Nemr Abou Nassar

Nemr Abou Nassar (2009)

Nemr Abou Nassar (born September 26, 1983) is a stand up comedian from Lebanon. He is known as "Lebanon's King of Comedy". With credits that include headlining his own feature specials ("This is why I'm Hot", "Eye of the Tiger", “Made in USA”, "EPIC", "Victorious Secret"), producing and starring in Beirut Stand Up Comedy Festival and the Middle East first live comedy radio show "The Comedy Revolution" on Mix FM, he also performs mainly in English mixing in Arabic at times.

Early life and background

Abou Nassar was born in Beirut, Lebanon on September 26, 1983. He is the only son of Joseph Abou Nassar and Hiam Kabban, both Lebanese. He has one sister, Maria Abou Nassar. The family immigrated to the United States of America in 1985 seeking refuge from the civil war in Lebanon. He acquired American Citizenship and returned to Lebanon in 1993 where he has lived since his return, travelling year-round to perform across the globe.

Abou Nassar graduated from the American University of Beirut with a major in Finance and a minor in Philosophy.

Career Highlights

Abou Nassar started his professional career in 2006. Since then, Nassar has performed at Lebanon's top venues, such as the Casino du Liban, Biel,Sky Bar, Edde Sands, BO18 Classic, Snatch, and the Hard Rock Cafe where he was the main attraction for their New Year's Eve celebration. Abou Nassar was also featured on Comedy Central's Insider where his work received praise.[1]

Additionally, he has performed in the United States, most prominently as a member of the Axis of Evil comedy tour.

Stand Up

In 2006, Abou Nassar started performing stand up comedy on a professional basis in an effort to help spread a sense of unity. He established his brand of comedy under the creed "No Politics, No Religion, One Love". Lebanon had a vibrant comedy scene both live and televised that was dominant with political and sectarian themes which Abou Nassar wished to avoid in the hope that the open form of dialogue of stand up comedy will remove prejudice and help bring people together.

On March 7, 2007 Abou Nassar held his first paid entrance show at the "Cafe Rue 75" at Hotel de Ville in Achrafieh, Lebanon. This was the first official stand up comedy show in the region. Following a My Space marketing campaign and personal PR efforts approximately 120 people attended. Abou Nassar also had approached Mix FM Lebanon prior to the show expressing hopes that the two could work together. These were in the form of personal discussions with Roger Saad, the owner of Mix FM, who suggested that Abou Nassar record a series of phone pranks in exchange for the station's backing through radio spots advertising his shows. The segment was later called the "Mix FM Phone Taps with Nemr!" and was a massive success. Following the success of his first live stand up show, which was attended by the management and owners of Mix FM, Abou Nassar was officially brought into the Mix FM family of which he has remained a member since.

As the stand up comedy scene was non existent, Abou Nassar acted as both producer and promoter of his shows as he introduced this art form to the region.

Abou Nassar continued to perform throughout 2007 regularly holding weekly residencies and pushing others to join him on stage where he helped foster an atmosphere of mutual support in stand up comedy. His brand of stand up comedy became a huge success especially with younger generations and his shows would sell out within hours.

On December 6, 7 and 8 of 2007, Abou Nassar joined the Axis of Evil comedy tour in Lebanon and performed in five sold out shows where his performance received a standing ovation. Abou Nassar also promoted the shows in Lebanon using his now closed Facebook group "Stand Up Comedy in Lebanon" and his radio presence.

He continued to perform continuously selling out shows and rising in popularity until, following a push from Roger Saad owner of Mix FM, he announced his first self-titled 90 minute live special "This is Why I'm Hot" making him the only comic to ever perform a full feature in the Middle East to be held at the Casino du Liban theatre presented by Mix FM. Nemr pledged, along with Mix FM, that all profits from the show would go to the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon. Nemr held an awareness tour for his show promoting stand up comedy and the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon performing for 20 – 30 minutes at Lebanon's most popular universities from March 5 to March 12, 2008. Nemr demanded that all shows be held in sponsor of more than one club at each university as Lebanese clubs at universities are typically politically backed. This brought together for the first time political parties that were never found working together. After each performance Nemr would join the club members in collecting money for the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon. He broke records in attendance at every university finishing with a show at his own university the American University of Beirut that was backed by the Music Club and the Business Student's Society which they called "Back to the Roots". Nemr was given a heroes welcome with Issam Fares hall used for the show packed at many times over capacity with over 2,000 people in attendance.

