Laughing matters: Refugees forge links through the art of comedy

In Athens, a handful of novice standups are at the mic after taking part in a series of comedy workshops. One of the organisers, Vasileia Vaxevani, compares the experience to the first time you have sex. "It ends quickly. It hurts a little.

- Dalia Al-Dujaili

But you definitely know that you want to do it again." Migration is the uncharacteristically hilarious topic at the heart of this show, which is produced by Counterpoint Arts and performed by refugees and asylum seekers as part of Refugee Week. It had a theme this year of "healing". In an audience as diverse as this gig's, and in a country that has seen communities divide as a result of polarised responses to migration, the versatility of that theme is manifest.

The award-winning British comedian Tom Parry, who has helped deliver similar workshops and gigs for the No Direction Home programme since 2018, led facilitators in Athens and Lesbos in teaching the infamously nerve-racking art of standup comedy. Speaking to migrants and non-migrants alike, he told them over Zoom that "you don't need to be funny, you just have to be interesting".

On a warm afternoon on Lesbos we watch Salim Nabi, once an Afghan refugee and now a Canadian resident, perform in the finale of another series of workshops, co-produced with Miguel Selvelli of Nepantla Border Cultures.