Mideast not funny? Four comics are working on it

A troupe of three Jews and a Palestinian aims to promote understanding through laughter.

CHICAGO -- Comic Ray Hanania nervously paced backstage at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and occasionally peeked around the velvet curtains to gauge the mood of the school's packed theater.

The downtown audience -- Arab businessmen, a Palestinian professor, Jewish students and Israeli families -- glanced curiously at one another and quietly chatted in their seats. Some fidgeted nervously.

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But the comics insist that, during times of intense stress, people are hungry for the chance to laugh."We're a bunch of comedians. We're not going to solve anything. We're not going to cause peace," said Warady, who moved from the U.S. to Israel in 1996. "What we want people to understand, and to point out, is that the fighting is stupid."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-comics22jan22,1,960324.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

Laughing together is one of the ways of coming together - and if this group *can* make more people on all sides realize the fighting is stupid, then they are doing some good!

i saw them in israel last year...(they really werent that funny)... a couple of good jokes but on the whole.....not so hot.

I'm just surprised they get along at all ...