The first three paragraphs
The existence of a Saudi Arabia comedy festival has been on the periphery of my mind for a few weeks, but there’s no more ignoring it. It’s finally here. The Riyadh Comedy Festival kicks off on Friday and runs for two weeks, and judging by the lineup, many famous comedians have no qualms about cashing that check and ignoring the human rights abuses.
The names involved are scattered across a range from “not surprising at all” to “wait, really?” There’s a contingent of people you knew weren’t going to say no: Jeff Ross, Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker, Russell Peters, Sebastian Maniscalco. They might as well rename this shit the Back Taxes Tour. The co-headliner combo of Louis C.K. and Jimmy Carr on Oct. 5 is to be expected. Then you get to names like Bill Burr, Pete Davidson, Aziz Ansari, Mo Amer … man, they must be getting a lot of money.
And what might that number be? Tim Dillon, a comedian who was scheduled to perform in Riyadh but was nixed for making a joke about slavery in Saudi Arabia on his podcast, claimed he stood to make $375,000 off doing one show there. Earlier this month, when he was defending his decision, he said that comedians in a higher “bracket” were being paid around $1.6 million each, and lower-tier talent was getting $150,000. “They’re paying me enough money to look the other way,” Dillon said. “Do you understand?”
The site - https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/seasons/riyadh-comedy-festival
Pete Davidson’s dad, Scott, was a firefighter who died in World Trade Centre during 9/11.
Stavros Halkias (didn’t take the money)
Does he have his own podcast? He’s easily the funniest out of cum town.
I think I’ve seen clips of it on tik tok? Stavies World or something?
I’ll have to check it out. I want to get into his stuff without the cum town shit.
I dunno about just straight podcasts but he has a YouTube channel with guest comedians where people call in asking for advice.
It’s quite good
I saw him at a diner once and got a picture with him. Nice dude.
wtf bill burr. one step forward two steps back
People say this shows I have no integrity. I got integrity. But they’re paying me one point six million dollars. If you pay me enough - I’ll forget about integrity. Integrity? What? See? I have temporary amnesia. C’mon - you’d take the money too. I’m not gonna buy a supercar. Not my style. But it’s nice to know I could.
-–
I hope my impression was close. I haven’t seen him do much standup or appear on talk shows.
same here i haven’t seen much just him tearing apart his “friend” joe rogan over vaccines and various tweets/etc about his kind of “dumb guy” pro palestine views
Pete Davidson’s dad, Scott, was a firefighter who died in World Trade Centre during 9/11.
Jefferies: Right? They haven’t asked what we’re going to do. And let’s be fair, they have picked some fucking edgy-ass comedians.
Von: Some seriously edgy ones.
Yes, all the edgiest, most rebellious, public enemy comedians have the President of the USA on their massive media company backed corporate megabucks sponsored podcasts and get special invites to play comedy gigs in some of the worlds most repressive countries as a tourism gimmick.
People forget that Jeff Dunham was like the favorite comedian of the Saudis for years. They have never been adverse to ‘edgy-comedy’ that is approved by the empire.
Honestly I’m with Stavros here
The idea that you would disown a comedian for performing in Saudi Arabia but not for performing in The Great Satan is incoherent. This was written by a fucking lib who wants yank criticisms to be pointing away from themselves.
The article says that Stavros turned down the invitation.
And?
He was mocking the guy for taking the money. Not being serious. He did not literally mean that all money from entertainment was equally evil. That’s the joke. The joke is that he was making light of something that makes him uncomfortable.
In another clip it says: “Distefano: And then [my wife] was like, you’re you’re going to take that fucking money. And I was like, okay… Halkias (laughing): You’re going to have a maid that doesn’t have access to her passport whether you like it or not. A Filipino woman who’s trapped in the desert and can never see her family again. Distefano: Well, what’s good about a gig like that for me personally is there’s no question [my wife] can’t come”
je sus christ. I like to think that I wouldn’t take it but God damn that amount of money would certainly test my convictions.
Me too.
Dave Chappelle must have a net worth of ~$100 million. I’d really love to hear his rationalization even though it surely would be bland as can be. He’d probably say something like “A gig is a gig, man.” Or maybe he’d accuse the questioner of being a racist.
It would be more evil to perform in America than it would be to perform in Saudi Arabia. So idrc that much tbh, get that paper funny people
The writer wants me to be outraged when these comedians are already making money doing comedy in the biggest terrorist state in the world where human rights abuses are being ignored.
