Comediablanca 2025: A Resounding Success That Puts Casablanca on the World Comedy Map
Under the vaulted roof of the Mohammed V Complex, Casablanca glowed this spring with a chic, irrepressible energy that only a true cultural happening can ignite. The second edition of Comediablanca, the brainchild of Tendansia co-founders Saad Lahjouji and Myriam Bouyad, unfurled over two sold-out nights and 8 200 coveted tickets, cementing Morocco’s economic capital as a newly minted citadel of comedy.
From the moment the house lights dimmed on 29 May, the festival radiated the kind of electricity usually reserved for couture runway finales. Moroccan icon Hanane El Fadili opened with her signature elastic impressions, a masterclass in charisma that set the tone for fellow luminaries Oussama Ramzi, Driss & Mehdi, Ayoub Idri, Said & Wadie, Ghita Kitane, Simo Sedraty, and Mohammed Fatih. Their punchlines ricocheted through the arena like strobe flashes, a reminder that contemporary Maghreb humor can be as sharp as any Parisian salon.
The following evening, French-Canadian rising star Roman Frayssinet delivered a surréaliste stand-up set that slid effortlessly between dreamy philosophizing and sly social commentary—think Jacques Prévert with a podcast mic—before yielding the stage to a cosmopolitan ensemble: Mimo Lazrak, Meryem Benoua, Oualas, Coco Makmak, Sarah Lélé, Ethan Lallouz, and shape-shifting impressionist Erick Baert. The diversity of accents, cadences, and comedic textures sketched a new map of global humor, with Casablanca gleaming confidently at its center.
Beyond the spotlight, Comediablanca Village pulsed like a pop-up medina of creativity. A mélange of aromas floated from the Food Court—argan-oil-kissed street bites alongside avant-vegan treats—while the Marché des Créateurs curated jewelry, ceramics, and fashion pieces that felt as covetable as front-row swag. In the Chill Zone, fresh-mint mocktails fueled collabs between TikTok sketch artists and visiting screenwriters, as nearby the Gaming Zone “LMOUSSEM” hosted rapid-fire improv battles that drew circles of cheering spectators. It was festival as living mood-board: part old-souk conviviality, part metaverse teaser.
Credit the immersive spell to visionary stage director Amir Rouani, who draped the venue in velvet reds and nostalgic tile motifs, then flooded it with cinematic lighting that nodded to golden-age Moroccan theatres. Each set change unfurled like a page from a vintage travelogue, ensuring the performers were framed less as stand-ups than as haute-couture storytellers.
In a decisive fashion-week-style finale, the organizers revealed that Comediablanca’s next stop will be the legendary Olympia in Paris—a metropolitan catwalk for laughter before the concept expands across Africa. The long-term ambition: establish a dedicated school of comic arts, positioning Morocco as an international atelier for humor.
Comediablanca 2025 wasn’t merely an event; it was a declaration that Casablanca—already a nexus for style and design—can master the delicate craft of timing, wit, and joyous communal release. The city’s skyline may be etched in white, but for two gleaming nights, its palette burst into every shade of laughter imaginable. The curtain may have fallen, yet the echo lingers, promising that the world’s next big laugh might well be stitched together in this North-African fashion capital of mirth.
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