\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLouis C.K. is explaining why he decided to take part in Saudi Arabia\u2018s Riyadh Comedy Festival.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring his Friday appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher<\/em>, he defended his choice to perform at the comedy festival that has stirred up controversy since it kicked off last Friday. The topic of comics being prohibited to not make jokes about certain themes came up in his conversation with Bill Maher, to which C.K. said the fellow comedians he know who have been at the fest have \u201cbeen really surprised by what\u2019s going on.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I\u2019m talking to the other comedians who have been there, they\u2019ve been really surprised by what\u2019s going on. There\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 he said. \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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tC.K. continued, \u201cAnd when this came up, they said there\u2019s only two restrictions \u2014 their religion and their government, 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\tRiyadh Fest began Sept. 26 and will end Oct. 9. Alongside C.K., Bill Burr,\u00a0Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Carr,\u00a0Kevin Hart,\u00a0Pete Davidson,\u00a0Whitney Cummings, Russell Peters, Gabriel Iglesias and\u00a0Andrew Schulz, among others, are featured on the lineup. <\/p>\n \n\tLast week, Atsuko Okatsuka shared details from her offer to appear at Riyadh, which outlined \u201ccensorship rules\u201d against performing jokes on outlined topics. David Cross, too, slammed those who chose to perform, writing on his website, \u201cI am disgusted, and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing. That people I admire, with unarguable talent, would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for\u2026what, a fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tBefore that, Marc Maron spoke out against those participating in the comedy festival.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI mean, how do you even promote that? You know, like, \u2018From the folks that brought you 9\/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don\u2019t miss it!\u2019\u201d Maron said. \u201cI mean, the same guy that\u2019s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone saw [journalist] Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase. But don\u2019t let that stop the yucks, it\u2019s gonna be a good time!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Emmy winner acknowledged the wider conversation about the festival. \u201cI had mixed feelings about it too. I struggled about going once I heard what everybody was saying,\u201d C.K. said. \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\tC.K. added, \u201cI love stand-up comedy, and I love comedians. So, the fact that that\u2019s opening 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\tThe six-time Emmy winner is slated to perform at Riyadh Fest on Monday alongside Carr. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Louis C.K. is explaining why he decided to take part in Saudi Arabia\u2018s Riyadh Comedy Festival. During his Friday appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, he defended his choice to perform at the comedy festival that has stirred up controversy since it kicked off last Friday. The topic of comics being prohibited to not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[15581,2512,2086,1172,3639,6717,12838],"class_list":{"0":"post-25830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-c-k","9":"tag-comedy","10":"tag-defends","11":"tag-fest","12":"tag-louis","13":"tag-performing","14":"tag-riyadh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}