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...