Every comedian on the path to stardom will inevitably have to do shows they aren’t proud of.

It’s sort of a rite of passage: the dreaded corporate gig or—shudder—the mortifying improv class at a company off-site.

Typically, though, those embarrassing shows tend not to be paid for and hosted by countries accused of staggering human rights violations, nor do the performers tend to already be superstars.

Perhaps the fact that so many well-known and well-compensated comics signed on to Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival can be read as both an indictment of the era of multimillion-dollar stand-up specials and its logical conclusion.

Spread across two weeks, with the first shows taking place on September 25, the festival is a Comedy Coachella packed with performers who can sell out Madiso

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