On March 17 and 18, 2008 "This is Why I'm Hot" sold out to over 2,000 people and was a success. This first special was approximately just one year after Nemr's first show on March 7, 2007 mapping a meteoric rise. The entire approximately 90 minute show can be viewed online for free on Nemr's official YouTube channel. The special was divided online into 28 videos mainly due to the incredibly slow internet connection speeds prevailing in Lebanon at the time it was released making it impossible for most Lebanese to buffer clips of any longer duration than several minutes at a time. The clips were divided based on set. The playlist with the correct order of the clips for the entire show can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL63C6EFAA333484A7

On May 16, 2008 Nemr performed in a showtime televised special filmed in Dubai "Showtime Presents... Friday Night Live, Minorities Rule!".

On July 14, 2008 Nemr filmed with Lebanese production company "Film and Co." a pilot episode to be pitched to TV networks in the region as a late night talk show format. The show was never picked up due mainly to the region's lack of confidence in English programming despite the show being a mix of English and Arabic and major networks offering syndicated programming in English from the US.

On July 24, 2008 Nemr headlined a feature special for the "Hammana Comedy Festival" which was held by the Municipality of Hammana in Lebanon.

On April 12 and 13 of 2009 Nemr hosted "The Beirut Stand Up Comedy Festival" which was produced by Mix FM Lebanon and Nemr's own newly formed production house "Vanguard Productions". The show was preceded by an 11 university tour similar to that preceding "This is Why I'm Hot", Nemr's first special, once again to record breaking turn out. The festival was a sold out success selling to 2,300 people for two nights, a total of 4,600 attended.

On June 2,3 and 5 of 2009 Nemr joined Arab-American stand up comedians Dean Obeidallah and "Amer Zahr" for three shows in Oman in a show named "1,001 Laughs!". The three shows sold out and marked the first time stand up comedy ever came to Oman.

On December 4 and 5 of 2009 Nemr featured for the second time in a row in the annual Amman Stand-up Comedy Festival in Amman, Jordan.

On December 18 and 19 of 2009 Nemr released his second special "Eye of the Tiger" at the Casino du Liban. The full show can be watched for free on Nemr's official YouTube channel. The special is approximately 90 minutes long and is divided into three videos. The playlist for these videos can be found here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAC4E284417384DA0

On March 26, 2010 Nemr returned to Amman, Jordan to perform his second special "Eye of the Tiger" for a complete sell out at "The Cultural Palace" which seats in excess of 2,000 people making it a record breaking success in terms of people attending a stand up comedy show until that date. Nemr would break this record again during his fourth special "EPIC" which sold out the same venue twice.

Shortly after Nemr's second special "Eye of the Tiger" he left to America for the first time with the goal of performing stand up comedy. Since his professional career as a comic Nemr never once visited the United States to perform. Nemr spent four months based in Venice Beach, California and headlined several times at The Improv, namely "The Hollywood Improv", on Friday nights as part of "Refried Friday's", a night of stand up comedy hosted by comic "Richard Villa", as well as other nights as a guest in other comics hosted nights at other Improv branches including "The Brea Improv". This made Nemr the first ever stand up comic to originate professionally from the Middle East and travel to the West and perform to mainly non-Arab audiences. To this date Nemr is the only comic from the region to do so.

Nemr also performed at many other venues in the Los Angeles and San Diego area. During this time Nemr also traveled to New York and participated in the "New York Arab American Comedy Festival".

During his time spent performing in the United States of America Nemr put together a new special which he performed shortly after his return to Lebanon at the Edde Sands Beach Resort stage to a sold out crowd of over 1,000 people. The show was called "Made in USA" and was Nemr's third full feature 90 minute special.

Nemr's fourth and most successful full feature special was called "EPIC". It toured the Middle East making Nemr the only stand up comedian to date to tour the region on his own for a full feature special. During the tour dates for Montreal, Canada were also added. The tour began on November 11, 2010 in Amman, Jordan and finished on March 4, 2011 in Montreal Canada.

