Arab-American Comedy Fest brings awareness through humor

Even though George W. Bush is out of office, comedian Dean Obeidallah is capitalizing on the former president's presence in our collective consciousness. "What could Bush do next to help the world?" he asks. "Ideally, make him the head of al-Qaida."

As the co-founder of New York's Arab-American Comedy Festival, Obeidallah is the first to crack jokes about his own culture: "Every other ethnic group gets months which identify with their culture. What do we get? Orange Alert." But he notes that the festival's inception six years ago was inspired by the prejudices surrounding Arab-American culture.

Co-founder of the Arab-American Comedy Festival Dean Obeidallah

"It was such a dark, difficult time for our community," he says. "Negative stories, terror alerts going up -- people had a lot more apprehension and fear of just a typical, average Arab person."

The public's mood has largely shifted since then, and Obeidallah partially credits President Obama with the turn. "With Obama, that climate is changing and I think we can still define who we are, but more through culture than a response to terrorism," he says. "Now it's becoming more of an unapologetic celebration of who we are and just having fun like any other ethnic group in America."

From Sunday through Thursday, Arab-Americans will be spreading the laughs, and Obeidallah hopes that the fest will give a heightened visibility to his culture.

"We want to attract industry so that they can see these Arab-American performers, so that hopefully they'll get cast in things like TV shows or films or plays," he says.

"The more of us that are in the business, the more of a chance we'll have for defining ourselves in an accurate light. If you get in front of the camera or behind the camera, you can't help but impact the final product."