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.
Comments