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Comedy in Camp Bastion

Kate Laycock, Emma WallisAugust 17, 2013

Estonian-American comedian Andy Valvur talks about doing stand-up comedy for Estonian soldiers in Afghanistan.

https://p.dw.com/p/19SkU

There are some 28,000 international troops stationed in Camp Bastion, the massive military base which serves as a logistics hub for operations in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. About 150 of those soldiers are Estonian. That may not be many, but it certainly is enough to warrant a specially-tailored Estonian entertainment program.

That's where Estonian-American comedian Andy Valvur comes in.

When the Estonian military invited Andy to go to Afghanistan, his immediate response was "OK." Was there anything he should know first? "Well," he was told, "it's probably best to steer off topics like God and Islam, but otherwise you should be fine. Oh, and what was your blood type again?"

Andy Valvur was about to go where no Estonian-American comedian had ever gone before ...