Name: Andrew Santino on What the Riyadh Comedy Festival Was Really Like
Uploaded: 2025-10-31T16:20:12.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Andrew Santino on What the Riyadh Comedy Festival Was Really Like' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Andrew Santino on What the Riyadh Comedy Festival Was Really Like' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-10-31. Transcript available.

Oh, how was the comedy festival you guys went to?
Was it good?
Riyadh?
Yeah.
Wild, dude.
It was crazy.
Well, the backlash on the internet was even more insane.
It was insane.
That stuff seemed ridiculous to me, though.
Did you feel like it was?
Everyone is a walking contradiction,
and there's a million miles of hypocrisy in people's arguments,
and the fact that the community was attacking each other
was very strange to me.
But, you know, like, overall,
my feeling about it was
Jimmy Carr said something
that I thought was kind of a powerful statement.
He said,
I don't always tend to look at where a country has been,
you know, because they're all flawed,
but I'd like to see where they're going.
And he says,
I'd like to think that where they're going
is an attempt at progress and future and growth.
And people may disagree with it,
but, you know, when we went over there
looking at the faces of 27-, 28-year-old kids
that my own American ignorance,
I was like,
well, they're going to be riding on camels,
and they're all wearing cover-ups.
They were dressed, you know,
like street kids for the most part.
It's 27-year-old, 28-year-old kids
who were wearing jeans and T-shirts,
and they just wanted to see us,
and we met the fans afterwards,
and it was kind of a beautiful moment,
you know,
and I haven't dug in on the whole thing.
Well, I haven't paid a lot of attention to it
because there was a lot of noise and hate.
Yeah, I haven't delved into it.
Well, it's fine.
People can feel how they feel about it.
That's fine.
The world will keep spinning.
But there's a lot of hypocrisy out there.
There's a lot of hypocrisy,
and a lot of people contradict.
We're all walking contradictions, right?
So when you start throwing stones,
just make sure, you know,
just make sure that your plate's clean
because I just feel like something that you've said six months ago,
you may disagree with today.
And I think at the core root of it,
we forget sometimes that we're just comedians,
and you and I, when we do shows like this,
it's like we want to have fun and make each other laugh
and joke around and bring humor to this whole space.
And when the community begins to attack each other,
you know,
I just think it's a detriment to comedy as a whole.
I don't take myself that serious
unless I'm on the golf course
and then I'm fucking dead serious.
No, no, no, no.
No, but I just don't,
I don't take myself that serious.
I'm a fucking stupid clown.
I'm an ASU graduate,
barely made it out of high school,
who went to school for communication
because I was confused about what I wanted
out of my life and my career.
And my whole goal was to make people laugh and feel good.
And what comes along with success
is responsibility to some degree.
But the public's idea of my responsibility
and mine are two different things.
Mine is to spread love and comedy
and make people feel good and laugh and entertain people.
Amen.
And also live my life
and enjoy it as much as I can
before they tell you to,
you're not funny anymore or to get out of here.
So if there's anything I can do,
I'm just segueing naturally.
My biggest thing now is like,
can I make people feel good and also do good?
And I'm doing this thing on December 6th
in LA City Valley College,
Southern California Special Olympics.
I'm doing a fundraiser.
You get to, it's called Ho Ho Homers.
You come hit home runs off your favorite celebrities.
If you're in town, I'd love to have you.
I might be in town that week.
I'd love it.
December 6th is Saturday,
LA City Valley College.
It's for Southern California Special Olympics.
And stuff like that means more to me
than all the noise and the bullshit
of the internet of opinions
over what a comic should or shouldn't do
or whatever that world is.
And that to me is the most important thing
is like, can I do good, feel good,
uplift other people and comedians in the community?
Yeah.
And then the rest can fuck off into space
because I'm just trying to do my best, man.
I mean, fucking leave me alone sometimes.
My good God, you know?
Yeah, it's, well, it's just,
and the media is just so dumb.
They, all they care,
it's just like about creating controversy.
I, it's funny.
I didn't think anything of it.
I, uh, like, like I've got asked
to go to Qatar again in a few weeks
and I think I'm going to go over there, right?
Sure.
I had a great time when I was there last time.
It was so cool to see a lot of the guys there
that are, it's a Muslim country.
A lot of the guys we're talking to,
at first you see their outfits,
bring up the picture of us.
Um, and, but then you talk to them,
the guy's like,
oh, I fucking went to Oregon.
I went to University of Oregon,
go dogs.
