At 26 in 2017, Jamali Maddix became internationally known for his hit series on Viceland Hate Thy Neighbor, where he went around the world interviewing far right nationalist groups such as Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan.
Doing this while being a mixed-race man of Jamaican-Greek origin, a pop-up show at the Dubai Arts Club ain’t nothing for the 32 year old seasoned comedian.
A couple weeks ago, Maddix took the stage at The Dubai Arts Club’s first ever comedy show, a five-floor venue usually reserved for visual art, talks on film, culture, spoken word performance, and high-concept gastro-mixology.
The Nevermind the Buzzcocks star came out swinging, with jokes on the different countries he’s been to, a hilarious verbal attack on the audience, and eating a**- and that was just the first five minutes.
Though things seemed tense for the posh and proper Dubai patrons at first, he kept swinging- picking apart the audience and getting them on his side through crowd-work that weaved their stories together through callbacks and absurdist humor.
Influenced by comedy greats such as Bill Hicks and Dave Chapelle, Maddix enjoys fighting on the back foot first, and forcing the audience to get on his side through a flurry of jokes that inevitably result in their laughter.
With high-wire premises like “remember when terrorism was good?” (It’s better performed than written down), Jamali understands that funny always comes first, and laughter to him, is the best way forward.
“there’s gonna be repercussions to your words. And you gotta take that. If I stand by something, and people still hate it, I still stand by it.”
JM
Though the comic has performed all over Europe and the United States, this definitely was a different pace for Maddix, and was a much needed endeavor for the rapidly developing culture hub that is Dubai- suffice to say that the audience left happier than when they entered, at least I did.
It seems Jamali has a philosophy that you can’t take things too seriously, and that’s how you truly enjoy your revolutions around the sun. This was made abundantly clear to me as he joined our Zoom-call interview fashionably late, from a Dubai rooftop with a pint in hand.
Full warning: In case you hadn’t put it together, Jamali is known to drop a couple f(and other lettered)-bombs, just saying.
Read our full interview on the international comic scene, finding the funny, crossing the line, and his upcoming plans for the future.
Jamali Maddix sits down with Esquire Middle East
Last time you were here in Dubai was 2015, right? Did you perform?
JM: That’s crazy, I wasn’t doing comedy that long when I came out here. I came over with the Laughter Factory cause they used to bring over comedians from England monthly or whatever and I got to come. It was a good experience.
Were you excited to be back? And have you seen the comedy scene change since then here or internationally?
JM: From what I hear it’s definitely getting bigger and more healthy. I know they have like a comedy festival now here. And it definitely seems like there’s more happening.
I’ll be honest with you, what was good to see as well is that yesterday when I did this show, there was more locals at the show. Whereas before when I first came here, it was definitely just playing to expats. But it seems like there’s more locals now, which I think is always a healthy sign to a comedy scene is we start seeing locals, you know, as opposed to just expats.
You got a tattoo in your first year of Uni to put the nail in the coffin on conventional corporate work. You say that’s why you put it on your forearm, so you “couldn’t work in a bank”. Did that work in driving you to succeed as a comic?
JM: Nah, I think that was just me being twenty-two and stupid and thinking that was the “thing”. Like, I look back and it’s a very embarrassing quote because I forgot about the invention of long-sleeve shirts.
I think for me, it was more that I definitely would never have been able to work in a corporate environment. I didn’t have any skills in that department anyway. So I don’t know why I was so arrogant to think I was going to be able to work in a corporate job.
But I definitely chose what this was- I was like, Oh, I’m going to do this now. It’s definitely a choice I did make in my twenties where I was like, “I’m going to pursue this and only this”.
Would you recommend others to do the same with the tat in going all in on their dreams?
JM: I mean look man, if that’s what you want to do, but you can do it without being tattooed. I’ve got a bunch of them, but you don’t need a tattoo to commit to it, I think you just gotta commit to it.
Yeah, I feel like also there’s there’s certain people that maybe shouldn’t be getting a face tattoo because they’re just not that good at their dream.
JM: Yeah, face tat is a bit much- I want to get the back of my head done but I wouldn’t get my face done I don’t think.
What do you think you’d be today if not a comedian?
JM: I think about it a lot, man. Honestly, I wanted to do youth work but I really don’t know. I don’t think I would’ve done anything of interest. It was either this or probably unemployment. I don’t think there was many options.
People love your show Hate thy Neighbor that you did with VICE, why do you think that it spoke to so many viewers around the world?
