NO: 17205 - FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017www.kuwaittimes.net

Min 23ºMax 35º

FREE

By Faten Omar

If creativity were a person, it’d be manifestedin YouTubers Adam Saleh and Slim Al-Baher.Kuwait Times had a chance to chat exclusive-

ly with the famous prankster Saleh and comedi-an Baher, to learn more about their recent visitto Kuwait City.

This reporter met Saleh and Al-Baher at avenue in Mirqab just after their third of four sold-out shows. Youthful, excited fans surroundedthe two performers, snapping selfies, asking forautographs, talking and laughing. Saleh, a 23-year-old American YouTube personality, vlogger,actor and rapper from New York, (originally fromYemen) is the big draw. He commands morethan 1.8 million viewers on YouTube and has 1.3million followers on Instagram.

Known as a prankster, Saleh actually incor-porates many positive messages into his show,including diversity, inclusion, respect for parentsand Islam.

Saleh and comedian partner Baher startedmaking videos in 2012 for their YouTube chan-nel for fun when they were 18 years old. But theduo’s pranks quickly went viral. Saleh’s mostpopular videos on his online channel are ‘KillerClown Prank Gone Wrong’ with 32,780,267views, ‘Street Boxing Match’ with 12,378,412views and ‘Zombie Prank Gone Wrong’ with

8,553,597 views. Visiting Kuwait, the duo per-formed a modern version of a variety show witha heart. For starters, Saleh performs with hisniece Reema Saleh, vlogger of TrueStoryASAand his family also traveled with him to Kuwait.“The four-day show is a mixture of comedy,dancing and acting. Reema will also sing anddance. We interact with the audience and teachthem a valuable lessons,” Adam explained.

Adam told Kuwait Times that the audienceattended from different ages “The children loveReema, and the elders love my pranks on myfather.” About Kuwait, Slim said, “Coming backto Kuwait was a dream come true to my father,he used to work in Kuwait 30 years ago.” He wasamazed by the hospitality and generosity ofpeople of Kuwait.

The prankster gets prankedWhile here, Saleh got a taste of his own med-

icine. “Police officers stopped us and they askedfor our passports which we did not have it withus that time. We were scared that our driver didsomething wrong. After that we discovered thatit is a prank. And we fell for it.”

Saleh is no stranger to abuses of authority. In

December 2016, he was kicked off a DeltaAirlines Flight simply for speaking Arabic.

“I just asked Slim to move his bag, spoke withmy mother on the phone because she had notseen me for a month. We always speak Arabicwith each other but that time a woman decidesthat she felt “uncomfortable” with us speakingArabic. I told her to relax and explained to herthat I spoke Arabic because we just came fromUAE but her husband started to insult us andtelling us to leave the plane,” Saleh said.

“Being kicked out because of our languagemade us feel scared and unsecure because wedid not do anything wrong. Although some pas-sengers defended us but the media chose tointerview the people who kicked us off instead,”Saleh told the Kuwait Times.

Baher also noted that some US media makea point of making Muslims look bad to continuestirring fear in America. “They accused us thatwe did speak Arabic for a prank to scare people!We was not filming even on the plane and weusually use our professional camera.”Tomorrow, Saleh and Baher head over to Dubaifor another performance and its off for a NorthAmerican tour that includes shows in LosAngeles, San Francisco, Orlando Area,Charlotte, Washington DC, New York, Montreal,Toronto, Dearborn, Chicago, Minneapolis,Dallas and Houston.

Kuwait Times Exclusive Interview

A chat with YouTube sensation Adam Saleh

YouTube prankster Adam Saleh met with theKuwait Times yesterday for an exclusive inter-view during his visit to Kuwait. — Photo byJoseph Shagra