The Laughter Factory makes a winning return Abu Dhabi

If you are gamely seated in the front row of a stand-up comedy gig and the marauding comic chooses to engage you for a brief tête-à-tête, the general rule is to behave the same way as if it’s a police traffic stop – keep the answers brief and simple, thus reducing the amount of good-­natured ribbing.

It seems one audience member had missed that memo when British-Irish funnyman Sean Hughes zeroed in on him during his winning return to Abu Dhabi on Saturday, courtesy of The Laughter Factory. When Hughes asked him where he was from, he replied: “I am from abroad.”

The comic, a familiar face from British TV, seized that gift and launched into rapid-fire puns ranging from travelling habits to relationships, all before concluding with a fist bump to indicate it was all just fun and games.

In addition to Hughes, ­British-Nigerian Funmbi Omotayo and American Dave Fulton also hit the stage at the Park ­Rotana.

Each comic maintained a high joke rate during their allotted 25-minute slots, which kept the 90-minute show (with two intervals) moving along briskly.

The affable Omotayo was a good choice to open. He elicited big smiles from the crowd through charming anecdotes about living in multicultural London.

“You are totally British until you do something wrong,” he quipped. “If Mo Farah was caught cheating, the newspapers would suddenly be calling him that Mohamed Farah, the British-Somali long distance runner.”

Then Hughes made his appearance, and the first thing he did was to fire back at the host for introducing him as a veteran – “Excuse me, I didn’t fight in any wars”, kicking off a deceptively crafty set that balanced written material with recently gleaned observations and biting banter with the crowd.

“So I take it everybody here works for oil and gas?” he asked, before adding, “You parasites.”

He also took potshots at the English football team’s performance in last year’s World Cup, singling out captain Steven Gerrard. “Did you see him in the airport? He carried like nine suitcases with him,” he said. “He was only going to be there for three days.”

Rounding off the show was Fulton, who like Hughes, was also making a return to the UAE.

In a similar vein to Hughes, the American is fond of long, and sometimes surreal, narratives – however, he anchors them in topical subjects ranging from politics and the war on terror to the economic plight of the ­United States.

In one of his best moments, he described the UAE “as a place where you can make enough money in one week to buy ­Detroit”.

• The three comics continue their UAE Laughter Factory tour with performances at Societe Dubai by Marina Byblos Hotel on Tuesday, July 28, McGettigan’s at Bonnington Jumeirah Lakes Towers on Wednesday, July 29, and the Grand Millenium at Tecom on Thursday, July 30. Visit www.thelaughterfactory.com

sasaeed@thenational.ae