{"id":5859,"date":"2016-09-01T16:37:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T14:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/?p=5859"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:44:03","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T14:44:03","slug":"marwan-younis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/?p=5859","title":{"rendered":"Marwan Younis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crafting Brilliantly Relatable Comedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing says a perfect sleepover like a staying up late watching Marwan Younis videos and laughing ourselves to sleep. After uploading a rant to his Facebook, Marwan woke up to stardom he never intended for. The avant-guarde comedian who accidentally gained national fame knows exactly how we feel and manifests it in uproarious rant-humour.<\/p>\n

How and when did you become internet famous?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I became internet famous after creating and posting my first \u201cBegad\u201d<\/em> (seriously) video as a reaction to the Egyptian journalist notoriously known to have asked the all famous question \u201cwhat about your first Oscar for you?\u201d I woke up that day and it was the first thing I saw on my newsfeed. I couldn\u2019t help myself and decided to rant about it in a video. Little did I know that I had said exactly what half of the population wanted to say! To my surprise, the video spread like wildfire reaching a million views.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What is the nature of your field of study?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I studied Architecture but only worked as an architect a few days because the jobs I found at the time where extremely disappointing. Instead, I decided to pursue a career in a more creative field. I got into advertising as a graphic designer and worked my way up. I\u2019m currently a creative director at FP7 Cairo.<\/p>\n

If it hadn\u2019t been for social media, what would you be doing now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social media still hasn\u2019t completely changed my life. Yes, I have become a little famous, but everything is still the same.\u00a0 I\u2019m still a creative director, a father and a musician. But then again, who knows\u2026<\/p>\n

Did you ever intend for your videos to go viral?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh no! I am still overwhelmed about the whole thing. I can\u2019t deny that it is a satisfying feeling and it\u2019s quite the thrill, but it was never my intention.<\/p>\n

Is producing comedy your main source of income?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Producing comedy isn\u2019t even a source of income. My source of income is advertising. But a lot of opportunities in the comedy and entertainment business keep popping up, and maybe one day when the right time comes I might shift careers and pursue comedy, entertainment or even acting.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How has your fame helped you with your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little bit. Fame is a great icebreaker with my clients and removes the layer of awkwardness between us, but so far that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

Do you perform stand-up comedy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I have never done that, and I believe that it requires a different set of skills, but I\u2019m willing to explore.<\/p>\n

What is Egyptian comedy missing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wit. Egyptian comedy relies on jokes and slapstick. We are missing well-crafted dialogues and a strong plot rather than an actor who just throws a bunch of jokes here and there throughout the entire film.<\/p>\n

Tell us your favourite:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Comedian<\/strong>: Eddie Murphy<\/p>\n

TV show:<\/strong> Black Mirrors<\/p>\n

Useless activity:<\/strong> People watching<\/p>\n

Do you prepare what you\u2019ll talk about for a video or do you improvise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m usually 20% prepared and 80% improvised.<\/p>\n

How did you meet Daliah Galal and how did you fall for each other?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First time I saw Daliah she was performing on stage with her band and my heart was instantly hers. I did not make a move until a year later when I was asked to join her band as a drummer, since her original drummer had left the band. That was when we fell for each other. We were performing Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman one day \u2013 I was playing sax and she was singing \u2013 and it felt like her and I were the only people in the whole theatre. We got engaged 8 months later, and 8 months after we got married. We\u2019ve been supporting and pushing each other since then.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do too many people recognize you when you head outside? Does it ever get annoying?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes! People recognize me now, and not just in Cairo; I was pleasantly surprised to find that it also happens in Dubai and Lebanon when I travel there for business. It\u2019s positively overwhelming and extremely flattering. I still don\u2019t believe it sometimes when people ask to take a picture with me. I reply saying \u201cbegad\u201d and they think I\u2019m being funny so they laugh, when I actually mean to ask if they\u2019re being serious. It never gets annoying; it\u2019s actually a blessing.<\/p>\n

What are side hobbies you love to do that we don\u2019t know about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I play drums, saxophone, keyboards, sing, and sometimes DJ for fun. I still compose a mix of genres including house, hip hop and classical. I play Playstation games, and I used to be a swim champ when I was little.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What is the most embarrassing memory you have from childhood?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was ten I sneezed a fairly large amount of snot on my crush\u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n

As a father, what is one thing you wish Egyptian parents did or did not do for their kids?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wish Egyptian parents stop saying \u201celbess el shoes-a\u201d (put on your shoesies).<\/p>\n

Do you have any goals you have yet to achieve? What are they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Become a millionaire. Or I may just settle for being a world-famous entertainer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing says a perfect sleepover like a staying up late watching Marwan Younis videos and laughing ourselves to sleep. After uploading a rant to his Facebook, Marwan woke up to stardom he never intended for. The avant-guarde comedian who accidentally gained national fame knows exactly how we feel and manifests it in uproarious rant-humour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5863,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions\/5863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insight-egypt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}