I remember going to a comedy club somewhere in Gemmayzeh a few years ago, and having an absolute blast. They featured 4 local comedians with 15-minute bits, then an improv session with the crowd’s help. It was amazing to see such refreshingly bold and risque content in a Lebanese dialect in front of a Lebanese crowd.

That age has passed though, and Lebanon hasn’t had a comedy club since then. For folks like Wissam Kamal, this is a huge problem since he has nowhere to test the material he writes before putting on a full 1-hour set.

Wissam never spares the opportunity to test out his jokes when I see him live, and I admit I am quite the harsh critic and always try to put him down, when many times, his material is gold and spot on. It’s often hard to tell when he’s serious, and I don’t even remember the last conversation we had that wasn’t full of obscure, hilarious references he comes up with on the fly.

Wissam’s answer to the comedy club absence here, was to “crash” pubs and venues that had an unsuspecting audience, and test out his new material on them. The folks at Dewar’s liked what he’s been doing the past couple of years, and decided to sponsor a series of “Crash The Mic” videos where Wissam invades people’s privacy as they try to go about their nights in peace.

Below is the first episode, where he crashes a Harry Potter quiz night at Joon on the Moon.

If you like Wissam’s material, make sure you check out his parody series on weird or lame Lebanese ads on TV. You can find them here on his YouTube channel.