Wearing a yellow t-shirt with “Bebsi” scrawled on it, comedian Abdulla Ali — aka Abz Ali — squints into the spotlight on stage and admits that people have a hard time believing he is Emirati.
“Friends come over and say, ‘What, no second floor in your house? No maid?’ I’m pretty sure my Emirati friends have tried to call the police to report a fake citizen.”
The half-Emirati, half-Omani stand-up has been performing gigs in the region for a decade and is now opening for international acts, including American comedian Wayne Brady in September. Other notable performances include The Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Dunedin Fringe Festival in New Zealand, and an opening slot for Lebanese headliner Nemr Abou Nassar in Dubai. Ali is not afraid to broach sensitive topics and tease anyone brave enough to sit in the front row.
“I market myself as an Emirati comedian because I love being part of a progressive narrative, showing the world how much we can achieve in just a few years,” he tells Arab News.
Ali is a dentist by day, and says that his comedy has helped put patients at ease. In truth, the 31 year old compartmentalizes his professional life and his hobby. Most of his clients are Arabic speakers based in Abu Dhabi, while he performs standup mainly in English in Dubai.
He got his first taste of comedy by accident aged 13. He was in a video-game store in Dubai that was playing a Dave Chappelle special.
“I watched it and thought, ‘Wow, someone’s job is to stand up on stage and make people laugh?’” he says. “At that point, I looked like Harry Potter with nerdy glasses. Being the funny guy in my group of friends became my ‘thing,’ a way to stand out and feel good.”
A few years later, he heard of an open call for amateur comedians at the American University of Dubai with the powerhouse group behind Axis of Evil, a global tour of Arab comedians that sold out in the Middle East. Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader and Ahmed Ahmed, together with producer Jamil Abu-Wardeh, inspired Ali to give it a shot.
There was just one problem: the audition was open to AUD students only. Ali had received a scholarship to study dentistry in New Zealand and was not eligible.
“I bumped into Maz Jobrani while washing our hands in the bathroom and had a fangirl moment,” he recalls. “I asked him if I could please audition despite not being a student and, miraculously, he said yes.”
Ali was the final person to take the stage. He moved to New Zealand shortly afterwards to begin his dentistry studies, but that audition gave him the courage to perform in Dubai during summer and winter breaks. Despite the distance, he became part of a local community of comedians and was invited to headline for Aron Kader of Axis of Evil a few years after that first audition.
“Being chosen to open for a professional American comedian was so validating,” he says. “The hardest part was having to leave just as everything was kicking off.”
Travelling back and forth to New Zealand was unsettling, but gave Ali a chance to be part of a local scene in his student town of Dunedin, too — performing gigs in an abandoned cinema and headlining for international comedy acts.
“Sometimes I had to test the restaurants in New Zealand: ‘Beef is halal?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Chicken is Halal?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Pork is Halal?’ ‘Yes.’” He laughs.
As his star was rising, the thought of committing himself fully to comedy crossed his mind, but he says he loves dentistry too much to quit. So he completed his degree and returned to Dubai in 2017, but then took a four-year hiatus from stand-up, following an emotionally draining divorce.
Ali went through depression and withdrew from live performance. He talks about it now in the hope that other young Arabs will be more open to discussing their mental health and seeking help.
“Going back to comedy (eventually) after my divorce was pure therapy for me,” he says. “That first set back on stage, I couldn’t look the audience in the eye. But when I heard the laughter wash over me, it revived me.
“Every time I step away, I keep coming back to comedy,” he continues. “It’s my identity. The sound of laughter is my favorite sound in the world.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
