By Anuj Chopra

SAUDIS took the stage one by one to poke fun at the world — and themselves — introducing a hissing, cackling audience to an art form widely unknown in the Kingdom: stand-up comedy.

Chuckles and squeals ran through the crowd at a rare amateur comedy festival last week in Riyadh, organized by the General Entertainment Authority, the main engine of social reforms sweeping the Kingdom.

The authority is boosting entertainment options like never before, from a Comic-Con festival to concerts by female musicians, helping shed the Kingdom's austere reputation and introducing many Saudis to a novel concept — having fun in public.

"I am a jobless dentist," 26-year-old Battar Al-Battar said in a slow, deadpan delivery on stage to a smiling audience.

"My prayers have been answered. I see lots of braces in this crowd."

Next up was a short, corpulent man, equally deadpan as he took on the skewed power relations between the sexes in the Kingdom.

"I called my fiancee to say: 'Listen, I am the man. If I eat dust, you eat dust'.

"She hung up. A week passed by. I heard nothing.

"In a panic I texted her: 'I am not the man! Take me back!'"

Men in the audience — as well as women sitting across the aisle — erupted in laughter.

"The common perception is that Saudis don't have a funny bone," Yaser Bakr, a festival jury member and founder of the Kingdom's first comedy club, told AFP.

"Saudis love to laugh. Numbers don't lie," he said, scrolling through a list of Saudi comedy videos on his mobile's YouTube app, each with hundreds of thousands of views.

The venue for the five-day festival, Riyadh's King Fahd Cultural Center, was like a bubble of laughing gas over the course of the performances.

The festival, a talent-hunt of sorts for Saudi Arabia's own version of "Seinfeld", was a rare attempt to introduce stand-up comedy to the masses.

Aside from a handful of Saudi YouTube comedy stars, performers are largely struggling without theaters and entertainment companies, as well as a lack of mass awareness of the art form.

"Many people think comedy is only sex jokes. We are trying to change that," festival director Jubran Al-Jubran told AFP.

"Saudi Arabia needs to cultivate this art. Comedy has a purifying effect, it cleanses the soul. It's a relief to laugh about our own problems."

But the audience was only mildly amused by cringe-worthy jokes and low-brow humor from some performers.

The performing comedians were all men, but the festival organizers said women were expected to participate next year.

The festival highlights a broader reform push by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense. The reforms include the historic decision allowing women to drive from next June and plans to reopen cinemas after a decades-long ban.

Legendary Greek composer and pianist Yanni performed to a packed mixed-gender audience in Riyadh last week, accompanied by female vocalists.

The change chimes with Prince Muhammad's recent pledge to return Saudi Arabia to an "open, moderate Islam" and destroy extremist ideologies.

Expanding on the Crown Prince's comment, Jubran said: "We aim to destroy extremism through comedy, by making people laugh." — AFP