Shedding the Arab typecast

In a year when the race for the White House is dominating headlines and political parties are working overtime to get the vote out, a handful of Arab-American performers are vying for the hearts and minds of their countrymen via awareness through laughter.

Call it the new Arab Lobby -- only it’s not the minds of those on Capitol Hill this group is looking to woo. Across the country, performers of Arab and Iranian heritage are taking their case to Hollywood with an explicit message: No More Mr. Bad Guy. “There aren’t any American movies with an Arab hero, or romantic comedies with an Arab-American lead,” explains comedian Dean Obeidallah, a co-founder of the Arab-American Comedy Festival, held last month in New York.

At the recent conference for the Network of Arab American Professionals (NAAP), Jack Shaheen, author of the award-winning book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Viliies a People, announced that he would be setting up an office in Hollywood to lobby filmmakers and television producers into making some changes when it comes to casting Middle Eastern talent. Shaheen says he has compiled some 50 examples of films and television programs that blend the Arab terrorist image with images of ordinary Arabs and Muslims in America.

“It’s the last stereotype that Hollywood can continue to get away with and there is reluctance by many people in the industry to let go of this stereotype,” he explains.

Illustrated posters portraying temptress one-hump camels with black bars censoring the animals’ unmentionables were used to depict this year’s theme: “Arabs Gone Wild.” Organizers say the theme alone demonstrates just how far they’ve come since the first festival in 2003. “Back then, it was much more about activism,” explains Dean Obeidallah, the festival’s co-founder and one time writer for Saturday Night Live, adding that audiences no longer view them as unpatriotic if “an Arab comedian makes fun at the President or the War on Terror.” From its humble beginnings of three nights of shows, 20 performers and some 400 tickets, the festival has expanded to six nights of sold out shows, with some 50 Arab-American performers and well over 1,000 tickets.

Performers ranging from stand-up comedians to actors and film makers have been working to tackle numerous issues from the daily struggles of Arab-Americans in post 9/11 America, to politics, the War on Terror and American pop culture – often poking fun at themselves, or telling anecdotes about their parents, since most of the performers are American-born.

As part of their act, many of the comedians performing at this year’s festival highlighted the negative portrayal of Arabs in the media. “In America, there are some shows that make us look bad – shows like the news,” joked Egyptian-American performer Sherif Hedayat.

This campaign for awareness and acceptance stretches far beyond New York City’s comedy scene. Some of the performers at this year’s Arab-American Comedy Festival recently returned from the first ever Middle East comedy tour. In partnership with Showtime Arabia, and performances in Dubai, Cairo, Amman and Beirut, the “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” was what the comedians hope will be the start of a regular cross-cultural exchange. The tour was such a hit, in fact, that three major Arab networks are competing for the rights to air excerpts from the New York festival.

There have been some breakthroughs. Khalid Abdallah, lead actor in the film The Kite Runner, released last year, is an Anglo-Egyptian; and Emmy-award winning actor Tony Shaloub, lead actor in the American series Monk, is Lebanese-American. “The problem,” explains Shaheen, “is that Tony is not playing a Lebanese-American cop in Monk, he’s just playing a cop. There is no mention of his heritage so it doesn’t give our efforts a boost.”

Obeidallah too is looking to take his act– that is, the entire comedy festival – on the road to Los Angeles to showcase Arab-American talent to agents, casting directors and the world. “This has become an unapologetic celebration of our heritage.”