{"id":276386,"date":"2025-10-04T05:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/276386\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T05:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:35:10","slug":"louis-c-k-had-mixed-feelings-before-riyadh-comedy-festival-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/276386\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis C.K. Had “Mixed Feelings” Before Riyadh Comedy Festival Gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLouis C.K.<\/a> is the latest comedian to address his decision to perform at Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u2018s inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the comedian appeared Friday on Real Time<\/a>, he explained he had \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about participating in the controversial festival, but has come to see it as \u201ca positive thing,\u201d despite backlash from many of his comedy peers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to them, the comedians who\u2019ve been there, and they\u2019ve been really surprised by what\u2019s going on,\u201d he told host Bill Maher<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a woman who\u2019s a lesbian and Jewish, who did a show there, and she got a standing ovation. So, there\u2019s stuff going on that\u2019s unexpected in this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tC.K. continued, \u201cPeople have been playing Saudi Arabia for years. Comedians have been going and playing Arab countries, there was a film festival there recently, it\u2019s kind of opened up. But I\u2019ve always said no to Arab countries. I do shows everywhere \u2026 and when this came up, they said there\u2019s only two restrictions; their religion and their government, and I don\u2019t have jokes about those two things. It used to be when I got offers from places like that, there would be a long list, and I\u2019d just say, \u2018No, I don\u2019t need that.\u2019 But when I heard it\u2019s opening, I thought, that\u2019s awfully interesting. That just feels like a good opportunity. And I just feel like comedy is a great way to get in and start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNoting he plans to go to a comedy club his first night in Saudi Arabia and meet local comedians, C.K. said, \u201cI love stand-up comedy, and I love comedians. So, the fact that that\u2019s starting to open up and starting to bud, I wanna see it, I wanna be part of it. I think that\u2019s a positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater in the interview, C.K. added, \u201cI think the whole discussion is worthy. I\u2019m glad these guys brought this stuff up, I\u2019m glad that people are challenging this thing, because you shouldn\u2019t just pretend it\u2019s something it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had mixed feelings about it too. I struggled about going once I heard what everybody was saying,\u201d he confessed. \u201cThere\u2019s some good in it, maybe some bad in it. But for me, I think it cuts toward going. That\u2019s my decision, and I know where it\u2019s coming from, because I can see right inside myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOther comedians have recently called out their peers<\/a> who have agreed to perform, noting Saudi officials\u2019 roles in 9\/11 and the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the human rights abuses committed by Saudi minister of entertainment, Turki Al-Sheikh, who is behind the festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tHuman Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea explained to CBS News<\/a>, \u201cThe Saudi government has invested billions into high profile entertainment events like these in a deliberate effort to whitewash the country\u2019s human rights record and deflect from the egregious abuses that continue to happen inside of the country.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese investments are a part of the broader strategy to\u2026 have people thinking about a comedy event, for example, rather than the soaring number of executions that are happening inside of the country,\u201d added Shea.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince Deadline exclusively announced the initial lineup<\/a> in July, the Riyadh Comedy Festival has grown to include Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Hannibal Buress, Jack Whitehall, Zarna Garg, Gabriel Iglesias, Jim Jefferies, Jo Koy, Bobby Lee, Jeff Ross, Andrew Santino, Tom Segura, Chris Tucker and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis C.K. is the latest comedian to address his decision to perform at Saudi Arabia\u2018s inaugural Riyadh Comedy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4087,171,46602,4088,134989,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-276386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bill-maher","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-louis-c-k","11":"tag-real-time-with-bill-maher","12":"tag-riyadh-comedy-festival","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115314276825535563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}