It could have been much worse.
That’s one of the main insights Wonho Chung gleaned from staying inside his Dubai apartment for weeks at a time.
In March and April, stringent measures were introduced in the emirate to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which involved residents spending extended periods of time at home.
The popular South Korean comic describes that experience as a psychological marathon in which his enthusiasm ebbed and flowed.
“I began as an A-grade quarantine student. I was cooking all my meals and even freeze-drying my herbs. I would exercise and really look after my health. A few weeks later, it was just chips and chocolates,” he says.
“But now that we are slowly getting back to normal, I realise it wasn’t that bad after all. Can you imagine if this was the 1980s and we had no streaming services and it was just VHS? For a lot of us, we really had all the tools to make this the easiest quarantine ever.”
This optimistic message forms the crux of Chung’s return to the stage on Thursday, August 20. As part of the ongoing Dubai Summer Surprises, the comic will perform a set of new material at The Theatre at Mall of the Emirates.
Titled Life in Quarantine, the performance will regale audiences with some of the lessons Chung learned while indoors. While the show's marketing campaign promises Chung will "rant and vent" about his experiences, he insists it is all tongue-in-cheek.
“I have always been about finding the silver lining in everything,” he says. “I enjoy talking about things that everybody has struggled with because it strikes a chord with the audience. My comedy has always been about uniting everybody.”
Laughs from shared experiences
It is that inclusive approach that helps elevate Chung’s material.
Born in the Saudi city of Jeddah to a South Korean father and Vietnamese mother, and raised in Jordan, Chung arrived in Dubai in 2004 to work as an editor for a range of broadcasters.
Three years later, he made his stand-up debut as a supporting act for the 2007 regional hit Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, starring Egyptian-American comic Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani from Iran and Palestinian funnymen Aron Kader and Dean Obeidallah.
Audiences were stunned by his fluent command of the Arabic language and his insights into regional culture, and Chung went on to form a successful career as both a comic and actor.
In 2017, he earned rave reviews for his role in the Ramadan drama Saq Al Bamboo, a television adaptation of award-winning novel The Bamboo Stalk by Kuwaiti author Saud Alsanousi.
Despite branching out into acting, Chung says the stand-up stage gives him the most satisfaction because of its direct link to the audience.
"My comedy has evolved from the early days where it was more about the shock value of how I look and how that doesn't correspond with the language that I speak," he says.
"While I still work that into the material – seeing people's faces in Egypt or Lebanon when I begin talking in their dialect never gets old – it is more about talking about things we have in common. And when it comes to the pandemic, that is definitely the case. We may have our own experiences, but we are all living with it."
Switching it up
But this time around, Chung’s show will come with an added twist, in that it will all be in English. The move was partly instigated by promoters, he says, who were looking for a new and fresh dynamic.
While unfazed by the linguistic switch, Chung admits it forced him to readjust and, in some cases, reassemble parts of his material.
“Doing it in English it means I will have to work harder for the crowd and make sure my entrance is strong. With Arabic, I didn’t need to do that. What would happen is that I come in and people see my face and then I just speak in Arabic, they laugh straight away and I break the ice,” he says.
“With English, it is a different process of joke writing in that it is all about focusing on the right pun. With Arabic comedy, the pun is not too important and I often rely on using different dialects and local references. So there are pros and cons to it.”
It is that uncertainty, coupled with the visceral thrill of being on stage, that Chung looks forward to when stepping under the limelight.
It is no coincidence, he says, that people have been flocking to see stand-up comedy since performances began in Dubai last month. Chung says that the beauty of the art form is it allows comics to speak about everyday anxieties in ways that resonate.
“Like all art, it has a way of mirroring what is happening around us,” he says. “As a comic, I am just telling you a story that reflects the world we live in, from my perspective. The only thing is I am doing it in a funny and quirky way.
"A lot of times, that can help people see things from a different perspective. Other times, they can view the show as some much-needed distraction. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
Wonho Chung performs on Thursday, August 20 at The Theatre, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai. Tickets cost Dh95, and are available at dubai.platinumlist.net.
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Manchester United v Club America
When: Thursday, 9pm Arizona time (Friday UAE, 8am)
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ELong-range%20dual%20motor%20with%20400V%20battery%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E360kW%20%2F%20483bhp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E840Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20touring%20range%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20628km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E0-100km%2Fh%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.7sec%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETop%20speed%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20210kph%20%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh360%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeptember%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Donating your hair
• Your hair should be least 30 cms long, as some of the hair is lost during manufacturing of the wigs.
• Clean, dry hair in good condition (no split ends) from any gender, and of any natural colour, is required.
• Straight, wavy, curly, permed or chemically straightened is permitted.
• Dyed hair must be of a natural colour
KYLIAN MBAPPE 2016/17 STATS
Ligue 1: Appearances - 29, Goals - 15, Assists - 8
UCL: Appearances - 9, Goals - 6
French Cup: Appearances - 3, Goals - 3
France U19: Appearances - 5, Goals - 5, Assists - 1
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Two products to make at home
Toilet cleaner
1 cup baking soda
1 cup castile soap
10-20 drops of lemon essential oil (or another oil of your choice)
Method:
1. Mix the baking soda and castile soap until you get a nice consistency.
2. Add the essential oil to the mix.
Air Freshener
100ml water
5 drops of the essential oil of your choice (note: lavender is a nice one for this)
Method:
1. Add water and oil to spray bottle to store.
2. Shake well before use.
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Specs
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Uefa Champions League last 16 draw
Juventus v Tottenham Hotspur
Basel v Manchester City
Sevilla v Manchester United
Porto v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
THREE
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Results
5pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Nadhra, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: AF Dars, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: AF Musannef, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: AF Taghzel, Malin Holmberg, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: M’Y Yaromoon, Khalifa Al Neyadi, Jesus Rosales
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (PA) 1,400m; Winner: Hakeem, Jim Crowley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
South Africa v India schedule
Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg
ODIs: 1st ODI Feb 1, Durban; 2nd ODI Feb 4, Centurion; 3rd ODI Feb 7, Cape Town; 4th ODI Feb 10, Johannesburg; 5th ODI Feb 13, Port Elizabeth; 6th ODI Feb 16, Centurion
T20Is: 1st T20I Feb 18, Johannesburg; 2nd T20I Feb 21, Centurion; 3rd T20I Feb 24, Cape Town
Ibrahim's play list
Completed an electrical diploma at the Adnoc Technical Institute
Works as a public relations officer with Adnoc
Apart from the piano, he plays the accordion, oud and guitar
His favourite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach
Also enjoys listening to Mozart
Likes all genres of music including Arabic music and jazz
Enjoys rock groups Scorpions and Metallica
Other musicians he likes are Syrian-American pianist Malek Jandali and Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou Khalil
