Notorious funnymen Ronnie Khalil and Ryan P. Shrime, are gearing up for their 2nd annual Middle Eastern Comedy Festival, to be held October 4-7, 2010 in Los Angeles (www.mideastcomedyfest.com). The Festival is announcing a new award, the 'Middle Eastern Jackass Award,' to be given to controversial Florida Republican Dan Fanelli, the once congressional hopeful who incited a media firestorm with his ad in favor of racial profiling.
Here is a link to Fanelli's political commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umTITWQuXwY
"At first we thought the ad was a hilarious YouTube sketch and immediately gave it five stars," jokes Ryan Shrime, Festival co-founder. "Then we found out it was real, and decided to give him the Middle Eastern Jackass Award instead."
Last year's sold-out Festival, which included Arabs, Israelis, Persians, Afghanis and more, garnered instant buzz and rave reviews, and was proudly sponsored by industry heavy hitters including Disney|ABC Television, FOX Entertainment, and KPCC Southern California Public Radio.
But what do the founders think about the current tensions regarding the Mosque in NYC and Koran burning?
"Even though our festival is non-political and non-religious," says co-founder Ronnie Khalil. "I can say that our performers represent a wide variety of religions, and we simply ask the Muslim performers do their comedy no less than 15 feet away from the stage. If they don't, well, we burn their scripts. We feel it sends the right message to the terrorists."
Rehearsals are well underway for this year's annual event, with an assortment of comedic sketches including "The Wizard of Oz-lamabad," "Twilight: Crescent Moon," and stand up comedy featuring talented performers all from Middle Eastern backgrounds.
The Festival's opening "Brown Carpet" Stand-up Comedy Gala will be held at the Laugh Factory on October 4th, where the producers will present Dan Fanelli with the Middle Eastern Jackass Award for his 'Outstanding Commitment to Offensive Racial Profiling.' A portion of the night's proceeds will be donated to charity.
The goal of the Festival is to change how Middle Easterners are perceived and portrayed in the entertainment industry as well as the media in general.
