"Laughter is a kind of therapy. The situation in Syria is filled with problems and gloom," says Sharief Homsi, a member of "Styria", Syria's first stand-up comedy troupe, named as a mash-up of Syria and hysteria. In a dimly-lit Damascus cafe, Homsi and his colleagues, including Mary Obaid, crack jokes about life in war-battered Syria, because "comedy comes along tragedies", as Mary asserts. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES