Bassem Youssef, The 'Jon Stewart of The Middle East'

Enigma Magazine, a leading English language Arab Lifestyle magazine based in Egypt and distributed around the Middle East and to the Arab community in London, is bringing one of the Middle East’s most popular and controversial personalities, Bassem Youssef, to London, New York and Los Angeles for an exclusive performance and Q&A session in each city.

Enigma Magazine is the brainchild of one of Egypt's few female entrepreneurs, Yasmine Shihata, who created the publication over 16 years ago and has made it one of the leading lifestyle magazines in the region. Today Enigma has become known for promoting the best of the Middle East to its regional and international audience, by featuring the region's biggest celebrities, entrepreneurs, artists, fashion and interior designers, destinations, venues, rising stars and much more. Over 45,000 copies are printed each month, giving the magazine a readership of around 225,000 per issue.

Enigma PR is the PR division of Enigma Magazine, which organises exclusive events in Cairo, London, Dubai and Los Angeles. With 16 years of experience organising large-scale and intimate events, and one of the strongest databases in the Middle East and London, Enigma PR conceptualises and executes truly unique and dynamic events.

Enigma PR’s upcoming events come in the form of “The Bassem Youssef Tour”, which will consist of an exclusive evening with Bassem Youssef, where for this first time he will speak openly about his amazing rise to fame and the controversy he faced afterwards. Guests will have the opportunity to find out the true story of all the challenges he faced and ask him questions in a candid Q&A session afterwards (Chatham House rules will apply).

Known as the “Jon Stewart of the Arab World”, Bassem Youssef is one of the most famous TV personalities in the Middle East. Youssef used social media to showcase his talent and give a voice to the millions of Egyptians who were fed up with the traditional media's coverage of the Egyptian Revolution. After 2011, he began hosting a new political satirical news program called Al-Bernameg (“The Show”) - which was the first of its kind in the region. Al-Bernameg made Youssef a household name in the Arab world and broke all TV rating records in the Middle East. It also led to Youssef being selected one of Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world" in 2013. Moreover, last November Youssef made TV history by being the first Arab personality to host the International Emmy Awards Gala in New York. Youssef has a new TV show called “The Democracy Handbook” coming out soon on F-Comedy by Fusion Network, in addition to a feature-length documentary called “Tickling Giants” about his rapid rise to fame in the Middle East. The documentary premieres on April 14th at the Tribeca Film festival in New York and explores how comedy can fight oppression.

Bassem Youssef will be speaking live in London on April 20th at Curzon Mayfair, in New York on April 24th at the Florence Gould Hall and in Los Angeles on April 26th.

Bassem Youssef and Yasmine Shihata will be available for interviews on the 19th of April in London, 23rd of April in New York and 25th of April in Los Angeles.

For more information about the event and for ticket bookings visit www.enigma-mag.com