Shawn Chidiac: Vouching for comedy in the Middle East

“In Dubai, everyone is some version of themselves. When you go back home that’s the real you. If you don’t go often enough, you lose your essence”. Born in Montreal, the renowned comedian Shawn Chidiac has been visiting Lebanon every summer since he was one year old, and most of his family live here. Prior to their divorce, his parents moved to Dubai to stay close to Lebanon seeing as they’re a tight-knit family.

Honing his craft

Moving from 60-second Instagram reels to selling out the Dubai Opera in five days was a massive leap for Shawn, one not without its stumbles. The biggest rookie mistake was during his first live stand-up. He wasn’t prepared for it as he thought he was meeting a comedian, and next thing he knew he was called to perform. He got heckled within the first two minutes. “I got nervous and tried to rush off the stage, it was very embarrassing”, admits Shawn.

As fate would have it, eight shows later in the same venue, a packed bar in JBR, a more confident Shawn used Jimmy Carr’s comeback to put the very same heckler in her place. The Indian woman, who made it a habit of obnoxiously heckling comedians, left the place in disbelief. After that night, the bar closed, making it an even more memorable triumph in his career.

A knack for accents

Comedy has always been Shawn’s dream since he was seven years old. It kicked into full gear when he quit his job as Marketing Director for a software company in 2023.

In Dubai, there were a lot of limitations in the comedy scene seeing as it had a bad reputation. When he first started, he never got a break and had to do his own shows, pitching himself to venue owners, asking for their slowest night. Eventually, he managed to change the outlook on stand-up comedy.

Accents were a direct way into the hearts of his audience, Filipino, Indian and Iranian in particular. “If I’m at a restaurant and I overhear an accent coming from an eccentric character, my ear virtually pivots. Immediately there’s nothing I want to do but listen to that person”.

For instance, he started a series about white people in America. He watched them complain to their neighbors about silly matters. “Hey John, this is on my side of the road, if you want to dispose of it”. The neighbor was speaking of a leaf.

In a career solidifying move, Shawn changed his handle from "Laughing in Arabic" to "My Parents are Divorced" to be more personal.

The polished version is what I thought people wanted me to be; the unhinged version is what I thought I wanted to be. The truth was somewhere in between.

He’s just trying to make people happy with his comedy, since it’s what makes him happy.

Comedy as a coping mechanism

One time, Shawn got into an avoidable car accident. He had received bad news about his grandparents’ health, making it an atrocious day. Being far away annoys him, knowing that his mere presence would make them happy. Adding insult to injury, he had lost a big project at work because of someone else’s mistake. The car accident was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

In that moment, something in his chest started to build up. One of two things was going to happen, either he was going to lose his marbles, or what actually happened: he looked down and very calmly whispered the first thing that came out of his mouth. “You f**in stooped”. The line was from a video that he constantly shared with his friends of an Indian guy telling everyone “F**in stooped”. He laughed and the tension was diffused.

Now with this life hack, whenever he’s having a bad day, he’ll say these magic words.

A memory dear to Shawn’s heart is when his two best friends came to his home in Bsharreh where they reconciled after a falling out. The fight was inconceivable because they had been best friends for more than twenty years.  “We have a photo a bit lower than Qornet El Sawda where you just see clouds”, recalls Shawn fondly. Staying at Shawn’s and relishing in the Cedar forest had been their routine every summer, except in 2006.

Lebanon has always been a place for healing.

Try and try again

The most important thing in Shawn’s book is to try different experiences, being the only way to figure things out. “It’s not an age thing, it’s a personality problem that I see with a lot of people, they’re not willing to at least try. Your ego can live in the past, but it is the death of your present and future”, says Shawn.

A milestone in his career was the Dubai Opera. Up until that point, Shawn and his team had organized all his shows, and he welcomed the new experience.

He has performed all over the world, from London to North America. Nonetheless, his second milestone was headlining at the Casino Du Liban last year, because of the weight it carries with every Lebanese, even with its chairs since his parents’ time.

If I’m doing it for my own selfish success, at some point it will run out. Helping the next generation while I’m in it is more impactful than simply selling out shows.

He strives for something bigger than himself, to create a comedy community with a real club, committed to staying and building in the region while touring abroad. “In the Middle East, we’ve been at war with everyone since the beginning of time. We need comedy the most. Laughter is healing”.