JM: I honestly don’t know, you know? When we made the show [in 2017] I thought it was just like, a dumb little show we made. I genuinely didn’t think people would still be talking about it. I don’t like talking about my work in this way cause I think it’s kind of arrogant, but I hope it was kind of a honest depiction of people’s views. And, we hear about these views a lot, but we sort of don’t attach a person to it. And it was good for people to see the face, and the actual personality, and the actual whys, not just what they’re saying.
When we made the show, a lot of things hit at the right time like when we started making the show, it was still Obama in power. And then, Trump was running just as we started making the show, and when we finished making the show, Trump was elected.
So it was this weird time in this sort of shift where the far-right politics sort of became mainstream, you know what I mean? And we were in that moment which I think was pure luck- it wasn’t devised in that way because we never [fore]saw Trump getting in power. It was just a lot of things that hit in that moment which is why I think it became popular.
Yeah, I think I think that you sort of showed people what they forgot still existed in the world. And then when the when Trump came into power, everybody sort of got wise to that. It’s a really good concept for a show. I mean, you’ve seen a lot of different comedians, take your flow with that and doing it in their own way. Sacha Baron Cohen with Who is America, things like that.
JM: Yeah he was doing it before me. Doing great work with Bruno and putting in a lot of work in terms of showing the truth of people. I think that’s what he does so well is showing that. We live in a world with social media where everyone’s kind of media trained now right? Everyone kind of knows “if I say something wild, it’s gonna go everywhere”. So they kind of reserve their real thoughts. But he has a way of breaking through that which I think is genius.
Would you ever do another season or are you thinking about other things now?
JM: Not Hate Thy Neighbor I wouldn’t do that show again cause I think its had its run. I’ve thought about doing another doc. I’ve sort of played with the idea a few times, made some docs, and they weren’t very good. But I am definitely gonna make some more. I kind of miss it and miss doing it, it’s something that I was good at.
I needed a break from it, I took like a three year break to pursue other things but its definitely something I’m trying to get back into.
I’m always really impressed by the fact that comedians are able to take really dark things and make “funny” out of that. But I definitely think that in the last three years, it seemed sort of harder to do.
In May of 2020 post George Floyd’s murder, you took to instagram to reflect on how your work and the way you did it had an effect on the real-world around you. Covering BLM protests years prior and regretting wearing the riot helmet, as it paints a narritive of the “violent” black community, and possibly giving the hateful a platform through Hate thy neighbor. Can you talk to me a little bit about how that period changed you and what you took away from it to this day?
JM: With that post, when you’re doing things in the moment, it’s only over time that you reflect on it. People forget that when I made that documentary, I looked older but I was only 24-25. That’s the thing about TV sometimes, or about that doc, where its kind of an imprint of my “forever”, and it was a moment in my youth kind of thing you know?
But in terms of how it changed me, I think it was like a learning curve like I said I was 25, and there was many more factors to it than just within the doc. Life existed outside of that doc you know what I mean?
It made me change my views on the business side of showbiz. It made me question creativity, it made me question art, it made me question a lot of things. There was a lot of some good and some bad, the narrative, what it means to have a TV show that people like, what it means to have a TV show that people don’t like. I kind of got a big lesson early on.
Obviously, finding the funny is your strength. But do you ever have moments or times where you have trouble turning that that part of your brain off when you’re supposed to maybe be serious like at a funeral or something?
JM: Oh yeah, that’s the comedian’s downfall. I mean, I’m still human I know there’s certain moments I shouldn’t make a joke, but I think I’ve gotten to the point now where I’ll say it in my head and I have a second think of “should I say this?”, where before it was more unfiltered. But yeah, there’s still times where I say things I shouldn’t at the wrong time but that’s fine, that’s life.
They’re jokes, at the end of the day, right?
JM: It’s interesting to me how seriously someone can take a joke and I haven’t quite figured it out yet why that is. What is it about a joke that is so upsetting and offensive. Is it that there’s people laughing, is it that there’s humor in it, I don’t know. But that’s a story for another day.
I think you have a you have a pretty good idea of it though. You said on Sway in the Morning that you believe in jokes being jokes but you also believe in repercussions for words.
JM: Nothing’s free, like no words are free. I’ve gotten in trouble for jokes and I truly do say I think jokes are just jokes. Obviously, you say things in the moment and whatever, but there’s gonna be repercussions to your words. And you gotta take that. If I stand by something, and people still hate it, I still stand by it.
You’ve done your research (laughing) you’re like “On Sway in 2002” and I’m like “God I forgot I even said that!” That’s another problem, sometimes I just say things, I don’t even remember saying it, and then someone says it back to me and I go “f**k, did I say that?”
