Comedian and internet personality Nasser Al-Rayess, affectionately known as the \u201cShawarma King,\u201d brought students together with laughter and camaraderie at the Arab Student Union, or ASU, end-of-year banquet April 30.<\/p>\n
According to ASU\u2019s Instagram post, the annual banquet is a time to celebrate community. From the start of the banquet at 5:30 p.m., there was an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation for the \u201cShawarma King\u201d as students greeted each other and enjoyed the buffet catered by Lotus Falafel and Shawerma, as well as Ahwak Coffee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope people enjoy the food, enjoy the community, meet new people and then have a good laugh,\u201d said ASU events director and graduate student Omar Salem.<\/p>\n
The space at Anna Head Alumnae Hall was decorated with flags, string lights and candles. Music played as people walked in to join their friends at tables set with silverware and plates.<\/p>\n
The main event of the night was Al-Rayess, known for his online presence and viral clips reviewing shawarma. Salem had seen him perform stand-up at UC San Diego, where he learned that Al-Rayess was a UC Berkeley alum. Al-Rayess graduated in 2018 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just amazing how he just brings the crowd together,\u201d Salem said. \u201cHe brings everyone from different backgrounds engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout his whole set, Al-Rayess was met with continual laughter and applause from the audience. When the comedian asked who wasn\u2019t Arab, not a single hand went up. As he went on, his jokes landed in the intersection of the Berkeley and Arab American experiences.<\/p>\n
Al-Rayess began his set by discussing his history at UC Berkeley. After getting a 20% on his organic chemistry midterm, which gave him \u201ctrauma at Pimentel,\u201d he ended his plan of being pre-med.<\/p>\n
His mom \u2014 who was present for the whole set and smiling in the back of the room \u2014 was a source for some of his jokes. According to Al-Rayess, she sends him three birthday songs every year: \u201cHappy Birthday,\u201d the Arab birthday song and \u201cIn Da Club\u201d by 50 Cent.<\/p>\n
At the end of the event, Al-Rayess brought a few audience members up to the stage to teach them how to dance, provoking more laughter and excitement from the people who remained seated.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnjoy these years of your life as much as possible,\u201d Al-Rayess said to conclude his set. \u201cCal made me who I am \u2026 You are at the best school in the f—ing world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comedian and internet personality Nasser Al-Rayess, affectionately known as the \u201cShawarma King,\u201d brought students together with laughter and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[79236,126726,126729,126728,126724,764,126725,126723,143,145,144,126727,102158,5729],"class_list":["post-299081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-50-cent","tag-ahwak-coffee","tag-alpha-tau-omega","tag-anna-head-alumnae-hall","tag-arab-student-union","tag-berkeley","tag-lotus-falafel","tag-nasser-al-rayess","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-omar-salem","tag-pimentel-hall","tag-uc-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}