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September 30, 2025 11 mins
“What happens when free speech meets a $1.6 million paycheck… in Saudi Arabia?”In this explosive and thought-provoking episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray dive deep into one of the most controversial stories in the comedy world: the Riyadh Comedy Festival—a state-sponsored event in Saudi Arabia featuring some of the biggest names in stand-up, including Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Bill Burr, Tom Segura, and Louis CK.But this isn’t just about laughs. It’s about ethics, censorship, and the price of integrity.KT breaks down the staggering payouts (up to $1.6 million per comedian) and the strict limitations placed on performers—no jokes about the Saudi royal family, government, legal system, or religion. The crew debates whether these comics are selling out or cashing in, and what it means for the future of comedy and free speech.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you excited?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Featuring veteran news anchor Kat fun tweets. In the last segment,
Ben your you guessed the trivia. Your trivia guess was ham.
The answer was nine.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
So there's a big story in the world of news
here in comedy, don't worry about it, uh, in the
world of comedy here that is very interesting. Live tour
has now met comedy because there is a very controversial
state sponsored comedy festival happening in Saudi Arabia, and it's

(00:42):
highly divisive in the world of comedians. You've got comedians
attacking their peers for accepting a big old bag of money,
and they're taking that money from a government in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
That's not a huge fan of free speech.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Just get it. So it's called the Areod Comedy Festival.
It's a two week long comedy festival featuring big, big
heavy hitters, your guys, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Bill Burr,
Azi's and Sorry, Hannibal Burris, Kevin Hart, Andrew Schultz, Jeff Ross,

(01:20):
Tom Segura, Louis c k and many more. God everyone
can be bought. And for the sake of time, I
left out some big names. I mean, I could keep
going with Whitney, Cummings and et cetera, et cetera. Okay,
they've reported reportedly been paid between three hundred and fifty
thousand and one point six million dollars for their appearances.

(01:42):
I would imagine Chappelle more closer to the one point
six and Andrew Schultz kosher to the three fifty k.
But you see where I'm at. Kevin Hart's got to
be the highest paid hard Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
One.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Uh, there's there's an offer that was shared by one
comedian online. The money comes with stipulations barring jokes that
could defame Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family, the Saudi
legal system, the Saudi government, or any type of religion.
So pretty interesting, isn't it a prediction? Yep, Dave Chappelle

(02:15):
will walk right up to that line. I break he
walks right up to that line.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, and I bet they they probably have to withhold
part of the payment, like half up front, half after
you to make sure to make sure you do it
the right way, right that they want.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, I do think they're they're they're they're tracking us here.
I have one example. This is there's a comedian by
the name of Tim Dillon. He was originally scheduled to perform,
but he says the Saudi government fired him from the
gig because he was joking about the country's alleged use
of forced labor on his podcast and they are listen
to the podcast like we don't want him coming.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Say the word got back to them. They had ai.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
They check out all the podcasts making fun of them
on his Yeah, because he did say on his podcast
he was being paid a lot of money to not
care about what they do in their country. He said
he was out for three hundred and seventy five thousand
to perform. God, I bet he regrets.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
I know.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
But that's the thing. If you're getting them, it's real easy. Yeah,
if you're getting the money to show.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
But if you're not getting the money, Like, how about
David Cross Huh he has no David Cross right, Yeah, mister.
Huge blog post goes on and on and on. Some
of these people are my friends. I can't believe it.
I should be clear, I was not asked to perform there.
I can't believe the Saudis didn't seek out David Cross

(03:38):
right to consider considering some of his materials.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Seems like he's a great fit now.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Also, the tricky one with Chappelle is that Dave Chappelle
and Bill Burr too well, you know what, backtrack here
Pete Davidson whose dad died nine to eleven.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Oh wow, by the.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Like, yeah, I didn't think about that, right, Yeah about it.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
I have a kid. I'm going and get some diaper
money here, you know.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now that I got all those tattoos removed afit. Yeah,
and it's Pete Davidson worth seeing if he doesn't dude
nine to eleven jokes about his dad.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I mean that's part. We got to have more than that. Yeah,
I think he's ten years past all that.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
But if you're going somewhere, people haven't seen you before
you play the hits.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
They've never seen him online, you.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Never seen so But this is basically it's four Europeans
in America. Like, this isn't for the Saudi crowd. Oh dude,
it's for Saudi princes and all that stuff. I know,
but they all there, no, I know, but they bring
all these people in as attractions for yes, because that's
basically it's a destination of the world. They have a
whole thing called Vision twenty three. It's about it's about

(04:49):
getting That's why I live tour and they're trying. You know,
there's all kinds of stuff. But when we come back,
some comedians have spoken out about this. We're gonna hear
from Mark Maron, We're gonna hear from Shane Gillis.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Oh, and that's next.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Ben and Skin Show ninety seven point one. The Eagle
will have some cowboys stuff coming up here in fifteen
minutes is Jerry can't stop talking.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
But you guys knew that. All right.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
We're halfway through a weekday update, and Katie, you were
just talking about this Ryad comedy festival in Saudi Arabia.
Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Bill Bird, just huge
names of comedy, all taking giant paychecks to go to
a questionable part of the world with some very unscrupulous
practices towards their citizen. Yeah, and so let's play some

(05:32):
audio of a couple of people who are offered or well,
one was offered, one was not.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
We'll start Shane Gillis. I'm gonna play you two clips
from his podcast.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
This is one from an episode it's gonna be chronologically.
The first clip you hear in the second clips like
a few days after that.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, the Middle East soon where why.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Saudi Arabia and UAE or Dubai Dubai.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
I think I'm gonna pass. Yeah, for the troops, for
the troops, not for the troops, that's for the Saudis,
for the Saudi princess. Yeah, and everyone's like, yeah, you
should do it. Everyone's doing it.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
It's like for Saudis, Yeah, what does the nine eleven guys?

