaction, and in the beginning of the special there’s a relationship, and then in the middle, it changes with the crowd and by the end, it’s something different. So it felt like it was a movie. The audio was really great and everything and I was like, ‘Man, this would be a great experience.’ Because I developed the scene in the Middle East, I thought it would be really cool for people to have the opportunity to, for the price of the cinema; they could get the best seat in the house.”
Not many comedians have the opportunity to perform in a Roman coliseum, either, which was where Nemr’s Victorious Secret was filmed.
“It was so cool. It was very hardcore. Even at the beginning of Victorious Secret, you’ll see for the first couple of minutes, especially if you know me, you can tell that I’m so excited. It’s so cool because it’s a several thousand year-old actual Roman Coliseum, it’s a ruin and we set it up,” Nemr reflects. “You have this wall of people, and we did a wave, because it was like a stadium. They were all set up on this massive wall and even all the shots that are behind me, the crowd is way over my head.”
Truly a man of principle, Nemr’s professional aspirations just might be the polar opposite of what other performers hope to achieve, in that his work isn’t about him, but something much larger.
“I just feel that comedy has never been for the elite. It’s been for the masses. We’re supposed to be the voice; we’re supposed to make the most people laugh. To make the most people laugh, you’re not going to go up and talk about your Lamborghini or your business class flights or whatever, you’re going to talk about the financial problems that you’re having,” Nemr tells AXS.com. “You’re going to talk about the family problems, the relationship problems. You’re going to talk about stuff that you all experience together. How are you going to talk about those problems if you’re only catering to audiences that don’t have those problems?”
Nemr embodies all that is good about stand-up comedy, both in talent and intent, and proves that with more than a little hard work, one can accomplish anything.
“I’m an American, who grew up in the U.S. and then went to the Middle East for an adventure, and I’m back. That’s my perspective. That’s who I am. That’s what it is. It’s no more … I’m not an Arab, I’m not an American. I’m just a child of this world.”
Catch Nemr in his debut U.S. tour before he heads off to wrap up in the Middle East with shows in Dubai, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon – making this the first ever stand-up comedy global event. And luckily for Boston, Nemr brings his tour to Boston’s The Wilbur on Saturday, March 19, at 9:45 p.m. Get your tickets now before they’re all gone!
Source: m.axs.com