Right, right.
What?
Like, we think like all these people
like live in sandcastles
and they're fucking,
like, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, there you go.
We're in the garb.
I, also, that was another thing we asked
if that was disrespectful,
if we were,
and the guys wanted to give us one,
they were like, oh no.
It was so cool to have.
I still have mine at home.
They were very nice.
And, and also, you know,
I was, I was writing jokes about it
because I was like,
I don't know if I'll ever joke about it,
but I think it was funny
when someone's like,
you know,
they're all terrorists
and you're like,
eight million people in Riyadh
are, all of them are terrorists?
What are you,
what are you talking about?
And they go,
well, they did 9-11.
And you're like,
I thought we said we did 9-11.
I thought,
remember when you guys were all like,
we did it?
I thought they said we did.
I just think there's a lot.
Well, we all know who did it.
I think there's a lot of walking contradictions.
Oh, 100%.
Well, so, so it's hard for me to have,
it's hard for anyone to yell so loud
about something to me
because I go,
well, nothing is perfect.
But if you're trying,
if your intentions are right,
if your intentions are good,
I do believe there's hope for growth.
And people are allowed to be mad about it.
And I just,
what I didn't like,
what I don't like
is in the community,
stabbing and going after other people
in the community
because I just think it's an odd move.
I don't understand it.
Go off.
If that's how you want to live your life,
enjoy the drama.
But I'm going to remove,
I just don't,
I don't give a fuck about
your judgmental opinion
because you yourself are not on high.
Unless you're not,
are you tweeting your hate at me
from a phone that was mined from lithium
by people that were trapped?
What are you talking about?
Who made your car?
Where'd you get gas?
Who made your clothes?
Unless you are Sue in Alaska
and you,
and you live off of yourself in the land,
you don't have a lot of room to talk.
Yeah.
You really don't.
I'm sorry.
I,
I just think.
And none of us,
in a lot of ways,
you're right.
there's so much hypocrisy,
man.
Yeah.
It's like,
we're,
I think we were committing hypocrisy
without even realizing it sometimes.
Yeah.
We do what we do.
We do.
We are walking contradictions.
The human condition
is to be a walking contradiction.
Brother,
when I was a kid,
I,
I,
I remember feeling like in no world do I feel like I want to get married.
I don't really,
I was like,
I don't want to get married or have a family.
I pine for that now as an adult.
I'm,
I'm,
you know,
I wanted to have a family.
We couldn't have a family.
And that changed my perspective.
And that,
I remember being in college being like,
I don't think I'm ever doing that shit.
You know?
Yeah.
That's stupid.
That's foolish.
That's not for me.
I want to be a comic.
That's all I need is this and this and this.
And your,
your views change.
Your goals change.
Yeah.
Your affiliations change.
Your friendships change.
Like you keep changing.
You know,
when they wrote in your yearbook,
never change.
That was the worst advice anybody could ever fucking give you.
You should change.
You should change.
You should change a lot.
And you should keep growing and changing.
I mean,
fuck man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you're still sitting there playing pencil break and fucking eating your
buddy's boogers so you can have money to buy candy at lunch,
dude,
then you're a sick fucking dude.
Yeah.
Please change.
You can't play paper football forever.
It is fun,
but my God,
I was nasty at that shit.
Dude,
that shit was,
but this was the rule,
dude.
Right.
This.
So fucking dumb.
Meanwhile,
you're supposed to be learning in the years later.
You're like,
why am I dumb?
But the media also likes to fucking make shit.
It's like,
yeah,
what our country is complicit in so much shit.
Like,
you know,
it's like one thing that I thought was like go,
go into like a Muslim country.
Like they have their rules.
They have their way of life.
It's not my way of life.
Right.
It's their rules.
I don't know what it's like to grow up there and to live there.
I don't know what like pros and cons are of having like such like staunch
beliefs or like sticking
to such doctrines and stuff like that.
Like,
I don't know.
I can go and look and see,
but for me to say that your country needs to be just like our country,
which has been complicit in a lot of fucked up stuff.
The most fucked up shit.
Not the people,
but the government.
Right.
Right.
Who the fuck am I to go say,
you know what I'm saying?
Like,
it's really hard for me to be like,
you guys need to be more like us.
When it's like,
we'll look at all the fucking bullshit that we're being shoehorned into.
Right.
That's a perfect statement that we're being shoehorned into.
Well,
here's the argument.
And also,
we don't know what the fuck we're talking about.
So if you disagree with us,
that's fine.