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Exactly, the nine to eleven guys. It was Iran, wasn't it.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Yeah, it's all been Iran.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
This whole time. Convenient Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So it comes up again on his podcast like two
or three days later, okay, and he mentions that he passed.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I should have taken it.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
I gotta take the Saudi Arabia deal.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I should have taken it. I do get the fact
that they, yeah, porpetrated, I'm.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Not doing it.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
That is good.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Then they doubled the bag, and I was like, they
doubled the bag the princes. It was a significant bag.
What but I already said no, you know, I took
a principal stand.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, against Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
It wasn't even that. I didn't even think I thought
we were Abia. Yeah, we given a tonic of the
hell they do nine to eleven to us?

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wasn't it something by Laden just from Slovia Arabia?

Speaker 4 (07:05):
Every single high jacker basically, Yeah, So you don't nine
eleven your friends, bro, your friends, You don't let something
go over and go, hey, you guys want to talk
about it.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Was in the seventh grade when you guys did that.
It was nuts. That is a funny slogan. You don't
not even your friend, yeah never never not eleven your friends. Man,
But good for him, I guess.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
I mean, this is, this is, this is, this is
exactly live tour all over it. It is And I
wonder if the fall, you know, if you look at it,
it was a big talking point and all this stuff.
No one talks about it anymore. No, it's getting it's
horrible TV ratings, no one cares, not a good product,
No one cares about it. And so if you're the comedian,

(07:52):
maybe kind of watched all that and it's like, no
one even cares anymore. Might as well just go take
the money. The big difference is the comedian that's going
to do a gig over here still gets to stay
on their team in America and do gigs. Yeah, whereas
you a lift tour, you can't play on the PGA
Tour tournaments and things like that.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
You can go to play the majors.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I mean John Rahm did an interview basically saying he
wished he didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Oh, and that's I'm gonna give them money back then,
like you can, but he can't.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
He couldn't fully say it because there could be ramifications
for that, like, yeah, it hurts him to not have
a legacy of being on the tour.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
It's kind of crazy. Mark Marin boy, he was heated.
There's a d Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival.

Speaker 5 (08:32):
I mean, how do you even promote that from the
folks that brought you nine to eleven.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Two weeks of laughter in the desert don't miss it.

Speaker 5 (08:41):
I mean, the same guy that's gonna pay them as
the same guy that paid that guy to bon saw
Jamal Kashogi and put him in a suitcase.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
But don't let that stop the yucks. It's gonna be
a good time.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
But full disclosure, I was not asked to perform at
the Riod Comedy Festival. So it's kind of easy for
me to take the high road on this one. Easy
to maintain your integrity when no one's offering to.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Buy it out.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
I have. That's so good his last HBO special. I
think I watched it like four times, not you know,
top to bottom, but every time it came on, I
stopped on it because it was so f and funny.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I feel like I'm ninety to watch that.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Now he's got a whole thing about liberals ruining a barbecue.
Another comedian Namesh Patel, posted on Instagram that he pulled
out of the festival after Kimmel's show got pulled off
the air, sparking the free speech debate in America, which
they don't have free speech there. He's like, Okay, I'm
just gonna do forty dates here to make up the

(09:42):
money that I could get in one show over there.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Another comedian said, and I don't know. Atsuko Okatsuka, Oh
that's racist, said that she turned down the festival, and
she posted the offer that she received to perform, and
it did show the restrictions the jokes that comedians could
make and coulding not criticize the government, and she says
a lot of the you can't say anything any more.

(10:06):
Comedians are doing this festival, which is right. Yeah, Dave
Chappelle and Bill Burr. I mean Dave Chappelle won the
Mark Twain Award in twenty nineteen. And the whole speech
is about free speech and saying what right, like the
whole thing.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
So if he goes over there and does the double cross,
like yeah, I'll uh, I'll take half of it if
they pay him half upfront. But he stands on his
business and he says what he really wants to say.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Will his life be in danger? Are those mistakes? Oh?
I think I think so? And they killed a journalist
in June.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, and it's it and again and there was a
lot of problems during the World Cup too.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah. I don't know that. Boy, it's so interesting.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
I don't know that they would have the balls to
do something to Dave Chapelle, but maybe they do.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
What if he just didn't take the money, you know,
if he goes over there, he says those jokes and
then just gives them money back.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
But his whole approach is to do a routine about
taking the money.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, that's his approach.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
He will come back and have this to be a
Netflix special on why he went to do machine.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah yeah, oh man, oh good stuff. Yeah, it's crazy
all right. Coming up next and cussing the Cowboys are
the zero to four Jets about to murder the Dallas Nobbles.
We'll talk about that next
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