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About Dave Merheje
Lebanese-Canadian comic Dave Merheje is considered to be one of the more original stand-ups on the comedy scene today. His multiple award-winning act has gained a loyal following across North America with his “no fear” approach on stage and a quickfire comedy style best described as high energy, in-your-face funny.
Winner of the 2011 Just For Laughs Homegrown Comic Competition, Dave Merheje has been making shakes across the globe with multiple appearances at the Just For Laughs Festival Montreal, JFL42 in Toronto, Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the Halifax Comedy Festival, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival as well as touring clubs and theatres regularly. Most recently, Dave Merheje’s comedy special “Good Friend, Bad Grammar” won the 2019 Juno Award for Comedy Album of the year. As well as performing live comedy, on screen Dave Merheje had his first comedy special air in Australia on ABC2, and has made appearances on Comedy Network’s Match Game. He was also a regular contributor on MTV Live, recurred on CBC’s series Mr. D, and will soon appear in the upcoming comedy series Ramy on Hulu.
WATCH DAVE MERHEJE’S GOOD FRIEND BAD GRAMMAR
It’s full steam ahead with Dave Merheje’s high impact, high octane comedy special. Sharing personal stories about his upbringing, insecurities and sexual experiences with pure raging energy, neurosis, and shameless honesty, this Lebanese-Canadian comic delivers the most frenetic of funnies.
Reviews and Awards
Winner of the 2019 Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year, Just For Laugh’s Homegrown Comic Competition 2011 and NOW Magazine’s 2011 Best of Toronto Award for Best Male Stand-up. Dave Merheje was also a Canadian Comedy Award-nominee for Best Stand-up 2012.
‘Gives Britain’s Lee Evans serious competition for the title of the most animated stand-up of modern times’
Chortle
‘I left grinning from ear to ear’
Post City Toronto
‘Lebanese-Canadian comic who lays into his onstage rants with a restless, manic energy that’s both frightening and funny’
Now Magazine Toronto
Dave Merheje Tickets
Information on comedian David Merheje’s upcoming gigs and shows can be found here.
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Biography
Now living in LA but born in Ontario, Canada to Lebanese parents, Dave Merheje first began performing comedy in the Windsor-Detroit area where he grew up. A Catholic Central high school graduate in a mostly white town, Dave Merheje knew he wanted to do live comedy since he was 14 and was inspired by comedians like Richard Pryor, Andrew Dice Clay and Eddie Murphy. He told Post City Toronto how he got into stand-up – “I have always wanted to entertain. I used to do sketches when I was a kid with my sister and cousin. Then when I got older, I did comedy in my hometown…I wasn’t the class clown. I was too shy.”
Drawing on his family and the eccentricities of his upbringing forms a big part of Dave Merheje’s material. But he says his parents don’t mind being made fun of, they just enjoy the attention. He told The Windsor Star ““My dad loves it..He’s been to the shows in Windsor and he just smiles. It’s almost like ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s me.’ He likes to shine. You see him in the audience and he’s dying. It’s like, man, I’m making fun of you, and he just loves it…My mom is super cool. She’ll come and she’ll buy a drink. Last time I was there she did her hair, and she just sat in the audience, and she loved it.”
Following a first tentative gig in his 20’s at a local amatuer comedy bar, Yuk Yuk’s, Dave Merheje has been sharing his unique high octane stand up style at venues and festivals all over Canada as well as at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Australia. In 2015, he had his own stand-up special aired on The Comedy Network and was recently featured in an episode of the Netflix stand-up comedy series Comedians of the World. Merheje has also performed with other Canadian comedians of Middle Eastern descent, including Ali Badshah and Ali Hassan, in the touring comedy show, We Ain’t Terrorists – an honest and hilarious examination of culture, stereotypes, misconceptions and the challenge of just fitting in.
Dave Merheje can be heard talking about his recent Juno Awards win, and his upcoming regular appearance in the Hulu show “Ramy,” (about a first-generation American Muslim on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood) on the Performers Podcast.
Get More Dave Merheje
Want more of Dave Merheje? You’re in luck – his full stand-up comedy special is available to watch on NextUp – a digital comedy club where you can stream instantly over 120 comedy specials from some of the exciting names in comedy. Start watching free, no credit card needed.