Hamad Al Amari is a Qatari Comedian who was raised in Ireland and the USA. This cultural background gives him an intuitive grasp of different ways of life. He shared with The Dialogue his thoughts on how he tries to use Comedy and his gift for bringing audiences together to bridge cultural gaps.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Next on The Dialogue, we meet a comedian from Qatar who's lived in America and Ireland with a gift for bringing audiences together.
00:11I'm a cat in three. I want to hear you make some noise. One, two, three.
00:18Hamad's life has been forged from a melting pot of different cultures. His work is infused with an intuitive grasp of different ways of life.
00:32I'm Hamad Alamari. I'm a comedian, presenter, producer, a father, a brother, a son.
00:48Hey, great to see you. Good to see you. How are you doing?
00:50Yeah, I'm good.
00:51Well, thanks for the invite.
00:52Thanks for joining us on The Dialogue in this conspicuously Irish setting.
00:59I know. To be sure, to be sure.
01:02And like culture, you've got fascinating cultural backgrounds. You're from Qatar, but you've got links to Ireland and the U.S. as well.
01:11And you once said to me off camera that you kind of always feel a bit like a foreigner wherever you are.
01:20Yeah.
01:21Is that still the case? And why is that?
01:23A hundred percent, yeah. I think the Qataris in the world that we were in was me and my brothers and sisters.
01:33And then same again in Ireland. So I was kind of schizophrenic almost.
01:39You know, you'd have friends who are Irish and then a community that were Muslim.
01:43And then you had the Arabs who were not from the Middle East area, but like North African Arabs.
01:49Whoever you were with, you were never a part of.
01:52So being able to kind of say, oh, I'm Arab.
01:56And then you meet the Arabs in the area and go, oh, you're not.
01:58And then you come back here and it's like, oh, I'm Qatari.
02:00And they're like, no, you're not.
02:02But yeah, it's, you know, I think it's made me interesting enough for us to have this conversation.
02:11For that reason, we're very, we're very grateful.
02:13And then, and then 2011, you come back to Qatar.
02:17Yeah.
02:17And I think you said something like you had to learn what it meant to be you here.
02:24I think I'm still learning what it means to be me.
02:27It isn't me today.
02:29And it's a constant journey of learning.
02:32But back then it was because of the different influences that I've taken in from everywhere.
02:38At the end of the day, I am a Qatari and I identify as a Qatari and this is my family and this is where I'm from.
02:43And so I had to relearn and I was actively learning about my culture.
02:48So I would ask things like, what does this mean?
02:50What does that mean?
02:51Why do we behave like this?
02:52Why do we kiss noses?
02:55You know, like, what does, what do all of these mean?
02:59And thankfully I got answers and then I was, there's a lot that I loved.
03:04So I shared and yeah, it led me to where we are today.
03:09And you're a comedian, producer, presenter, extraordinaire.
03:16But, you know, is it from looking at life and looking at those idiosyncrasies
03:22and those things that affect all of us as part of a family or, you know, in an office?
03:27Is it that that you get your ideas from?
03:30In Qatari, there's like 120 or 140 nationalities that live here.
03:36So there's always room for jokes.
03:39There's always room for understanding people and just kind of observing how they interact, you know.
03:46So most of my material comes from, you know, what I engage with and what I interact with
03:53and try and then spin off on that.
03:58And even like recently after the World Cup finished, like took a very well-deserved holiday.
04:03And then I went to Syria and Turkey for the earthquake just to kind of help out and volunteer.
04:10And even in those moments, there's some funny stories, you know, like, and you can see like
04:17there was people that I met that literally lost everything, not just possessions, family members, friends.
04:24And I don't know if it's shock, it might have been, but they're just, they're sitting down.
04:31We're having conversations and they're laughing.
04:35So I don't know.
04:37I think I went to study the human body in university anatomy and hopefully go into medicine.
04:43And then I realized, no, I'm more of a, you know, social kind of interactions.
04:51What is this really all about, you know?
04:54Oh my goodness, this is officially the biggest stage I've ever been on.
04:59It's the first time that the World Cup comes to the Arab world.
05:10So Hamad, millions of people will remember you as the host of the FIFA World Cup fan festivals.
05:18I remember being there, amazing atmosphere.
05:20In fact, I remember one night you getting down off stage and intervening to help my daughter to snap her out of a preteen tantrum.
05:31Other than sorting out shown family squabbles, what were your memories of that amazing time?
05:36Oh man, where do I even start?
05:39Like that's like a once in a lifetime thing.
05:40That's never going to happen again.
05:41There was two million people there over a month.
05:44And there was just a lot of love that was around in the air.
05:48But yeah, there's so many memories.
05:50The artists from around the world, engaging with so many people.
05:54I'll never get over how big it was.
05:57I mean, football really does bring a lot of people together.
06:00There was a general embrace of what it means to be, you know, in this region.
06:05And the Arab heritage and culture and identity was on show for everyone.
06:10And talking about identity, do you see yourself as some kind of cultural translator?
06:16I think I never did, but I ended up working on a show called Q-Tips.
06:23It wasn't any kind of how-to guide in a sense of, you know, it was more lighthearted, three-minute videos of what Qataris do.
06:31This is called a misbah, also known as a sibha.
06:37Pens!
06:38Why are they so important?
06:39And why do we always carry them?
06:42I'm going to be talking about arts and crafts, Qatari ones.
06:46And yeah, over time, I think I just became like the cultural bridge for, you know, like, oh, just get him in, he'll tell you.
06:55This is called a rita.
06:58This is called a igal.
07:01This is a sob.
07:03And now you're back here.
07:05Yeah.
07:05In Qatar.
07:06Indeed.
07:07The successful World Cup's over.
07:09Yeah.
07:10What next for Hamad, for Qatar?
07:14What are your expectations of the future, Hamad?
07:18I mean, I can't say much about Qatar, but, like, they've done, they've proven that they can host global events.
07:25They've proven that it's a good destination for people to come and visit, people want to come back, which is great, right?
07:29But for me, I'm just working on my comedy, you know, in production, working on things like that.
07:37But my true love is stand-up, so just working on making sure we tighten that up, and hopefully someone will buy it.
07:47Well, mate, I'm sure that'll happen.
07:48Thanks so much for joining us on the show.
07:49Is it too hot for a man hug?
07:51No, no, definitely.
07:53There's always room for a man hug.
07:54Thanks so much for joining us on the show, my man.