Dean Obeidallah

Dean Obeidallah
Born	Lodi, New Jersey, United States
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Theatre
Nationality	American
Years active	1990s - present
Genres	Satire/Political satire, Observational comedy, Muslim comedy
Subject(s)	American politics, American culture, current events, Middle East
Website	[1]

Dean Obeidallah (Arabic: دين عبيدالله) (b. 1969) is an Palestinian/Italian-American comedian, who was born in Lodi, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Paramus.. His father was born in Battir, Palestine, a small village near Bethlehem; his mother's parents were born in Sicily. He is part of a small but growing number of Middle Eastern-American comedians who have increasingly received media attention in the past few years, as they use comedy to both entertain and dispel negative stereotypes of Middle Eastern-Americans.

Like African-American comedians in the 1960s and 70s, Obeidallah and other Arab-American comics have been compared to the groundbreaking comedians who have used comedy to raise political and social issues in an effort to change them as noted by The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik:

"Just as comic Lenny Bruce battled the stifling conformity of the 1950s or Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor challenged racism in the '60s and '70s, these performers now are challenging mainstream notions about their ethnic, religious and racial groups."[2]

In 2005, Obeidallah received the first “Spirit of Bill Hicks” award, named in honor of the late comedian Bill Hicks[3] for “thought provoking comedy” from the NY Underground Comedy Festival [4] and the Hicks’ family.[5] He is co-producing with the Emmy award winning comedy writer and best-selling author Max Brooks[6] a new show entitled "The Watch List"[7] for Comedy Central's Internet channel. This is the first show ever produced by a major American entertainment company to showcase all Middle Eastern-American performers. Comedy Central[8] recently announced that they had green lit a pilot for a possible prime-time TV version of the show. Obeidallah has also appeared on Comedy Central on the critically acclaimed "Axis of Evil" Comedy special. [9]

He is also the co-founder of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, [10]. This highly-acclaimed, first of its kind five-day festival has received national and international media coverage. It is held annually each fall in New York City and showcases Arab-American comics, actors, playwrights and filmmakers.

Obeidallah is the co-creator of "Stand up for Peace" which he performs across the country with Jewish-American comedian Scott Blakeman. [11] “Stand Up for Peace” brings Muslim and Jews together through comedy in the hopes of fostering understanding and peace in the Middle East. He has also been featured on numerous national and international television programs including Comedy Central's "Axis of Evil" special and "The Watch List,"[12] , ABC's The View, "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen," PBS' Newshour with Jim Lehrer, ABC's 20/20, CNN's "Inside the Middle East" and Japan's NHK. He can also be seen on the upcoming PBS' documentary: "Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age"[13] which airs nationally on January 28, 2008. Dean can also be seen in the bonus feature of the DVD version of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the section entitled: Arab-American comedians. He has also been featured in various publications and radio networks including The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, BBC, Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, The Associated Press, Vanity Fair (Italian version) and Air America Radio.

In addition to appearing at hundreds of comedy clubs and colleges across the United States, Obeidallah has performed stand-up comedy in Dubai, Beirut, Haifa and Ramallah.

External links

• http://www.deanofcomedy.com/ - Dean Obeidallah's website
• http://www.myspace.com/deanofcomedy - Dean Obeidallah's My Space Page which includes video clips
• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=643130927/ - Dean Obeidallah's Facebook profile
• http://www.arabcomedy.org/ - NY Arab-American Comedy Festival official website
• http://www.standupforpeace.com - Stand up for Peace website
• interview from 2002
• Comedy Central's "The Watch List" Home page: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/watch_list/videos/season_1/index.jhtml
• http://www.newsweek.com/id/56656/ Newsweek article re: Dean Obeidallah
• Profile of Dean Obeidallah at the Institute for Middle East Understanding