Salaheddine: Moroccan comedian fills the venues

Ask who Salaheddine is and any white person will tell you he doesn’t have the slightest clue. Ask any coloured person, and they will recall jokes from his latest show or his tv-character, ‘Moussi El Kandoussi’. Salaheddine is big in Holland but the Dutch don’t know it.

Salaheddine tells it like it is (c) Salaheddine

‘When my tv-show ended, I wanted to reach out to my audience in a different way. So I made up a show with some jokes and booked the theater. Luckily, it was sold out quickly. Moroccans love to go out and see theater plays or comedians. It is a social meeting place for them. But there isn’t much on offer for this niche. So I try to fill that gap and provide it for them.’

Is there  a clear segregated cultural world in Rotterdam?

‘I believe the cultural climate in Rotterdam is quite good. But I don’t really go to theater or museums myself, so I don’t know what really happens besides my own thing.’

Do you think that a multicultural melting pot is possible?

‘I don’t know what that is, multicultural theater. I did see some “multicultural movies” but I always have the sense that it was some elderly white producer saying: ‘Let’s do something multicultural’. I don’t think they’ve really nailed it yet. I don’t recognise myself in those movies at least.’

Is there a difference between Dutch and Moroccan humour?

(c) Salaheddine

‘Moroccan humour is a little more rough. And Moroccan audience have a little less patience. You have to have a high level of jokes. Some Dutch comediens make an intimate setting on stage with a laugh and a tear. A little joke here and there, a song and maybe even a dance. This would not be suited for a Moroccan audience. They want to be entertained right this minute.’

Where is Salaheddine in five years time?

‘Hopefully I’ll have found my way to national, mainstream tv and theater. I want Dutch people to get used to Moroccan humour.’