That's fine too.
I don't care.
Well,
that's what people say.
They go,
well,
you didn't get paid by the people who got paid by the government.
I said,
well,
yeah,
people bring promoters and companies bring people in all the time.
That's kind of how the globe works.
And as far as entertainment goes,
people can't produce a show.
Someone has to do it.
And I think the idea was let's bring Western entertainment here,
not in an effort to like avoid some of the bad shit that's happened,
but more to try to change culture to grow.
I'm hoping that's my,
that was my hope for it.
And people were like,
just say it was about money.
It's like,
yeah,
dude,
we perform for money and to bring comedy to people.
These two things can coexist.
The idea that someone's like,
just say it's all about money.
No,
dude,
it's also about the idea that this is an enticing new world.
It's like,
shit,
dude,
I've never performed overseas.
I've literally never performed anywhere outside.
I've done,
we did London and Dublin.
I've never done any other country outside of North America.
Wow.
Yeah.
And that was kind of fucking wild.
For sure.
Especially all you guys and girls,
all these comedians going over there at one time.
It's kind of wild,
man.
It must've felt otherworldly.
It did.
I mean,
it literally was.
It felt like a,
it felt like a,
I was put,
it felt like it was in a,
in a movie.
I was like,
this feels so,
so out of my own element.
And,
and.
You get any of that,
uh,
Lebanese food,
you better believe it.
No.
You get any of that,
uh,
that Saudi Arabian cocaine of it?
No,
man.
Or a little bit of that nose sand.
No,
I got a wicked eye infection instead.
I got fucking sand in my eyeball and then fucking.
No,
but you know what?
I think at the end of the day,
um,
you need a colonoscopy.
You're like,
this thing's fucking in my car.
And just cause you got sand in your eye.
Like this thing's fucked,
dude.
My,
my butthole's dilated now because this fucking,
the bad,
the,
the fuse is broken or whatever.
It's fucking just like,
dude,
all you did was brush your teeth.
And it's like,
you're a homosexual or whatever.
You're like,
what the fuck?
We're taking you to church.
You have the Baptist set up.
We're taking you to church.
It tells my whole family.
It sends them all text messages.
Andrew's gay.
Andrew's gay.
Andrew's gay.
What?
Oh my God.
Yeah.
No.
My Jeep did that.
Yeah.
I just took a thick shit early this morning.
That thing's fucking overreacting.
Yeah.

Andrew Santino on What the Riyadh Comedy Festival Was Really Like

Oh, how was the comedy festival you guys went to?
Was it good?
Riyadh?
Yeah.
Wild, dude.
It was crazy.
Well, the backlash on the internet was even more insane.
It was insane.
That stuff seemed ridiculous to me, though.
Did you feel like it was?
Everyone is a walking contradiction,
and there's a million miles of hypocrisy in people's arguments,
and the fact that the community was attacking each other
was very strange to me.
But, you know, like, overall,
my feeling about it was
Jimmy Carr said something
that I thought was kind of a powerful statement.
He said,
I don't always tend to look at where a country has been,
you know, because they're all flawed,
but I'd like to see where they're going.
And he says,
I'd like to think that where they're going
is an attempt at progress and future and growth.
And people may disagree with it,
but, you know, when we went over there
looking at the faces of 27-, 28-year-old kids
that my own American ignorance,
I was like,
well, they're going to be riding on camels,
and they're all wearing cover-ups.
They were dressed, you know,
like street kids for the most part.
It's 27-year-old, 28-year-old kids
who were wearing jeans and T-shirts,
and they just wanted to see us,
and we met the fans afterwards,
and it was kind of a beautiful moment,
you know,
and I haven't dug in on the whole thing.
Well, I haven't paid a lot of attention to it
because there was a lot of noise and hate.
Yeah, I haven't delved into it.
Well, it's fine.
People can feel how they feel about it.
That's fine.
The world will keep spinning.
But there's a lot of hypocrisy out there.
There's a lot of hypocrisy,
and a lot of people contradict.
We're all walking contradictions, right?
So when you start throwing stones,
just make sure, you know,
just make sure that your plate's clean
because I just feel like something that you've said six months ago,
you may disagree with today.
And I think at the core root of it,
we forget sometimes that we're just comedians,
and you and I, when we do shows like this,
it's like we want to have fun and make each other laugh
and joke around and bring humor to this whole space.
And when the community begins to attack each other,
you know,
I just think it's a detriment to comedy as a whole.
