Omar Hussein

Omar Hussein
Born (1986-05-21) May 21, 1986
United States
Medium Stand-up, YouTube
Nationality Saudi American
Years active 2009 – Present
Genres Observational comedy, Satire, Character comedy, Improvisational comedy

Omar Hussein (Arabic: عمر حسين‎‎; born May 21, 1986) is a comedian who found his stage on YouTube. He was the CEO of UTURN entertainment and then he left to continue his studies. His show Al-Tayer, based on local humor, has drawn hundreds of thousands of hits. He's part of a growing trend where comedians and citizen journalists are using social media as a platform to address the two-thirds of the Saudi population under 30. These online celebrities are pushing the barriers of society through their popular, but sometimes controversial talk shows.[1][2]

3al6ayer Show

3al6ayer is, first of all, Omar Hussein, the show’s charismatic 30 years old presenter and produced and distributed by UTURN entertainment. Omar started as a young stand-up comedian a few years back, touring with others all over the country doing several shows. He then started this YouTube show, aiming at doing something new. The Saudi online community is pretty considerable and very active. Therefore, there was a lot of room for newer concepts on the net.

What better than comedy to convey social criticism and make people think, without necessarily upsetting them? This is what Hussein decided to do with his show. With it, the way was opened to talk about all topics imaginable, since nothing like that had been done before. In addition to that, 3al6ayer had more freedom than programs on the radio, TV or written articles, since it is harder to censor independent online shows.

This is how the first 3al6ayer (“As it Goes”) episode from September 2010 starts, setting the tone of the series which has become a huge success in Saudi Arabia. The country has been the scene of a mini revolution of YouTube comedy shows gathering millions of viewers. 3al6ayer, with its 16 million viewers, is one of the most popular of them.[3]

References

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