<\/p>\n
Louis C.K. defended his and other comedians\u2019 decision to perform at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia amid a wave of criticism<\/a> from fellow comics.<\/p>\n Appearing on Real Time With Bill Maher<\/em> Friday ahead of his scheduled Riyadh set on Monday, C.K. said he initially had \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about taking the gig, and that he previously turned down opportunities to perform in Arab countries due to censorship concerns. However, he said Saudi Arabia has \u201ckind of opened up.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always said no to Arab countries,\u201d C.K. said (via The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>). \u201cWhen this came up, they said there\u2019s only two restrictions; their religion and their government, and I don\u2019t have jokes about those two things. It used to be when I got offers from places like that, there would be a long list, and I\u2019d just say, \u2018No, I don\u2019t need that.\u2019 But when I heard it\u2019s opening, I thought, that\u2019s awfully interesting. That just feels like a good opportunity. And I just feel like comedy is a great way to get in and start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n The comedian added, \u201cI\u2019ve been talking to them, the comedians who\u2019ve been there, and they\u2019ve been really surprised by what\u2019s going on. There\u2019s a woman who\u2019s a lesbian and Jewish, who did a show there, and she got a standing ovation. So, there\u2019s stuff going on that\u2019s unexpected in this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this week, comics like David Cross, Shane Gillis, Marc Maron, Atsuko Okatsuka, and more publicly criticized the comedians<\/a> \u2014 including Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, and more \u2014 who opted to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.<\/p>\n \u201cThe money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process,\u201d Okatsuka wrote on social media. Maron quipped that the festival was presented \u201cfrom the folks that brought you 9\/11.\u201d<\/p>\n On Real Time<\/em>, C.K. said of the controversy, \u201cI think the whole discussion is worthy. I\u2019m glad these guys brought this stuff up, I\u2019m glad that people are challenging this thing, because you shouldn\u2019t just pretend it\u2019s something it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had mixed feelings about it too,\u201d C.K. added. \u201cI struggled about going once I heard what everybody was saying. There\u2019s some good in it, maybe some bad in it. But for me, I think it cuts toward going. That\u2019s my decision, and I know where it\u2019s coming from, because I can see right inside myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill Burr previously called his Riyadh performance<\/a> \u201ca mind-blowing experience. Definitely top three experiences I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe royals loved the show. Everyone was happy. The people that were doing the festival were thrilled,\u201d Burr said. \u201cIt was great to experience that part of the world and to be a part of the first comedy festival over there in Saudi Arabia. I think it\u2019s going to lead to a lot of positive things.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Louis C.K. defended his and other comedians\u2019 decision to perform at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia amid a wave of criticism from fellow comics. Appearing on Real Time With Bill Maher Friday ahead of his scheduled Riyadh set on Monday, C.K. said he initially had \u201cmixed feelings\u201d about taking the gig, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2068746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[44702,353825,385411,365927],"class_list":["post-2068745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bill-burr","tag-real-time-with-bill-maher","tag-riyadh-comedy-festival","tag-saudi-arabia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\u2018A-Great-Way-to-Get-in-and-Start-Talking.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2068745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068747,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068745\/revisions\/2068747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2068746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2068745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2068745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2068745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}