the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour |
City Mouse Review, Tel Aviv Weekend magazine Jan. 27, 2007
City Mouse Magazine, Tel Aviv "Ya Warady" Never before has something so real been like the beginning of a joke: a black american convert, an ultra orthodox that was born catholic, a new jewish immigrant, and an american palestinian get together on one stage. Fortunately they aren't politicians but comedians. The convert is Aaron Freeman, the once catholic is Yisrael Cambell, the American Palestinian is Ray Hananya (Hanania) and the new immigrant is Charley Warady. The four, who will put on this week shows, will continue afterwards to the States. The object, from what Charley and Ray say, is to get the Nobel Peace Prize, and no, that's not a joke. 
"I was born very young",jokes Charley. He's 51 years old, a jew from Chicago, that came up to Israel 10 years ago, and since then, lives in Jerusalem. The Palestinian Hananya that was raised in the same area in Chicago- Warady found out in Israel, after reading his colomn on Ynet in English. Warady has an internet radio show, that's comical and deals with politics and day to day life in Israel. "I just e-mailed him about us growing up in the same neighborhood", Warady says about the beginning of the relationship. "One thing lead to another, we talked about both of us being comedians, and all of a sudden we were planning shows. I said that we have to do this. Then we included Freeman and Cambell, and in a few months, it started to have a life of it's own, got totally out of control" *So what's up with the Nobel Peace Prize? Are you serious or is it just another joke? "If Jimmy Carter can do it,anyone can do it. How hard could it be?" Do you really think that there's a connection between comedy and peace? "I'm seriously sure that there is. If we can't laugh, we can't get peace." What do you mean?Peace is supposed to be serious. "Look at Iran. How much comedy is there?" You can argue about how much comic potential our neighbors have but the comic potential that this show has is unending. This multicultured group, even with the american basis, have jokes that are far from politicaly correct. The balance from Freeman's joke about a partly jewish, very rich neighborhood in Chicago made me laugh outloud, in front of the computer screen. It must be even better live. "We are hoping to get peace fast in the Middle East.",says Charley "We have a week and a couple of days extra. No, we hope to make people laugh, if people leave a little happier then when they came in-Great. Anything beyond this will be a bonus. In a broder sense, atleast now nobody can say that a palestinian and an Israeli can't be on the same stage together." So what's going to be going on in the shows? "The show is just stand up. Each one of us gets on stage and does his set. My set has to do with Israeli and Palestinian politics. and things that have to do with moving to Israel." What else is in the planning? "After Israel, we are planning on taking it to the States, and Europe, if they'll have us." Do you think that our leaders are humorless? Maybe that's why our situation is so bad. Laughing, "Maybe that's how we can break the ice. Who knows, maybe I'll be Defense Minister. The job might be opening up soon, although there already is a comedian there." Anything else? "Yeah-come see us,Tzavta is a big place. Peace in the Middle East is in second place, first we have to fill Tzavta. |