I don't take myself that serious
unless I'm on the golf course
and then I'm fucking dead serious.
No, no, no, no.
No, but I just don't,
I don't take myself that serious.
I'm a fucking stupid clown.
I'm an ASU graduate,
barely made it out of high school,
who went to school for communication
because I was confused about what I wanted
out of my life and my career.
And my whole goal was to make people laugh and feel good.
And what comes along with success
is responsibility to some degree.
But the public's idea of my responsibility
and mine are two different things.
Mine is to spread love and comedy
and make people feel good and laugh and entertain people.
Amen.
And also live my life
and enjoy it as much as I can
before they tell you to,
you're not funny anymore or to get out of here.
So if there's anything I can do,
I'm just segueing naturally.
My biggest thing now is like,
can I make people feel good and also do good?
And I'm doing this thing on December 6th
in LA City Valley College,
Southern California Special Olympics.
I'm doing a fundraiser.
You get to, it's called Ho Ho Homers.
You come hit home runs off your favorite celebrities.
If you're in town, I'd love to have you.
I might be in town that week.
I'd love it.
December 6th is Saturday,
LA City Valley College.
It's for Southern California Special Olympics.
And stuff like that means more to me
than all the noise and the bullshit
of the internet of opinions
over what a comic should or shouldn't do
or whatever that world is.
And that to me is the most important thing
is like, can I do good, feel good,
uplift other people and comedians in the community?
Yeah.
And then the rest can fuck off into space
because I'm just trying to do my best, man.
I mean, fucking leave me alone sometimes.
My good God, you know?
Yeah, it's, well, it's just,
and the media is just so dumb.
They, all they care,
it's just like about creating controversy.
I, it's funny.
I didn't think anything of it.
I, uh, like, like I've got asked
to go to Qatar again in a few weeks
and I think I'm going to go over there, right?
Sure.
I had a great time when I was there last time.
It was so cool to see a lot of the guys there
that are, it's a Muslim country.
A lot of the guys we're talking to,
at first you see their outfits,
bring up the picture of us.
Um, and, but then you talk to them,
the guy's like,
oh, I fucking went to Oregon.
I went to University of Oregon,
go dogs.
Right, right.
What?
Like, we think like all these people
like live in sandcastles
and they're fucking,
like, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, there you go.
We're in the garb.
I, also, that was another thing we asked
if that was disrespectful,
if we were,
and the guys wanted to give us one,
they were like, oh no.
It was so cool to have.
I still have mine at home.
They were very nice.
And, and also, you know,
I was, I was writing jokes about it
because I was like,
I don't know if I'll ever joke about it,
but I think it was funny
when someone's like,
you know,
they're all terrorists
and you're like,
eight million people in Riyadh
are, all of them are terrorists?
What are you,
what are you talking about?
And they go,
well, they did 9-11.
And you're like,
I thought we said we did 9-11.
I thought,
remember when you guys were all like,
we did it?
I thought they said we did.
I just think there's a lot.
Well, we all know who did it.
I think there's a lot of walking contradictions.
Oh, 100%.
Well, so, so it's hard for me to have,
it's hard for anyone to yell so loud
about something to me
because I go,
well, nothing is perfect.
But if you're trying,
if your intentions are right,
if your intentions are good,
I do believe there's hope for growth.
And people are allowed to be mad about it.
And I just,
what I didn't like,
what I don't like
is in the community,
stabbing and going after other people
in the community
because I just think it's an odd move.
I don't understand it.
Go off.
If that's how you want to live your life,
enjoy the drama.
But I'm going to remove,
I just don't,
I don't give a fuck about
your judgmental opinion
because you yourself are not on high.
Unless you're not,
are you tweeting your hate at me
from a phone that was mined from lithium
by people that were trapped?
What are you talking about?
Who made your car?
Where'd you get gas?
Who made your clothes?
Unless you are Sue in Alaska
and you,
and you live off of yourself in the land,
you don't have a lot of room to talk.
Yeah.
You really don't.
I'm sorry.
I,
I just think.
And none of us,
in a lot of ways,
you're right.
there's so much hypocrisy,
man.
Yeah.
It's like,
we're,
I think we were committing hypocrisy
without even realizing it sometimes.
Yeah.
We do what we do.
We do.
We are walking contradictions.
The human condition
is to be a walking contradiction.
Brother,
when I was a kid,
I,
I,
I remember feeling like in no world do I feel like I want to get married.
I don't really,
I was like,
I don't want to get married or have a family.
I pine for that now as an adult.
