Unusual comedy show a success

Not your run-of-the-mill comedy show, “Standup for Peace: The Two Comedian Solution for Middle East Peace” featured Jewish comedian Scott Blakeman and Arab comedian Dean Obeidallah.

These comedians believe the way to a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the Middle East is for people to come together through laughter. They wish to help close the gaps that separate Jews and Arabs and to promote understanding in the two communities.

Planned by VCU Hillel and the Muslim Student Association, the Sunday night event boasted a good turnout with almost every seat in the T. Edward Temple Building lecture hall filled. The comedians’ jokes focused on everything from the MTV show “My Super Sweet Sixteen” to President Bush and, of course, Arab-Israeli conflicts.

“I thought that it was good that the jokes did not focus on one thing and were very well-rounded. It allowed the audience to identify and come together very well,” said pre-occupational therapy major Allison Singer, 18.

Blakeman and Obeidallah kept the audience engaged and were open and friendly. They expressed dismay at the fact that Arabs and Israelis have not been doing a good job of talking things out and have been trying to solve things with violence instead.

“Jews and Arabs love talking. Why aren’t we doing that?” Blakeman asked.

For more information on “Standup for Peace: The Two Comedian Solution for Middle East Peace,” visit www.standupforpeace.com.

During the Q-and-A period at the end, tensions began to arise when an audience member asked Blakeman and Obeidallah a question concerning politics in the Middle East. Some audience members began to walk out because they felt uncomfortable at the mention of the controversial politics in the Middle East.

“The idea of ‘Standup for Peace’ was to show that we do have things in common with each other, and we can laugh at them. This was supposed to be a non-political event,” said Craig Hoovler, a second-year biomedical engineering graduate student.

Tension quickly died down, however, when members of the audience spoke up and commented on the audience’s quick departure. The evening was once again focused on laughter.

“Standup for Peace” was the first event that the MSA and Hillel had planned together, and based on the diverse crowd of people and audience enthusiasm, it was deemed a success.

The two organizations also look forward to planning events together in the future.

“Before the event, we were talking about following up and figuring out what other events we’d like to do together,” said Bilal Aslam, vice president of MSA.

Blakeman and Obeidallah have been doing their act together for about four years now and said they very much enjoyed their experience performing in Richmond.