Over COVID, you hadn’t performed for five months and then came back to drive in shows initially. Finding the line is easy for a seasoned comic when you have that constant audience feedback, but did lockdowns take you out of practice with that?
JM: I really don’t think there is a line. If we are going by a line, they shift so much and no one really decides who the arbiter is. Who’s decided this line? I think a good comedian kind of finds a “line” and dances on it that’s when great stuff happens.
So I don’t bog myself down with lines and all of that I think that’s sort of a concept for other people to worry about. I just try and be funny. And if I get it wrong, I get it wrong and if I don’t then great, I’ve created something.
After lockdown, it was more the craft that I was out of shape with than the “can I say this” “can’t I say this” of it all. Just being on stage and remembering about breathing and pacing you know? I remember the first show I did back, for some reason I just swore a lot. Every other word was f**k, and stuff like that- little things, little nuances.
Though you don’t want to be labelled a “race comic” you talk about race and being biracial often, not in like a Logic way it’s obviously relevant because it’s relevant to your experience.
Did making jokes about having a Jamaican dad but a White mom, and the way you present more like a Pakistani guy help you navigate those complex racial concepts in your own life off-stage?
JM: It’s just funny innit? When it comes to navigating racial lines, a lot of that is done into a post-thought. I just exist and say what I think is funny at the time, and if it is relevant, or has something higher to it, then great. If not, it’s just funny.
I don’t necessarily think because I had this, this and this, it created that. All I can do is talk about my experience, and my experience is what I am. So that’s just what I’ve created like, if I was a Chinese dude, I’ll talk about that, If I was a white guy, I’ll talk about that. It’s not as tangible to me to say “I’m gonna talk about this narrative”, its never been a thought like that.
Have you ever figured something out about yourself from talking about it on stage?
JM: Yeah, but never racially. I think being on stage and being in front of that many people and being in those situations definitely makes you think about who you are.
I mean look, the first hour is all about your [genitals], and then the second hour, you’re trying to be smart, and by the third hour, you kind of gotta think about something else, and so you start to look inside yourself and I think that thought is where finding things out about yourself comes from.
Having to dig deep inside yourself and really questioning yourself on “what do I really think about this? Even if it’s uncomfortable, even if I know I’m wrong, but what do I think about it? Even just being on stage in front of people, I think you find out what character you are, are you the type of person where when it gets tough do you pull back? Or do you go in? If it’s a rough crowd, how are you going to deal with it? Are you going to lash out? Or are you going to try and get them on your side? You know, you figure a lot about your character. I think its more than just my existence as a brown guy like I don’t think comedies shaped that.
Is that why you like doing those shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, because you’re able to talk about things in the news with an audience that isn’t yours.
JM: Nah just a job innit. I just like it because they’re funny and fun. And, you know, I like talking s**t.
I’m sorry, it’s not a deeper answer for you like, “I get to talk to people that aren’t my audience” but nah.
And the thing of “its not my audience”, I used to think that a lot, and then I realized that they’re in front of you. And they’ve come to see a show- They’re your audience. They might not be the audience you want, but they’re your audience.
Man said “sorry, no deep answers” and then just dropped some deep insights right after.
JM: (Laughing)
Do you watch other comedians? Do you have a top three specials from other comedians from this past year?
JM: I don’t know about this past year, the year’s only just started but I have a top three of all time. Doug Stanhope- Word of Mouth, I used to watch that on repeat when I was at uni. I love that special it’s everything that I liked in comedy at that age in one special. The exact style of comedy I wanted to see.
Patrice O’Neil’s Elephant in the Room is one of my favorite specials too.
The third’s a toss up between Dave Chappelle’s Equanimity & The Bird Revelation which is the only special I watched and immediately watched again, and Bill Hick’s Live in Montreal. I watched that one when I was fifteen and was like “this is the s**t”, I love that special.
Yeah, watching comedians like Stanhope really makes me happy because it’s like an older comedian that’s still like, really funny. Because you see a lot of them like falling apart.
JM: Yeah, he’s still funny and still razor sharp like he’ll have an opinion or an angle and you’re like “ooh okay!”
He’s still got bits man, he’s definitely one of my favorites. Just vicious, but righteously vicious. He’s brutal, but it’s coming from such an honest place. And, a lot of the time he’s coming from a kind place, but it’s still brutal you know? He’s saying good things like we should be more open minded, and we should be kinder, but it’s brutal.
That Word of Mouth special, I remember watching that in uni on repeat cause I hated uni, I was bare miserable and that was just like the Holy Grail for me.
Solid homework for our readers this weekend.
Find tickets to see Jamali Maddix live in your city at jamalimaddix.com.