Of all the forms of performance art you are involved in, which is your favourite and why?
That’s like asking a guy if Angelina Jolie is hotter than Scarlett Johansson! Everything is gorgeous. On a scale, standup (comedy) scares me the most, but a good night is a huge buzz! Theatre will always be my first love. Poetry is when I say goodbye to my body and leave my soul out there. Improv is where I feel most in control. But you know what they say about falling in love with the camera…cinema is perhaps my worst addiction.
What do you consider is your best performance?
I feel deep down inside all performers are either overtly arrogant or tremendously insecure. And it does boil down to the narcissism inside of us. I fall in the latter category. There are so many performances (and I say this in all humility) where I could have done so much different and better. So picking a ‘best’ really isn’t on.
If I was picking a list of ‘decent’ performances, I would rate my cameo in Nawaf Al Janahi’s ‘Sea Shadow’, my role in Hana Makki’s ‘The Journey’, Improv Revolution’s ‘Leap Year Show’ and StarTOO’s ‘What Art Thou Wearing’.
How do you prepare for a role?
I think preparing for a role is something I sometimes enjoy even more than the actual role. I believe in method so everything about a character has to be learnt, observed, done and internalized…for as long and as deep as possible.
When I was auditioning for ‘Sea Shadow’, I drove to RAK where the movie is set just to get a feel of what the barber there behaves like, what the town feels and spend a day there. In ‘The Journey’, the role was that of a taxi driver and I insisted on becoming at home with the car. I took passengers, dropped them off and even refused some!
I give myself music cues for my headspace, have shaved my head bald for a role so the wig could look more ‘authentic’, set myself on fire in the closing scene of a play…everything!
Have you always known that the performing arts would be a big part of your life?
I guess deep down inside I always did. However, as a child, I sucked at most things I participated in, messing my lines or breaking things on set in school plays, walking out of elocutions because I was crazy scared…you name it, I’d NOT done it!
Something inside of me snapped when I rebelled, walked out of my math exam and purposely flunked my high school so I wouldn’t have a chance to become an engineer. Switching over to literature, I landed on the university stage on my second day. And never really left it!
Is it true when they say that actors are always broke?
That’s probably because we spend all our money on clothes and gadgets! Jokes aside, I don’t have a car or a house, but I have a dream. And I live it. Money will come. And it will go. I do what my heart loves, and we all get by, with a little help from our friends!
Crystal ball
I’ve been blessed with some fantastic teachers in the UAE. Mina Liccione and Ali Al Sayed on comedy, Miranda Davidson on Stanislavski, Sol Abiad on French performance theatre, Frank Dullaghan and Hind Shoufani on spoken word. Whatever happens in the next 5 years, inshallah, will be debt repayment to the investment they have made in me, not just as teachers but as friends as well. And if along the way I can help people smile, laugh, cry a cathartic sob, so be it!
