Senior IT Specialist by Day, Stand-Up Comedian by Night - The Story of Comedy Stuff’s Hassan Hossam
Comedy Stuff is a platform specialising in stand-up comedy events and open-mics, started by Hassan Hossam and Tawfik ElMinshawy. I personally attended their stand-up comedy show on Saturday the 13th (which I enjoyed a ton), then we got a chance to sit and chat with Hassan Hossam last Sunday. Finally, we’ve come back to you with all the work and fun that goes on behind the scenes at Comedy Stuff.
Hassan is a 25-year-old senior IT specialist, cyber-security diploma holder and, most importantly, a comedian. He was first introduced to comedy in a workshop back in 2015 but, due to writer’s block making it difficult for him to come up with material, he went on hiatus till November of 2021, when his journey started to take shape.
When he first started, Hassan hoped for a platform that would support him as a young, new comedian; a platform that balances and merges the old and new faces in the scene, and that vision shaped Comedy Stuff to come to be. However, before comedy stuff, a platform that supported him at the beginning of his journey was Comedy Bunch!
Some of his fondest memories include his performance at a Comedy Bunch open-mic when he was accidentally introduced as Mohamed Moula –who was also in the lineup at the show– and despite the audience’s confusion, he still managed to create a comedic entrance, making fun of how different he –as Moula– looked that day.
But, before we start talking about young-adult-Hassan’s return to the scene, let’s talk about his memories as teenager-Hassan. Hassan’s friends are most supportive when it comes to his shows; they always expected him to do stand-up comedy one day. One major supporter of teen-Hassan was his high school English teacher: Mr Shrief Othman. Mr Sherief noticed Hassan’s talents and passion early on and used that to help him both; academically and comically. Whenever Hassan would get a high score on his tests, Mr Sherief would have him perform a stand-up set to his peers during break-time. His act of support has been engraved in Hassan’s heart as a fond memory since then.
Hassan debuted in the comedy scene doing offensive comedy which, when faced with an Egyptian audience, didn’t really go well. Last Ramadan, he got to perform at a Mohamed Helmy open-mic which, if you know anything about the Mohamed Helmy platform, you’ll realise that it is no small feat. During that show, Hassan was still a practicer of offensive comedy. And, also during that show, Hassan recalls that his jokes did not land and the audience did not laugh. Nevertheless, he contacted Mohamed Helmy and asked for a second chance at his next show to prove himself as a comic, which he got. This time around, Hassan went with family-friendly comedy, which in turn got a lot of laughs and applause from the audience. This became another fond memory that Hassan cannot forget about and it also became his turning point in becoming a family-friendly, storytelling comedian who constantly asks himself: “would you still perform this set if your mom was in the audience?”
Throughout his career as a comedian, Hassan noticed some 'constants':
A. open-mics’ audiences are friendlier and more prone to laugh than stand-up comedy audiences, as the latter are mostly there to support the performers, rather than just to be brought to laughter,
B. it is more difficult to perform at an event you organised than it is to only perform at an event,
C. material should constantly be upgraded; therefore Hassan always looks back at his performance after a show to enhance it and change it so that every show’s set would be different from the ones before,
D. there is little to no financial gain in this field, neither as a comic nor as a platform,
E. and that comedy’s like a sport, you need to practice your material every chance you get before a show.
This brings us to our next point; if comedy’s a sport that needs practice, then where is its court or gym? Well, dear reader, that’s what open-mics are for. Open-mics are, according to Hassan, not only a place for new comics to give comedy a shot, but also a place for practising comics to try their new material before any official show, aka a stand-up comedy event. This, in turn, makes open-mics for comics what a gym is for athletes. That being said, Comedy Stuff’s soonest event is an open-mic on Friday, the 9th of September, at Consoleya Coworking Space in Downtown Cairo.
You might think that starting and running a comedy platform in Egypt isn’t a big deal when, in fact, it is a massively huge deal. Not only does the organiser have to take responsibility for all the planning -from venue booking to inviting performers, marketing and much more- but they also take responsibility for all the comedians performing and all their misshapes. If any of them happens to say something that made the audience uncomfortable, the organisers are the ones to get reprimanded, not the comedians.
