Arab American Comedy Festival

The Arab American Comedy Festival will be at the Kennedy Center on June 8th at 7:30pm.

The New York Arab American Comedy Festival, which was co-created in 2003 by comedians Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah—is celebrating its 20th anniversary by culminating their tour at the prestigious Kennedy Center! Over 165,000 Arab Americans call the D.C. area home, and the universality of comedy with this festival’s headliners has proven appeal across the country – Tony Shalhoub and Ramy Youssef recently headlined the NY show.

The Festival was created to both dispel negative stereotypes about Arab Americans as well as create a platform for our community to tell our story through comedy.

The D.C. show will star seven headliners who have performed in past festivals: Maysoon Zayid (record setting TED Talk “I’ve got 99 Problems… Palsy is Just One,” regular on CNN, MSNBC, OWN and General Hospital)

Dean Obeidallah (MSNBC, CNN, The Dean Obeidallah Show” on SiriusXM radio, Comedy Central’s “Axis of Evil,” award-winning doc “The Muslims are Coming!”)

Mohanad Elshieky (Comedy Central, Conan, Lemonade’s “I’m Sorry” podcast, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee)

Majdy Fares (three-time Moth Grandslam champion, 1001 Nights Comedy Festival)

Rola ZZZ (DC Improv, Gotham Comedy Club, Traumedy, Dubai TV)

Laura Laham (Best of the Fest in 2022’s Burbank Comedy Festival)

Go Remy (100 million views on YouTube, “Brown Nation” sitcom, Comedy Central Records)

Funding for New York Arab-American Comedy Festival’s anniversary tour is provided by the Doris Duke Foundation.