In Syria, comedy is a balm for the warfare-weary

Mary Obaid plays in the course of a comedy night time titled Styria, an Arabic mash-up of Syria and hysteria, in Damascus on April 24, 2023

Sharief Homsi appears out at his audience in a dimly lit Damascus cafe as he describes an appropriate guy in a battle-battered Syria: an eligible bachelor with attractive components of fuel and power.

“Marry me,” he beseeches in a ridicule proposal, “i have a brilliant destiny: one hundred litres of petrol, solar panels to generate energy and three fuel canisters,” he says because the target market howls.

 

Homsi is a member of Styria, Syria’s first stand-up comedy troupe whose contributors carry out each week, telling jokes about every day struggles like power cuts and gas shortages to lighten the temper for Damascenes despondent after 12 years of warfare.

The target audience prefers “to chortle and forget about the issues they cannot resolve”, Homsi, 31, tells AFP news agency. “there may be nothing else to do however snicker.”

He and a number of his buddies based Styria (a mash-up of Syria and hysteria) 4 months in the past and put out a name on social media for others to join, now they're 35 contributors and often draw crowds on the capital’s Deez Cafe.

“The USA’s scenario is hysterical,” Homsi says, “We must face it with hysterical laughter.”

humans attend a Styria comedy night time in Damascus on April 24, 2023 [File: Louai Beshara/AFP]

The struggle in Syria, which broke out in 2011, has killed more than 500,000 humans, displaced hundreds of thousands and battered infrastructure and enterprise.

before performances, the comedians meet at a troupe member’s home to brainstorm and try out new lines.

“They advised me to attract within the crowds with funny memories,” said one comedian throughout a rehearsal, as the power dropped in and out.

“I notion lengthy and difficult and discovered that the funniest factor in my lifestyles is … my existence.”

Week inside the middle East

talk quickly moved to his love existence.

“He now has so many exes, his life is an equation,” one quipped.

 

In authorities-held Damascus, religion and politics are off-limits for the comedians, deemed too risky to broach.

comedian Amir Dayrawan, 32, says doing stand-up helped him “face the fears locked inside” and shake off loss and melancholy, no matter having to self-censor.

melancholy set in after he misplaced his sister and nephew in the battle, and worsened after a lethal earthquake struck Syria and Turkey on February 6, killing lots.

Hussein al-Rawi plays at Styria in Damascus on April 24, 2023 

“We don’t mention politics, even though we from time to time hint at sexual and religious problems – within the purple strains,” he stated.

“in the future, i am hoping we are able to free ourselves intellectually and speak any subjects with out fear.”

At Deez Cafe, comic Malke Mardinali, 28, stated the troupe’s proposal got here from the struggles in their day by day lives.

“In Europe, even beneath 3 metres of snow, the strength nonetheless works,” he informed the gang.

“here, while we listen Fairuz sing ‘winter Is again’ the strength cuts out automatically,” he stated, drawing chuckles with the reference to a famous Lebanese music.

Mary Obaid, 21, the best woman in Styria, jokes approximately Syria’s public transport, badly overcrowded as petrol shortages push humans to abandon their vehicles.

“Syrian buses can accommodate 24 million people,” she jokes, relating to Syria’s pre-struggle populace.

“in the end, without misery, there's no comedy,” she tells AFP.