LOS ANGELES—PlanetPix Media & Entertainment Group announced it will debut its comedy tour, “FUNATICAL: Taking Comedy to the Extreme,” in Los Angeles. Featuring an impressive comedian lineup, the tour will aim to unify all Americans. ‘FUNATICAL’ features the world’s only Indian Jewish comedian, a black Muslim convert, an Arab Jewish performer, famous American Muslim comedians, a Jordanian Catholic, a half Iranian/half black performer, Hindu comedians, a half Persian/half Russian, an Armenian Orthodox and an Iranian Bahai performer.
“FUNATICAL” will launch on the West Coast on December 9th, 2010 at the World Famous Comedy Store and will include two shows at Beyond the Stars Palace Theatre in Glendale on Friday, December 10th (7:30 and 10 pm), a performance December 11th at the Los Angeles Theater Center at 8 pm, and an encore performance at Caspian in Irvine on December 12th at 6 pm. In late January, the show will head to the East Coast for stints in New York City and Washington, D.C. in early March. The tour, whose motto, ‘We Come in Peace’ presents comedians who are of Arab, Iranian, South Asian and American descent as well as those of different faiths. It pokes fun at commonly heard stereotypes, explores diverse cultures and current events and joins audiences as they lampoon with humor and satire.
Armenian-American Ara Basil will be one of the featured performers in the “FUNATICAL” Los Angeles Tour. He has performed at countless clubs, benefits, festivals, and award shows all over the United States. Ara was a feature comedian in the 2006 Axis of Evil comedy tour, sharing the stage with with Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader, and Ahmed Ahmed. Ara has also performed in the Sultans of Satire comedy tour, and performed in shows with Russell Peters, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Ross and countless others. Ara’s material is rich with Middle Eastern and Western humor. He provides an intellectual, entertaining, and insightful view of the follies of the two cultures.
Ara will perform in two back-to-back shows on Friday December 11th, 2010 at 7:30 and 10:00 at “Beyond the Stars” at 417 ½ N. Brand Blvd. in Glendale and Sunday December 12th, 2010 at 6 pm in Irvine.
“FUNATICAL” creator and executive producer Samira Atash says, “We are presenting this comedy tour to bring people together. Perhaps they will laugh. Perhaps they will momentarily put cultural differences aside to appreciate our shared freedom, who we are, and what we have. In our communities together, we must challenge prejudice, and in our tour, we use comedy to examine those feelings out loud. In particular, FUNATICAL’s animated character, “Mustlaufa Dajeeni’, illustrates how silly stereotypes can be.”
“FUNATICAL” is co-produced by a team of Muslims, Jews and Christians including: Jordan Elgrably, the creator of the long-running “Sultans of Satire” comedy show, which starred Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani; Aron Kader from the “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” and Max Amini, comedian and founder of ‘Exotic Imports’ comedy tour.
Connect: http://www.funaticalcomedy.com/
Ara Basil is hilarious! I’m glad we finally have a great Armenian comedian coming to our area!
This is great! I can’t wait for the show…it should be fun.
This is awesome!!
This should be titled a religious comedy tour, I wish their was a Turkish comedian too?.