Amid a worldwide health crisis and a political civil rights movement, stand-up comedian Maz Jobrani still believes in the global healing power of comedy. He spoke to Esquire Middle East, on the phone(!) from his house in LA, about release of his new comedy special ‘Pandemic Warrior’, now streaming in the US on Peacock.
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ESQUIRE: Maz, tell us, is it a tough time to be a comedian at the moment?
Maz Jobrani: You know, it is actually been okay, considering all that is going on in the world. ESQ: How so? MJ: There’s so much material coming out of the lockdown situation that I’ve been able to do couple of standup gigs via Zoom, and I’ve also started a talk show called ‘Maz In The House’, where I bring on a few guests, do some jokes and riff on what’s going on in my life or on the news to a live audience of 150 people. There is so much going on that if I had the capacity to film it all in higher quality, I reckon I could release two or three comedy specials this year alone!
ESQ: That’s awesome. So it has been a super productive time for you?
MJ: My productivity has been interesting one. I am very easily distracted as a person, so I find that I work better with other people. The other day a friend of mine was encouraging me to start writing a screenplay that I’d been talking about for ages, but I kept coming up with excuses as to why it wasn’t ‘the right time’. He told me to stop worrying about it being perfect. He said ‘perfection is the enemy of good’ and that is so true. ESQ: What is the normal process of releasing a ‘comedy special’? MJ: A special is a filmed version of your stand-up set. So my life is basically getting up on stage around five times a week to do stand-up, which also allows me to work on new jokes. I do this for about a year or two, until I have around an hour’s worth of material— then I’ll film it, release it as a special and start the cycle all over again.
ESQ: Does telling the same jokes over and over for a year get exhausting?
MJ: Not really, as you are continuously experimenting with new ways of delivering it so you can get the most laughs. The trouble is as soon as you do a joke on TV then the joke is done and you have to retire it. It’s funny because if you compare comedians to rockstars, the fans want the rockstar to play their old stuff, whereas with comedians a joke is at its funniest the first time you hear so you have to keep writing new material.
ESQ: Speaking of comedy specials, you have a new one ready to drop, aptly called Pandemic Warrior. Tell us about it?
MJ: Last December I was doing a tour in the Middle East and while in Dubai I filmed a special of my show ‘Peaceful Warrior’. We started editing it in early 2020 but then suddenly everything stopped because of the Coronavirus. Following the shows I was doing on Zoom, we ended up reworking the Peaceful Warrior show and adding some elements from me doing stand-up at my house on Zoom—the way I was been doing it during the pandemic, so it felt apt to change the name.
The promoters always used to meet us at the airport in Kuwait or the UAE and say to us ‘no sex, no religion, no politics!’… except for Lebanon, they would say ‘more sex, more religion, more politics’!
ESQ: Are the crowds in the Middle East much different from where you live in the US?
MJ: My crowds always tend to be pretty diverse, but the ones in places like Dubai are even more so. I’ve been lucky to witness the evolution of comedy in the Middle East. I first toured in the region in 2007 with a bunch of other Arab-American comedians as part of the Axis Of Evil Comedy Tour. It was the first time that a group of Arab-Americans did standup in the region and, in fact, there really wasn’t much standup culture at all.
It has been great watching the audiences grow and learn about the art form. Arab men tend to be very macho, so if you start kidding around with them they used to get offended easily. Whereas now, there is a much more widespread understanding that it is all just a joke. The promoters always used to meet us at the airport in Kuwait or the UAE and say to us ‘no sex, no religion, no politics!’… except for Lebanon, they would say ‘more sex, more religion, more politics’! It feels like things have evolved because now, we don’t get that same warning as before, but it is still important to respect culture. Ultimately, today, the audiences are more understanding and savvy.
ESQ: Does an audience’s diversity make things more of a challenge? Say for example you’re not sure they will all get the same reference points. MJ: One of the things I love about stand up is the boarder-crossing potential of it. It’s amazing to see how much in common everyone in the world has. When I complain about my kids on stage, other people relate to it; when I talk about my parents, other people relate; when I talk about being discriminated against, other people can relate. Performing to a mixed crowd like in the UAE is one of my favourite things for that very reason.
ESQ: What is a pet hate of yours?
MJ: I hate it when people introduce me as an ‘Iranian’ comedian. I am a comedian, who happens to be Iranian-American. I pride myself on jokes that you can understand regardless of where you happen to be from, so why does it matter where I’m from? It’s like the TV show, Ramy. You don’t have to be an Egyptian-American male to get it. It is a great show about a young guy in New York City, regardless of the nationality of the main character. You don’t have to look like the person who is on stage to get what they are saying, and I’m finding that more and more with stand up these days for sure.
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