The original intent of The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour was to secure the Nobel Peace Prize for the organizers and stand-up comedians, Charley Warady and Ray Hanania. One day, when Warady (an American ex-pat stand-up comedian and an Israeli since 1996) and Hanania (a Palestinian-American stand-up comedian since forever) were talking, the topic came up that neither of them had the Nobel Peace Prize on their mantelpiece. Looking at their respective living rooms in opposite ends of the world, they both realized that neither of them had mantelpieces. Being insufferable pragmatists, they decided to take first things first and go for the Nobel Peace Prize, followed by the mantelpiece.
And so was born "The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour".
(Thank you, ladies and gentlemen...we'll be here all week...don't forget to tip your waitress)
A Palestinian comedian and an Israeli comedian on the same stage. Pointing fingers at each other and instead of blaming...laughing. And pointing fingers at themselves and laughing. And pointing fingers in indiscriminate directions...and laughing. It's never been done before. But hopefully it won't be the last time, either. Beginning with shows in Israel, they plan on taking the show "on the road" for an American tour and wherever else they may be invited.
And to top it all off, Hanania enlisted the services of his friend and very funny stand-up comedian, Aaron Freeman. Not to be outdone, Warady begged his friend and brilliant stand-up comedian, Yisrael Campbell to join them. Freeman and Campbell add two entirely different dimensions to the already fiction-like premise of the evening.
But it's funny. The one thing Warady and Hanania agreed on from the outset: "...it's gotta be funny."
We don't care if people walk out of the show more tolerant than when they walked in. We don't care if people walk out of the show feeling that they've just witnessed something important. We want people to walk out of the show feeling happier than when they walked in.
After all...it's comedy!
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