Viva Brighton Issue #59 January 2018

COMEDY
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Mark Thomas
No laughing matter?
Our show is about a
three-year attempt to
run a comedy workshop
in a refugee
camp in Palestine.
I did a show called
Walking the Wall in
2010 about walking the
length of the Israeli
wall in the West Bank.
I thought this is probably
the major global
conflict and I don’t
really know as much as I should do. When I was
there I encountered the Jenin Freedom Theatre.
I remember walking in and this guy asked
us what we were doing. When I told him, he
turned to me and said: “F**k, I was going to do
that.” His name was Juliano Mer-Khamis, and he
ran the place. He was half-Israeli and half-Palestinian,
incredibly charismatic and hugely
infuriating. He invited us to stay, and we used the
theatre as a base.
Juliano was murdered outside the theatre. It
was a really tragic, dreadful thing. The theatre
obviously went through quite a severe wobble, but
they kind of found their way again. I went back
a few years later and it was so brilliant to be in a
room with people that had so much creative, positive
energy – who were trying to create something
out of their situation. It was then that I got the
idea about doing comedy workshops and a show at
the theatre.
We negotiated for three years. I went over
with Sam Beale from Middlesex Uni who teaches
stand-up. We spent a month teaching comedy in
a refugee camp. A lot of people were suspicious,
as you can imagine.
While we were there
thousands of Palestinian
prisoners went on
hunger strike.
When you’re in a situation
like that, you
have to ask yourself:
what the f**k are you
doing putting on a
comedy show? But of
course you’re working
with these young
people who are amazingly talented, and some
of whom are very angry. Whether it’s the Israeli
occupation, or the Palestinian national authority,
or just this rather conservative religious culture –
there’s lots to be angry about.
So what I’m doing now is getting two of the
performers over to the UK and we’re doing a
show together, from our different perspectives,
about putting on that show in Jenin. The guys are
really funny. It’s about our expectations of each
other. It’s about freedom of expression and what it
means to be creative when everyone around you
wants to assign you to a very specific role.
Comedy starts from the basic facts of your life.
What you think, what you feel, what you’ve done,
where you live, who you are, where you’re from. If
you’re a Palestinian living in a refugee camp, well,
yeah, that’s quite a political thing. But what people
choose to talk about and identify with is also a political
act within that situation. It’s not just about
going boo to the occupation.
As told to Ben Bailey
Showtime from the Frontline, The Old Market, Tue
30th Jan, 6.45pm, £16/12
Photo by Lesley Martin
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