Rola Zaarour says she finds humour in the darkest and most unlikely places: fleeing the civil war in Lebanon, getting a divorce, losing her job and financial troubles.
Instead of avoiding talking about these traumatic experiences, Zaarour, 50, says she leans into them and looks for the humorous side as a way to cope and connect with other people.
“When we laugh at our own pain, we can also heal others and that's been the biggest reward,” she tells The National.
For the past three years she has been performing and producing stand-up comedy shows all over Washington in what she calls trauma comedy or “traumedy” – the art of turning pain into punchlines.
She started her flagship project Funny Arabs, bringing together dozens of Arab American comedians from all over the country, reflecting with humour on their upbringing, their experiences and their troubled homelands.
Zaarour argues that we don't know what makes us laugh. It could be cultural or personal preferences. She says she does not find "slapstick" mainstream humour at all funny.
Some of the jokes are dark and she admits that this type of black humour is not for everyone.
The reaction to her gags can sometimes be dramatic. Zaarour calls it “cathartic” when people laugh at their own deep pain for the first time, bringing with it an intense flood of emotions, followed by relief.
“We come from war,” she said during a recent panel event. “That breeds innovation and it also breeds humour because it’s the only way to cope.”
“[Lebanon] is probably at war right now, I haven’t checked my messages,” she says.
But despite maintaining a light-hearted attitude about many of life’s challenges, the ongoing Israel-Gaza war has been particularly grim.
Every day since October 7, when Israel launched a retaliatory war on Gaza for the Hamas-led attack that killed 1,200 people, brings new horrors.
Television and social media show an unending stream of gruesome images of Palestinians, often children, dead, injured or suffering intensely.
More than 36,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, much of the coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble and a humanitarian crisis is worsening.
The war on Gaza, now approaching its ninth month, has also spread to Ms Zaarour's ancestral home in Lebanon, with cross-border fire between the Israeli army and the armed group Hezbollah.
About 80 civilians in southern Lebanon have been killed in Israeli shelling, including children, medical workers and journalists.
Still, she and other Arab American comedians say laughing and making others laugh is in itself an act of resistance and resilience.
It is a healing space for people and a platform to talk about political issues, they say.
“I think that – with all the love and respect to academics, policymakers and lobbyists – a lot of what they've done has failed,” Zaarour says.
“So why not try comedy?”
Majdy Fares is a Palestinian American stand-up comedian and he sometimes performs alongside Zaarour.
They will soon both be performing at the NY Arab American Comedy Festival at the prestigious Kennedy Centre in Washington, alongside five other comedians including Dean Obeidallah and Maysoon Zayid.
Fares, who has family in the occupied West Bank, says he and a growing number of average Americans oppose seeing billions of their tax dollars being used to fund Israel's war while domestic issues such as health care and education remain underserved.
“I try to find the funny in the hypocrisy, in the ridiculousness of how some people behave towards the subject,” he tells The National.
“Sometimes it becomes dark comedy and sometimes I'm able to get the audience to laugh together at something that is not funny at all."
“Last week, I went to six protests, three marches and I ran two Gaza 5km races,” one of his jokes goes. “I'm in the best shape of my life and I call it resistance training – I did it from the river to the sea, my waist down to a 33.”
While many Arab American comedians joke about being physically hit or scolded by their immigrant parents, he says his parents’ idea of punishment when he misbehaved as a child was being forced to watch Arabic satellite news, which he calls “psychological warfare”.
Next month's Kennedy Centre show is a culmination of years of professional work, Fares says, but also critical to his own personal healing, which remains a work in progress amid the seemingly never-ending troubles in the Middle East.
“I'm desperate to get through the grieving cycle right now,” he says. "Because it seems like I'm stuck at stage one and every day I see something else that resets it back to denial.”
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Afro%20salons
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
More on animal trafficking
Saturday's results
Brighton 1-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Cardiff City
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 0-3 Liverpool
West Ham United 0-4 Manchester City
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tewellah by Nawal Zoghbi is out now.
Indika
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Coffee: black death or elixir of life?
It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
Rory Reynolds
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
