Showtime

It was a really nice end to an unsure day for me. Tonight was the first night of our “Funniest Person in Bahrain” competition. There was a lot of nervousness and I pride myself on not getting nervous. Would anyone actually show up? If they did would the show bomb? Would the performers have fun? Would the material be offensive to the government or Islam? As the M.C would I get up and there and freeze? Would my actors chicken out at the last minute and bail on me. So there was a lot going on in my mind. A couple people said I looked really nervous, but I didn’t feel nervous, I was just extremely focused.

So when we got started we had a half-house. Everyone is late in Bahrain all the time. But by the time we finished we had a full house. Now the audience was great, they all felt like they were a part of something historic. So they might have been there for support or to watch a disaster, like having front row seats as the Titanic went down. So the cameras were in place, lights focused, Audio good. As I was about to go on stage to introduce and M.C. the event, I realized that this was a long term goal of mine. I always brag on my acting students that I could charge admission to some of the classes because the performances are that good. Well we did the improv thing in California mainly as a workshop. We had a few people show up but mainly they were all actors wanting to perform with no audience. Then I was approached by a club-lounge owner who wanted to do something with acting. He had seen the articles in the press and wanted to meet me. Sidd and I hit it off right away. So it was a relatively easy thing to plan since I had been doing it all along. The hard part was convincing all the actors that they wouldn’t make fools of themselves. I assured them as M.C./Director my job was to make sure they looked good.

Well we started the night off slow and then got better and better as we went along. Once we got the first laugh in, it was all down hill from there. The comics were really getting into it. The crowd seemed to be getting into it too. We had 10 comics/actors and about 150 in the audience which was a full house. There were some dry moments like any live performance (Im certain Who’s Line is it Anyways edits out the rough material.) but there were far far far many hilarious moments. I was working with some real pro’s here. They were volunteering so it was really important to me that they were having fun…and they were. I tried to put them all in situations where they would excel and they did. I saved the best situations/scenes for last and it worked. We had a grand finale of sorts. It was the old put your hands through someone else’s hands while they make/bake something. I must have done this in Junior High…But there is something universally funny about it…for all ages. I remember walking around the store before the contest buying the ingredients. Flour…messy good, Syrup messy…good, Cornflakes, bananas, but then I saw the ultimate ingredient. Fish. The fish in Bahrain are presented like they just came out of the ocean. Eyes, scales, tails, everything. So I had to get that. I laughed out loud in the store so I knew it was going to work. It did. They made Fish cookies. Tariq, the victim even had to cook and lick the fish which im certain was rancid. It brought the house down.

So we awarded the first session of Bahrain’s Funniest Person to a new guy, who just killed with the accents. After the show the performers and I were mobbed…it felt great. Lots of congratulations going around. I was told by several people that it was the best entertainment that Bahrain had seen in a long time. Then the press came around, pictures and flashes going off everywhere. For a short while I felt a little like a celebrity. But what I was really proud of were my actors. As a director my job is to make them look good. They looked great…which is amazingly satisfying for me. Im quite proud. We’re going to post some of the highlights on our website tomorrow. I’ll be sure to send you the links.