New York’s Fashionable Present ‘Subway Takes’ Might Come to Cairo

Egyptian-American comic, filmmaker, and media persona Kareem Rahma introduced on Tuesday, 12 February, that his viral Instagram sequence ‘Subway Takes’ is perhaps coming residence to Cairo.

Rahma, 39, was invited as a particular visitor speaker to the launch of CairoScene and El Fasla’s yearly Impression Record which celebrates Egyptians who’ve formed the nation’s tradition, business, and public life during the last 12 months. On the occasion, in an onstage interview, Rahma hinted at what may very well be the present’s subsequent vacation spot.

“I feel the following cease will likely be Cairo for ‘Subway Takes’,” he stated, earlier than including, “That is the primary time I’ve ever stated that out loud… However right here’s the proof.”

The present, born out of the New York Metropolis Subway in 2023, has a easy premise: a quick dialog on a shifting prepare carriage. It consists of Rahma, sporting his signature outsized blazer and sporty sun shades, asking a visitor to share their “take”, a provocative or uncommon opinion, with which the host then 100% agrees or disagrees. Over the past two years, it has grow to be one in every of Instagram and TikTok’s hottest interview sequence.

The crux of the present is not only the visitor’s defence, but in addition the unscripted humour with which Rahma responds. It skyrocketed in recognition, reaching over one million followers, through the New York mayoral election, when Rahma’s capacity to attach with working-class New Yorkers of each calibre led him into the worldwide highlight.

Born in Imbabah, Cairo, to Egyptian mother and father, Rahma emigrated to the US together with his household when he was a toddler, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Now he’s taking ‘Subway Takes’ again residence with him to the Cairo Metro. It isn’t the primary time the present has left New York for a world stage – Rahma has held his prepare carriage interviews in London, Paris, and Berlin, amongst others. Nonetheless, it will likely be the primary time Rahma brings the present again to his roots.

‘Subway Takes’ could also be Rahma’s hottest enterprise by far, however his first breakout success was the 2022 sequence ‘Hold The Meter Operating’. The present featured a one-off episode in Cairo – the one and solely time Rahma has posted himself talking Arabic in his residence metropolis. If ‘Subway Takes’ does arrive within the capital, it wouldn’t simply be one other worldwide cease. It might be a full-circle second.