I'm,
I'm,
you know,
I wanted to have a family.
We couldn't have a family.
And that changed my perspective.
And that,
I remember being in college being like,
I don't think I'm ever doing that shit.
You know?
Yeah.
That's stupid.
That's foolish.
That's not for me.
I want to be a comic.
That's all I need is this and this and this.
And your,
your views change.
Your goals change.
Yeah.
Your affiliations change.
Your friendships change.
Like you keep changing.
You know,
when they wrote in your yearbook,
never change.
That was the worst advice anybody could ever fucking give you.
You should change.
You should change.
You should change a lot.
And you should keep growing and changing.
I mean,
fuck man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you're still sitting there playing pencil break and fucking eating your
buddy's boogers so you can have money to buy candy at lunch,
dude,
then you're a sick fucking dude.
Yeah.
Please change.
You can't play paper football forever.
It is fun,
but my God,
I was nasty at that shit.
Dude,
that shit was,
but this was the rule,
dude.
Right.
This.
So fucking dumb.
Meanwhile,
you're supposed to be learning in the years later.
You're like,
why am I dumb?
But the media also likes to fucking make shit.
It's like,
yeah,
what our country is complicit in so much shit.
Like,
you know,
it's like one thing that I thought was like go,
go into like a Muslim country.
Like they have their rules.
They have their way of life.
It's not my way of life.
Right.
It's their rules.
I don't know what it's like to grow up there and to live there.
I don't know what like pros and cons are of having like such like staunch
beliefs or like sticking
to such doctrines and stuff like that.
Like,
I don't know.
I can go and look and see,
but for me to say that your country needs to be just like our country,
which has been complicit in a lot of fucked up stuff.
The most fucked up shit.
Not the people,
but the government.
Right.
Right.
Who the fuck am I to go say,
you know what I'm saying?
Like,
it's really hard for me to be like,
you guys need to be more like us.
When it's like,
we'll look at all the fucking bullshit that we're being shoehorned into.
Right.
That's a perfect statement that we're being shoehorned into.
Well,
here's the argument.
And also,
we don't know what the fuck we're talking about.
So if you disagree with us,
that's fine.
That's fine too.
I don't care.
Well,
that's what people say.
They go,
well,
you didn't get paid by the people who got paid by the government.
I said,
well,
yeah,
people bring promoters and companies bring people in all the time.
That's kind of how the globe works.
And as far as entertainment goes,
people can't produce a show.
Someone has to do it.
And I think the idea was let's bring Western entertainment here,
not in an effort to like avoid some of the bad shit that's happened,
but more to try to change culture to grow.
I'm hoping that's my,
that was my hope for it.
And people were like,
just say it was about money.
It's like,
yeah,
dude,
we perform for money and to bring comedy to people.
These two things can coexist.
The idea that someone's like,
just say it's all about money.
No,
dude,
it's also about the idea that this is an enticing new world.
It's like,
shit,
dude,
I've never performed overseas.
I've literally never performed anywhere outside.
I've done,
we did London and Dublin.
I've never done any other country outside of North America.
Wow.
Yeah.
And that was kind of fucking wild.
For sure.
Especially all you guys and girls,
all these comedians going over there at one time.
It's kind of wild,
man.
It must've felt otherworldly.
It did.
I mean,
it literally was.
It felt like a,
it felt like a,
I was put,
it felt like it was in a,
in a movie.
I was like,
this feels so,
so out of my own element.
And,
and.
You get any of that,
uh,
Lebanese food,
you better believe it.
No.
You get any of that,
uh,
that Saudi Arabian cocaine of it?
No,
man.
Or a little bit of that nose sand.
No,
I got a wicked eye infection instead.
I got fucking sand in my eyeball and then fucking.
No,
but you know what?
I think at the end of the day,
um,
you need a colonoscopy.
You're like,
this thing's fucking in my car.
And just cause you got sand in your eye.
Like this thing's fucked,
dude.
My,
my butthole's dilated now because this fucking,
the bad,
the,
the fuse is broken or whatever.
It's fucking just like,
dude,
all you did was brush your teeth.
And it's like,
you're a homosexual or whatever.
You're like,
what the fuck?
We're taking you to church.
You have the Baptist set up.
We're taking you to church.
It tells my whole family.
It sends them all text messages.
Andrew's gay.
Andrew's gay.
Andrew's gay.
What?
Oh my God.
Yeah.
No.
My Jeep did that.
Yeah.
I just took a thick shit early this mor