Typically, a stand-up comedy event would take around 2 weeks of preparation, therefore, Comedy Stuff tends to host around 1 event per month. During the preparation period, Hassan has to balance his morning job with his comedy career, that’s why he only does 'Comedy Stuff'-related tasks after work hours, most of which are phone calls. However, one downside of planning without visiting the venue was clear when, instead of booking the Room Art Space Garden City venue, they accidentally booked the Room Art Space New Cairo venue, which is larger in capacity and more difficult to book, for their first show. Another important thing when planning an event is to ensure that the poster and social media posts are creative and unique; similar to no other event, which is why Hassan is constantly thankful for having a talented graphic designer on the team.
Before every performance, Hassan has some rituals he likes to follow; he has to sleep well, shower and, most importantly, listen to Abd ElBasset Hamouda’s:
”يعجبني كلك ياوله كلك عاعجبني مافيش معلم هيحاسبني“
He also has to make sure that nobody would drain his energy or get him out of the zone. Afterwards, right before going on stage, he practices breathwork and does stretches for flexibility during the show; as comedy is a performance that’s all about delivery, both verbal and physical. Lastly, he makes sure to listen to some Holy Quran and says 'bismillah' as he goes on stage.
During the show itself, Hassan has to tell relatable material from a new POV that makes it funnier. He has to guide the audience into picturing the people, places and events as he tells his storytelling jokes. “Ali Kandil once told me that a comic is like a sniper,” Hassan told us, “he has to see things from a different perspective and notice when an opportunity presents itself for crowd-work.” He also recalled something his friend Amgad ElShawshy said to him before; “your material has to be like a bouquet of flowers, خد من كل بستان زهرة,” meaning that his material should contain varied jokes for a varied audience.
When we asked Hassan about his favourite moments from his comedy career, he told us about the first time he was ever introduced on stage. When introducing him, Alaa ElShiekh said, "انا حافظت اسمك علشان هو لذيذ.” He then told us about his chat with Salma ElNajjar, his friend and a really good stand-up comedian, back in November of 2021, when he told her that he wanted to return to the scene, she told him that whether to enter or reenter it, one needs to look at what’s currently in “السوق” because you cannot tell a joke or material that was told before, and you cannot tell a punchline that another comic uses. The comedy scene is similar to the rap scene in this aspect, no two artists can use the same words.
Lastly, when asked about his advice to those interested in joining the comedy scene, Hassan told us that one needs to practice comedy before they can start a comedy platform,
"الشغلانة الي ماكنتش فيها صبي، عمرك ما هتبقى فيها معلم"
“We (stand-up comedians) always welcome whoever wants to start doing comedy, and we want to offer them as much help as we can. All that’s important is to love doing comedy and understand its different aspects as it is a double-edged sword; you can either get great feedback from the audience which, in turn, makes you feel like you’re on cloud nine, or you can get no feedback and feel like you hit rock-bottom, so you need to ensure that you’re in a headspace where you won’t assess yourself as a comedian using one show; you need to use about 10 shows to assess whether you’ve been getting better throughout them, staying stagnant, or going downhill.
But most importantly, this can all be calculated based on the audiences’ feedback; the best thing about stand-up comedy is that there is no ‘مجاملة’ in it, you’re either good, so people are laughing and you’re happy, or you’re bad and it’s obvious because you can tell from the audience’s silence,’ودي ربنا ما يكتبها على حد‘
For those who want to start, open-mics are everywhere, sign up for them and you’ll gain experience, plus it is extremely fun! A lot of platforms besides Comedy Stuff host open-mics: Comedy Bunch, Beit El Comedy, Slapsticks Comedy, and much more!”
In the end, we would like to recap for you Hassan and Comedy Stuff’s upcoming events:
1. Stand-up Comedy Workshop, in collaboration with your favourite arts platform sugarfreetalks, online on Friday the 2nd of September,
2. An Open-Mic Event at Consoleya in Downtown Cairo on Friday the 9th of September,
3. And their Vol. 2 of the Stand-up Comedy Show at Room Art Space in New Cairo on Saturday the 24th of September.
Finally, we would like to thank Hassan as we’ve truly enjoyed our chat with him; we laughed and felt inspired by his journey, and we definitely enjoyed Comedy Stuff’s show in Rawabet Art Space, where we first met him. Hassan proved to us that comedy is much more than what meets the eye, and it’s an art that requires a lot of work and preparation. We have high hopes for the stand-up comedy scene in Egypt as it gains more and more popularity, and knowing that its future is in the hands of people like Hassan ensures that.