"I used to be afraid of not being funny"

Qantara: You moved to Paris three years ago and now regularly perform in French, as well as Arabic and English. How did you adapt your comedy to a new language and city? 

Mustafa Jorry: I used to be afraid of not being funny in different languages. Being funny is something you accumulate, and I didn’t think I would have time to do it again! But when you live in a new context you automatically absorb new aspects of humour. Since I arrived in Paris, the range of what I find funny has broadened. My humour works differently depending on whether I joke in Sudanese Arabic, for a broader Arabic audience, in English or French.  

Practically, it helped a lot when I got accepted into a theatre school in 2023. I am the oldest student there and hanging out with younger peers teaches you so much about their humour. As a comedian, you just have to listen and learn. 

I also had to adapt my comedy and sense of humour for the Arabic-speaking audience here. When I first performed in Paris in Sudanese Arabic, some people laughed but told me afterwards that they only understood half of what I said! 

You are part of an Arabic comedy collective in Paris, 14De7k. How did you get involved? 

It was founded by two comedians from Syria and Lebanon in 2023. The name itself is a wordplay in Lebanese Arabic, it means “mort de rire” (“dying from laughter”). I joined them later that year and since then we have achieved a lot together. There are five of us now and we host two shows and an open mic session per week, some in English and some in Arabic.  

More than 50 comedians have performed with us, including some non-Arab artists who chose to perform in Arabic. It’s so impressive to me that someone from China, France or the US can be funny in Arabic.  

This month in Paris, you will share a stage with Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef. How did you get to know him?

We met two years ago when Bassem was filming a documentary about Arab comedians in Europe. He came to Paris and it was on the set of that film that I became friends with the 14De7k crew. The documentary is still a work in progress but the connection between Bassem and I will be revived during his European tour.  

The venue has 2,000 seats, how do you prepare for a show like that?  

As a comedian, it’s wise to prepare independently of your expectations about the audience. I come up with different lines of jokes. I start by testing the first joke and wait for their reaction—if they like it, you can go further.

Do you expect the audience to be mainly Egyptian? 

I think Bassem’s audience has broadened a lot and is less Egyptian-dominated. Many Egyptians celebrated his show "Al Bernameg" in Egypt before he had to shut it down in 2014. For some of his old fans, his work since then has been less convincing. In Paris, I’d assume most of the audience will be Arabs from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. I’m excited to find out! 

An Arabic-speaking crowd includes a lot of different target audiences. Are there any reliable strategies to entertain all of them at once?  

One strategy is to draw on inter-Arab prejudices—there are 22 Arab nations, so it gives you a boundless repertoire of jokes.  

Addressing Arabs as one doesn’t really work in a show because there are always people who reject the idea of a shared Arab identity. Instead, people like to refer to some ancient or other culture that they claim to belong to: for Sudanese it’s Nubians, for Lebanese it’s Phoenicians. I’d even say that people use these references to feel superior to other Arabs—also a great starting point for jokes! 

The next strategy is inter-Arab misunderstandings. For example, in Sudanese Arabic the otherwise universal Arabic word for “cumin” actually means “black sesame”. I like to joke that this mix-up happened because of the wrong packaging. It’s funny, but I also get to educate people about the Sudanese dialect a little bit.   

In addition to live shows, social media has been a key platform for you. How has your social media audience changed since you came to France? 

I like to see my audience as a constantly changing crowd. Last month, for example, 2,000 people unfollowed me and 4,000 new followers joined. I don’t have preferences about who my audience is as long as we laugh at the same jokes and share basic values. 

There might be people in Sudan who feel that they are my original audience. Some of them felt entitled to criticise me when I posted a picture from one of my shows, for example, in which a female comedian had her hand on my shoulder. But I see that kind of entitlement as a misunderstanding.  

How much of your social media content is about Sudan today? 

I put out some videos in French and English, trying to raise awareness about the war in Sudan—many people don’t even know where Sudan is. I don’t do this kind of content in Arabic—it’s like preaching to the converted.  

I do have videos that are addressed to my Sudanese followers, in which I speak Sudanese and don’t give much context. For example, last year, when the RSF broke into my family’s home, for the second time since the beginning of the war, I made a joke in a video about who gave them the keys. Only people who know the context would get the full meaning. 

There is a French saying, attributed to comedian Pierre Desproges: “You can laugh about everything, but not with everyone”. Do you agree?  

Desproges was talking about taboos, and it resonates with my own experiences performing for conservative audiences. Once, we had a woman in the front row who covered her ears during my friend’s set—imagine! 

Something similar happened at our show in December, “Blasphemy”. Four audience members walked out, offended from the very first minute. Since the show was sold out, that’s not many, but still—the word “Blasphemy” was written in huge letters on all the posters! 

I agree with Desproges but would also say that certain jokes simply fail to provoke any reaction in certain audiences, while other audiences might remember it as a great joke. In a way, I make my living from consciously switching between these different comedy contexts.