VIRTUAL STAND-UP COMEDY TOUR WILL SEE REFUGEES BRING UNDERSTANDING THROUGH LAUGHTER
In the first ever virtual stand-up comedy tour of the UK, a group of comedians from refugee and migrant backgrounds will use laughter to connect with audiences and speak of their experiences coming to and living in this country.
The group, formed by Counterpoints Arts and Camden People’s Theatre in 2018, are coached by top stand-up comedian Tom Parry and known as No Direction Home.
They have already performed live gigs in venues like the Southbank Centre with guest headliners such as Romesh Ranganathan, Lou Sanders and Sindhu Vee.
Now, with lockdown keeping comedy clubs shut, they are heading off on a virtual tour across England, Scotland and Wales, telling jokes about themselves, their experiences and their lives in the UK.
TV comic and stand-up Nish Kumar, who has guest headlined several No Direction Home gigs and helped mentor the group, says: “The No Direction Home comedians are a very exciting, interesting and creative bunch of people to be around. And they are very funny! The material is really good.”
Confirmed guest headliners for the online tour include Sindhu Vee, Dane Baptiste and Mo Omar - himself a refugee from Somalia who came to Wales as a child, now lives in London and is recognised as one of the brightest rising stars on the stand-up circuit.
No Direction Home performers include aspiring stand-ups originally from countries such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Iraqi-born Yasmeen Audisho Ghrawi says: “No Direction Home is a space to show up/stand up, a space to be seen and heard, a space of celebration. We come from places of varying remoteness to the UK, some of us fresh off the back of a truck, others migrated here years ago. We hope to keep sharing the love – and our jokes.”
The official tour launch is on 12 September (8pm) in partnership with Camden People’s Theatre, guest headliner Mo Omar, hosted by Tom Parry.
The full tour schedule is here: https://counterpointsarts.org.
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