The Laughter Factory puts Abu Dhabi stop on ice – for now

Adam Bloom.

One of the highlights of my month for several years now has been heading down to the Crown Plaza on Hamdan Street to gather with some friends for what I always know will be a night of chuckles: three comedians from the west brought in for a little Gulf tour courtesy of The Laughter Factory.

And not only were these nights almost always hilarious, at least at some point, they were frequently fairly un-PC, in an atypical-of-the-UAE-way – and that was fun too, for the crowd of expatriates who turned out. All for Dh140.

From August 7 through until Thursday, audiences at locations around Dubai are being treated to jokes from Adam Bloom, Alan Fothergill and Matt Rees. The Abu Dhabi date? It’s been put on ice, for now. (As, it appears, has Doha).

When we checked, Uzma Khan from Laughter Factory explained that attendance had been low in Abu Dhabi. However, instead of scrapping the capital off the tour list entirely, organisers are going to focus on Dubai for a while and revisit the city as a destination later down the road.

Boo, Laughter Factory. Not funny. Not funny at all.