Dalin Oliver turns Dubai missile ordeal into comedy with 'Stuck in Dubai'
South African comedian Dalin Oliver joins Carol Ofori to share the extraordinary story behind his new comedy show, Stuck in Dubai.
After being stranded in Dubai during missile attacks and unexpectedly becoming South Africa’s eyes and ears on the ground, Dalin reveals how he turned a frightening experience into comedy, and why South African resilience sits at the heart of the show.
From missile attacks to an unexpected comedy show
What began as an ordinary trip quickly turned into one of the most surreal experiences of Dalin’s life.
He told Carol that he saw two missiles in the sky and then a mushroom cloud — but, in the moment, his South African brain did not immediately register what he was seeing.
He thought it might be Diwali fireworks. That changed very quickly!
Within 30 minutes, messages and phone calls started coming through asking if he was safe. By 4pm, his international flight had been cancelled, and by 6pm, international airspace had shut down.
Dalin ended up stranded in Dubai for several days, trying to make sense of a situation most people only ever see unfolding on the news.
Becoming South Africa’s eyes and ears on the ground
As the situation developed, Dalin posted a video explaining what was happening around him.
Within 24 hours, he says around 30 publications from across the world had contacted him.
Suddenly, the comedian found himself acting as an unexpected source of information for South Africans who wanted to know what conditions were actually like on the ground.
His focus, he told Carol, was simply to share what he could see and reassure people who had loved ones in Dubai.
While the headlines focused on explosions and missile attacks, Dalin wanted South Africans back home to understand that civilians where he was staying were safe, even if travel had come to a standstill.
Turning trauma into comedy
Most people would not immediately look at missile alerts, cancelled flights and closed airspace and think: comedy show.
But for Dalin, humour became part of how he processed the experience.
“We trauma bond,” he told Carol, reflecting on the way South Africans often use humour to navigate difficult situations.
That idea became one of the key threads running through Stuck in Dubai.
The show is not only about the chaos of being stranded overseas. It is also about resilience, perspective and the unique way South Africans find ways to keep going, even when circumstances feel completely out of their control.
Why being South African helped him through it
Dalin told Carol that one of the biggest themes in the show is learning to “channel your inner South Africanness”.
He joked that while the rand and the South African passport may not be the strongest in the world, if they were as resilient as South Africans themselves, the country would be a superpower.
For him, growing up in South Africa gives people a certain perspective on adversity.
You learn to adapt, you learn to read a situation, and you learn to keep moving.
That mindset, he says, helped him navigate an experience that was genuinely frightening.
It is also what eventually gave him the material to turn that experience into a comedy show.
How ‘Stuck in Dubai’ came together
Interestingly, Dalin did not initially plan to turn the experience into a show.
After returning home, it was his wife Maxine who encouraged him to write about what had happened.
He told Carol that he would normally take months to develop a new comedy show, but this time he decided to lean into the experience.
The result is Stuck in Dubai — a deeply personal story told through humour, South African perspective and the kind of observations that have become central to Dalin’s comedy.
Where to see Dalin Oliver in KZN
KwaZulu-Natal audiences will get the chance to see Stuck in Dubai in October.
Dalin will perform at Piggly Wiggly Coffee Shop in the Midlands on 2 October, followed by shows at the Rumbelo Theatre in Durban on 3 and 4 October.
Tickets are available at dalinoliver.com.
For Carol, the conversation was also a reminder of why comedy matters.
Sometimes it gives us an escape from reality.
Other times, it helps us make sense of it.
And in Dalin Oliver’s case, one terrifying experience in Dubai has become a story about resilience, identity and the very South African ability to find something to laugh about when life gets completely unpredictable.
Listen to Carol Ofori’s full conversation with Dalin Oliver above.
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