EPIC sold out and played in Amman, Jordan - Dubai, UAE - Muscat, Oman - Kuwait City, Kuwait - Beirut, Lebanon - Montreal, Canada

EPIC reached its highlight in Beirut, Lebanon where the original two dates of April 8 and 9 2011 quickly sold out prompting the addition of shows on April 10, 11, 15 and 16. With over 1,000 people per night the six shows went on to set the record for the most shows sold out for a stand up comedy show as well as the most attendance for a stand up comedy show in the entire region outdoing the previous record set when Nemr performed with the Axis of Evil in Lebanon.

On May 22, 2011 Nemr featured as the closing act for the annual "AUB Outdoors" three-day festival which is held at the American University of Beirut. Featuring mainly musical acts Nemr's was the only performing artist to do stand up comedy. His segment attracted over 7,400 people filling out the "Green Oval" where the event was held. At the beginning of the show people were asked to sit so all could see and it quickly became apparent that this would be impossible as there was no room for anyone to move into a seated position due to absolute maximum capacity. Nemr's draw helped push that year's AUB Outdoors to be the highest in attendance numbers in the University's history.

On September 27 and 28, 2012 Nemr invited American comedian and musician Reggie Watts to co-headline in Lebanon in a show Nemr jokingly called "One Forehead. One Afro. Two Legends". The show sold out both nights at the Casino du Liban theatre to over 2,000 people.

On May 26, 2012 Nemr performed his feature special 'Victorious Secret' at the Zouk Roman Amphitheatre to a sold out crowd of more than 3,000 people. The show set the record for the biggest stand up comedy show in a single night in the Middle East. A promo of the show can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiZMmtgfyr8

In June Nemr launched his first TV show on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation titled: "A Stand Up Comedy Revolution". The show was a massive hit ranking number one in ratings in its time slot. The show went on for a full season of 11 episodes. However due to the inability of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation to handle such a unique show Nemr felt no desire to continue a season 2 with the network and ended his show.

On August 30, 2012 Nemr featured as the main guest on "Kalam Ennas" with host Marcel Ghanem. The show is considered to be the most influential political television show in Lebanon and the Middle East. The episode was a national success as it revealed a side of Nemr not many knew, at the end of the episode Nemr officially announced he would never make any appearance on Lebanese TV or print media again due to the incredible lack of professionalism he felt was a waste, with exception to the show "Kalam Ennas", which Nemr held in very high regard, and RAGMAG magazine. He also announced his initiative "Take Entertainment Back" which is currently struggling to succeed. Nemr has never appeared on TV or print media since. To watch the episode follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muSgqdGgIcI

Shows

Nemr did a promotional tour of seven Lebanese universities: NDU, LAU Jbeil,USJ(huvelain), AUB, and USEK with each show setting record attendance levels for each venue.[2]

Feature Specials:

Nemr is one of the first Arab stand up comedians to ever perform to all American audiences in English. He performed at some of the best comedy clubs in America, including The Improv. Nemr found great success in the four months he spent in the US, performing in front of American and Arab audiences. Nemr announced at the end of his last show, 'Made in the USA', that his next project is a full comedy series filmed and produced by Vanguard Productions, his own company. The show will unite stand up comedy and with filmed sketch comedy.

Mix Fm

In parallel, Nemr gained notoriety also for his work on his radio show, The Mix FM Phone Taps with Nemr [6] Which became the Middle Easts No. 1 concept show on the Middle Easts No. 1 Radio station, Mix FM 104.4, where he would call unsuspecting individuals and spend the duration of the phone call drawing them into one hilarious scenario after the other with different characters by way of his voice with many becoming names throughout the Middle East; most notably his Japanese character Mitsuragi in the famous phone tap on Burger King and many others such as Mick Fagger, John Di Maglile, I.P. Freely, Pep of his Si Max Tribe, and MC Chakich to name a few.[6]

Current work

Nemr is currently working on his seventh special and will soon be releasing 'Victorious Secret' and 'EPIC' on Blu-ray and DVD.

On April 30, 2016, Nemr performed to a record breaking 5500 people at Biel in Lebanon. It was part of his world tour, and included completely new material.

TV appearances

References

  1. ↑ "Nemr Abou Nassar's One-Man Lebanese Comedy Mission, Comedy Central Insider".
  2. ↑ "Nemr Abou Nassar".

External links

Sources

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