What’s On magazine have just announced the finalists for their 2017 Awards. Very undeservedly, I’ve been shortlisted for the Best Midlands Comedian prize!! I honestly can’t believe I’m in the same category as the likes of Joe Lycett and Greg Davies. That’s mental. The’ve also announced their finalists in the Midlands Breakthrough Act and Best Midlands Comedy Night categories, with both of…
Leave a CommentThe British Muslim Awards, now in their fifth year, publicly announced the finalists for their 2017 prizes today. Wonderful to see that I’ve been included on their shortlists. I’ve always suspected I’m one of the best Muslims in the country. It’s nice to have that officially confirmed. There are about thirty categories, and it’s truly an honour to be counted among such amazing finalists…
1 CommentWonderful news! The Comedy Cannon podcast, which I launched barely six months ago, has just hit the magic 100,000 downloads. It’s an amazing achievement. Being featured on the homepage of Apple iTunes on their podcasts section for the last six months has most definitely helped. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the many guests who took time out of their…
Leave a CommentI trained as a journalist with the BBC, and then developed my craft with British and American broadcasters. I’ve spent the last decade working as a marketing consultant. So I’m steeped in old media – print, radio, television. And, if I’m honest with you, I hate social media. I pine for the good old days when marketing yourself successfully as…
Leave a CommentFor the past week my new podcast, The Comedy Cannon, has been featured on the front page of the Apple iTunes podcast app. A week ago, it was being promoted in the Comedy section, and for a brief period before that it was on the Arts homepage too. However, it seems someone at Apple really likes the show as they’ve bumped…
Leave a CommentThose of you following me on social media will already know, but I’m happy to inform the rest of you that my new podcast, The Comedy Cannon, has now gone live. It’s actually been live for a week as I uploaded some older interviews into the feed to test it out. The first official episode under the Comedy Cannon name is now…
Leave a CommentIt’s one of the world’s most successful religions, with an estimated 1.5 to 2 billion adherents. Yet, thanks to misrepresentations of its tenets by its opponents, and by Muslims themselves, it’s a staggeringly misunderstood ideology. Even a cursory review of the Islamic belief system, versus how it’s perceived, shows a huge disconnect between what the scriptures say and what both…
1 CommentMy journey south from Marrakech towards the Moroccan Sahara was going to be in three phases. First we travelled through Tizi n’Tichka – the highest mountain pass in North Africa. Then we took a short detour to Aït Benhaddou, which is a fortified city that featured in lots of famous films like Lawrence of Arabia, Time Bandits, Gladiator and The…
Comments closedCasablanca is the financial centre of the country, but it’s not exactly the most culturally interesting place to explore in Morocco. Therefore, I planned to spend just one night there. Most people probably know the city from the 1940s WW2 film starring Humphrey Bogart. For me, however, Casablanca’s claim to fame is that it’s home to the third largest mosque…
Leave a CommentThe train journey from Fes to Rabat was a mere three hours and once again I’d booked myself into the hotel next to my destination station. And once again it was a wise move as the Ibis proved a great base from which to explore the Moroccan capital. Rabat Medina The first day’s exploration would, naturally, start at the city’s…
Leave a Comment
