Laughing for Palestine on the Edinburgh Fringe!

Following the huge success of the inaugural 'Laughing for Palestine' event on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, ICAHD UK are excited to announce another exciting fund-raising event at this year's Fringe. Headlined by Seann Walsh and featuring Maria Shehata, Gary Sansome, Sameena Zehra and Gavin Webster, the event will be MC'ed by Daphna Baram and held at the Stand Comedy Club, New Town Theatre, 96 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 3DH at 1.30pm on Monday 12 August.

Tickets are £15.00 each and are available here.

Seann was born in Lewisham in 1985 and brought up in Brighton. A graduate of the Jill Edwards Comedy Workshops, Seann performed his first gig in November 2006, immediately receiving critical acclaim and several awards early in his career, including the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year and Chortle Best Newcomer, both in 2009.

Seann supported Stephen K. Amos on his 2008/09 Find the Funny and 2009/10 The Feelgood Factor tours as well as at the 2010 Reading and Leeds Festival, has been resident host at Komedia's Comic Boom in Brighton and also warm-up comedian for BBC's QI.

Seann has had numerous critically acclaimed shows on the Edinburgh Fringe including Seann to Be Wild in 2012 and The Lie-In King in 2013.

Seann participated in the 2018 series of Strictly Come Dancing, currently hosts a weekly show on FUBAR Radio with his friend, Mark Simmons and is scheduled to be a host on the gameshow Flinch on Netflix alongside Lloyd Griffith and Desiree Burch.

Maria Shehata is an award-winning comedian known for her conversational delivery and her sardonic yet playful candour.

Maria has been featured on BBC, Channel 5, Comedy Central, Showtime, and Comic Relief. She is winner of Best Comedian at the Hollywood Festival of New Cinema, and Best Comedy at the Miami Web Fest where she was nominated for Best Actress. Maria was also shortlisted as one of the Five Best New Performers at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe by The 99 Club.

Maria's writing has been published in British Comedy Guide, The Reading Lists, The F Word, and the New York Times.

Gary describes himself as a tough speaking (to English folk anway) off the wall Scottish comedian and MC. He has performed with critical acclaim all over the country including at Laugh out Loud Comedy, Bromley Comedy Club, Central London Comedy Club, Brixton Comedy Club, Comedy Cafe, The Stand Edinburgh, Glasgow Red Raw, Downstairs at the Kings Head and Up the Creek.

Gary has been a winner of the Comedy Cafe New Act Night and of the Big Cheese Comedy Ipswich New Act Night and a finalist on Funhouse Comedy Gong Show.

Sameena Zehra is an award winning comedian, storyteller, writer, director and blues singer/songwriter. She has performed her solo shows all over the world, including Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Brighton Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and New Zealand Fringe, where she was nominated for ‘Best In Fringe’ 2016, and won ‘Outstanding Performer’ in 2017.

Sameena is proud to have been revolting since she was 7 years old. She means this as a verb, not an adjective, although she accepts that the latter may be a matter of opinion. twitter @sameenazehra Instagram @sameena.zehra

Gavin was born in Blaydon-on-Tyne in 1969 and made his comedy debut in 1993 on the same bill as Ross Noble at the Barlow Mow pub in Gateshead.

His television work includes Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The Stand-up Show, Does Doug Know, Take The Mike, The Regionnaires, The Eleven O Clock show, The Comedy Store, Comedy Blue and The World Stand Up Tour. He wrote and played in Walk on the Wild Side in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 he voiced Sid the Sexist for Channel 4's series Blaps adapting Viz. His 2011 Edinburgh Fringe show, All Young People are Cunts was positively reviewed by the British Comedy Guide. He previously played Edinburgh in 2003, 2008 and 2009.

In 2014 he won the award for Best UK Live Stand Up, commonly known as 'The Comedian's Comedian', the second only winner of the award after Mick Ferry won it in 2013.

In 2012 he returned to the Edinburgh Fringe with a new stand-up show, Bill Hicks Wasn't Very Good, performing at the Fringe again in 2014 with "Controversial Title in Order to Sell Tickets" and in 2016 with "Jesus Christ Is A Window Cleaner Now"