Arab-American Comedy Tour (2006) +/-

A fairly low-rent collection of concert footage of the three leading Arab-American comedians working today: Ahmed Ahmed, Dean Obeidallah, and Maysoon Zayid. The audiences for these sets are largely community audiences at Arab-American cultural events in such locales as Deer Park, Michigan, or Seattle. As such, some of the material collected here addresses its audience of "Middle Eastern heritage" more explicitly than any other Arab comic dvd I've seen. This video is marred by the erratic sound quality and occasionally amateurish camera work. The sound/camera work is of especially poor quality during Ahmed Ahmed's set (unfortunately during some of the only material with which I was unfamiliar). Obeidallah's set is mostly the standard stuff, with some interesting "new to me" bits about his Sicilian mother. Maysoon Zayid's set is good. Her presence as "a Palestinian virgin with cerebral policy who lives in New Jersey" adds what I think to be a necessary complexity -- especially regarding the racially marked body -- that is clarifying. If the production quality was a little better this would likely be the best Arab comedy dvd to own; as it is, the sound quality mars the product so that the dvd becomes mostly useful as a reference point for other video captures of these performers' work.