Baladi - Coverage
Standing in front of an audience of more than 100 people, 21-year-old Syrian comedian Omar Mohammad jokes about his mother's harsh discipline, trips to the cinema with friends, and desperately trying to get a girl to like him when he first moved to Istanbul.
"I want people to know Syrians away from the news," he says.
On this Wednesday night, Mohammad has organised an event - Halalarious Stand-Up Comedy - where people from across the world take the stage to perform a mix of improv and stand-up.
He has been performing stand-up for two years in the bustling city of Istanbul, finding humour in sombre subjects including the refugee trail, the dangers of going out to sea, and integrating into Turkish culture.
"If it wasn't for my refugee background, if it wasn't for all the experiences that happened to me … I would have never had material to get on stage."
Mohammad left with his family in 2012, first moving to Iraq. His father became ill, so it was down to Mohammad to support the family, working 14-hour days as a janitor at a furniture company.
Mohammad said he cried every day.
Eventually, his family went to Turkey and immediately headed towards the coast, hoping to get to Greece.
On the second attempt, his family was robbed at gunpoint.
It was then - on his knees, fearing for the lives of his mother and younger siblings - that he promised himself never to be sad again if they made it out alive.
They did, and Mohammad told his family he would build a life for himself in Istanbul instead of attempting to go to Europe again.
He was inspired to try stand-up comedy after watching performers on Youtube. In August 2016, he did his first performance at an open-mic night.
"I talk about being a refugee. I joke about it a lot and a lot of Syrian people get angry at me because I'm joking about Syrian refugees … [but] I'm always just showing the different point of view of a Syrian refugee," Mohammad says.
"People who were, let's say, disagreeing with me or didn't like it, slowly started to like it because they were also laughing."
Mohammad says he organises his own Arab-themed nights in the hope of showing Syrians beyond the headlines.
Farah Hallaba, a 22-year-old university student who attended the Halalarious show, said such events increase her understanding of the refugee experience on a more personal level.
"Making fun of their own tragic realities, it's definitely breaking the stereotypes … You're more tempted to hear the story this way than on the news," she says.
Source: Al Jazeera