All new comedy tour featuring some of the most popular Iranian-American comedians! Tour kicks off in West Hollywood, Glendale, Irvine December 9-12! Tour will continue on to NYC and Washington DC…
All comedy tours are equal, but some are more equal than others. The new *FUNATICAL: Taking Comedy to the Extreme* tour’s motto is ‘We Come in Peace’, and features multicultural comedians who are Arab, Iranian, South Asian and American of different faiths.
Produced by PlanetPix Media & Entertainment Group, the “FUNATICAL” tour launches in Southern California on December 9th at the World Famous Comedy Store and continues on to New York City in January 2011 and the D.C. area in early March. The tour features comedians who poke fun of stereotypes, culture and current events, which they lampoon with humor and satire.
All things being equal -this is a prodigious tour. For the first time, the United Religious Initiative (URI), a United Nations NGO, is supporting an interfaith comedy tour. URI is a global interfaith peace-building organization that is currently active in 72 countries around the world. The comedy tour includes dozens of partners and supporters on both coasts including Levantine Cultural Center and Beauty and the East TV.
According to a recent article published in the LA Times (9/9/10), statistics support the belief that Islamophobia is on the rise in America, and that the temptation to view Muslims through the prism of extremism remains ever-present. These perceptions are linked to the ‘Ground Zero Mosque” debates in New York and pastors and elected leaders whose dangerous rhetoric has undone years of interfaith work.
“FUNATICAL” creator and executive producer Samira Atash states, “We’re presenting this comedy tour to bring people together to laugh and forget about issues like the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ or ‘Burn a Quran Day’-we want to counter extremism that exists in all religions as well as bigotry that exists in America against those who “look Muslim”. We want to challenge stereotypes using stereotypes to show how silly and wrong they can be. “FUNATICAL’s animated character “Mustlaufa Dajeeni’ is an example of that.”
Atash notes that ‘FUNATICAL’ is coproduced by a team of Muslims, Jews and Christians and the tour includes 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, Hindus, a half Persian/half Russian, an Armenian Orthodox, and an Iranian Bahai. The tour’s coproducers include Jordan Elgrably, the creator of the long-running “Sultans of Satire” comedy show, which featured Ahmed Ahmed, Maz Jobrani and Aron Kader from the “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” and Max Amini, comedian and founder of ‘Exotic Imports’ comedy tour.
FUNATICAL’s West Coast tour includes dates at the Comedy Store on Dec. 9, Beyond the Stars Palace Theatre in Glendale Dec. 10, and the Los Angeles Theatre Center on Dec. 11, 2010.
For information on FUNATICAL:
CONTACT:
PlanetPix Media & Entertainment Group
www.planetpixmedia.com
info@planetpixmedia.com
Phone: 1.800.775.0958
