From Iran To Comedy Central: Maz Jobrani's Path To 'Middle Eastern Funny Man'

Transcript

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

After 9/11, President George Bush made a speech about America's enemies - the axis of evil - Iran, Iraq and North Korea. That made a Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani think, uh-oh. But then he decided to do what he always does - laugh about it. He and some of his friends even started the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SHOW)

MAZ JOBRANI: I go, yeah, I'm Iranian. They go, oh, so you're Arab. And I'm, like, no, we're actually different. But, you know, I mean, we're similar. You know, we're getting shot at. You know, that's one thing. And then my American friends go, well how can we tell you apart? How can we - and I go, it's in the accent. It's in the accent. Iranians - when Iranians speak they talk like this - slowly - Iranians talk like this.

(LAUGHTER)

JOBRANI: Iranians talk like this. We talk very slow, like, you know, maybe just shot some heroin. We're falling asleep.

MCEVERS: Jobrani's been in movies and TV shows, and now he's written a new memoir called "I'm Not A Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV." And Maz Jobrani joins us now from our studios at NPR West. Welcome.

JOBRANI: Hi, thanks for having me.

MCEVERS: Yeah. You were born in Iran, but you came to the U.S. pretty young, right? Six years old?

JOBRANI: Thank you for playing that clip, too. That was, like, eight years ago. And I was like, ah, like, I keep hearing it. It's great. It's fine.

MCEVERS: Well, it was on the YouTubes, so, you know.

JOBRANI: But yeah, 6 years old - I went from Iran, and the first thing we did was my father was on business in New York. And at the time, nobody, I think, in Iran realized that the revolution was actually going to happen. So my father sent for my mom to bring me and my sister during our winter break. And I always say we packed for two weeks and we stayed for 35 years.

MCEVERS: Wow. So this was 1979?

JOBRANI: This was late '78.

MCEVERS: OK.

JOBRANI: I'm staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York -

MCEVERS: Wow.

JOBRANI: - Across the street from FAO Schwarz and I'm like, this is great. I'm like, this revolution's really working out for me, you know?

MCEVERS: (Laughter) It sounds like it was really tough.

JOBRANI: It was tough. It was tough.

MCEVERS: Yeah, there's something in the book about like eating like strawberries and whipped cream and ordering room service and stuff.

JOBRANI: That was my - that was my go-to thing back then - strawberries and whipped cream. It was amazing, because I feel guilty a lot of times because I talk to a lot of my Iranian friends who are my age and they'll be like, yeah, you know? One of my friends was like, I had to like escape through Pakistan, and, you know, be away from my family for a year. And then this and that, you know - smugglers - and I'm like whoa. So I feel guilty all the time of the way I came out here.

MCEVERS: Right. And then you ended up in California - in Marin County - Northern California, outside of San Francisco. And you, you know, you didn't have a totally easy time of it. There were not a lot of other Iranian families around. People made fun of you in school. Can you tell us about that?

JOBRANI: Yeah, I grew up in Northern California - Marin County, Tiburon. And it's interesting. It's a very rich place but a lot of the affluent people are - they're not as showy. So like they might have like a Saab or a Volvo. And then here comes my dad from Iran. He buys a Rolls-Royce. And I'm like, Dude, what are you doing? We're supposed to lay low. And this is like during the hostage situation and he's driving me around in a Rolls-Royce and I was mortified. And I'd be like, kids are teasing me at school for being this rich Iranian with an oil well, you know?

MCEVERS: What did your dad actually do that he could be such a roller?

JOBRANI: Well, he had an oil well.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

JOBRANI: But no, I'm kidding. No. He was - my dad was - he made a lot of money. He had an electric company in Iran, so he brought a lot of money to America. And then he lost all of it in real estate investments.

MCEVERS: Your parents expected you to do something like be a, you know, become a doctor. I mean, this was kind of a common path for Iranians here in the U.S. And for a minute, you were in a Ph.D. program at UCLA, but it seems like what you really wanted to do all along was become a comedian. That was not an easy thing to do, right? I mean, it's a hard slog.

JOBRANI: Yeah, it was tough. First, you know, I dropped out of the Ph.D. program the first year. So I basically got the P. It's...

MCEVERS: Ba-da-bump (ph).

JOBRANI: Ba-da-bump. I didn't get the P. In all honesty, I dropped out and I ended up there because my parents - you know, they had really convinced me that I should be a lawyer or a doctor. I would tell my mom - I'd say, you know, I want to be an actor or a comedian. And she'd be like, you know, just become a lawyer and then on the weekends you can tell jokes.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

JOBRANI: I was like OK. And, you know, I think immigrant parents have this. They come from another country. They set up shop. They're like, we worked hard. We got away from a revolution for you to come to America not to be a comedian, OK?

MCEVERS: Like make something of yourself, you know? We...

JOBRANI: Make something. She was like, listen, let me tell you something. At least, learn to be a mechanic. I was like, what? She goes, yes, you need to be a mechanic because people need mechanics. Nobody needs actors. People need mechanics.

MCEVERS: You're always ready to flee. You've got to have your cash and you got to have a job you can do anywhere.

JOBRANI: This is the truth. You've got the immigrant mentality down.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) You know, it's one thing to do shows in the U.S. - you know, like, look. Look at us. Muslims are people, too. But then you did it in the region itself. You would make jokes about Arabs and Persians to Arabs and Persians.

JOBRANI: Yeah, it was amazing. You know, any standup that you see who you go oh, wow, that guy's, you know, that guy's making it. Inevitably, they've been doing it 10, 12 years - 10, 15 years. Because it takes time. And so for us, when the "Axis Of Evil" comedy tour came out, I'd been doing standup for like 7, 8 years. It comes out on Comedy Central. And at the time, if you would have asked me, hey, where do you think you'll be performing outside the U.S. a year from now? I would have said England, Canada and Australia.

And about six months after we came out on Comedy Central and it ended up on YouTube, we got some people from Jordan - called us and they said, yes, we would like for you to come do your show here in Jordan. And I was like, bro, I'd love to, but the show's in English. And he's like, yeah, I'm speaking English to you right now, you idiot. And I was like, oh, yeah. And it hit me that there's a whole world out there that understands American culture, speaks English. I mean, like, you could go to Saudi Arabia and do a joke about Lindsay Lohan and they'd be like, oh, that Lindsay, always in the rehab.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

JOBRANI: So it's amazing, because over the past seven years, there has been a birth of standup comedy in the region. So now there's people from those countries doing standup comedy.

MCEVERS: Your father has passed away, right? But your mother is still around. She lives in Los Angeles. What does she think about your career?

JOBRANI: Well, my mother was very wary at first. And now she's come around 180 degrees. She's like one of my biggest fans now. Like, she'll come over to my house and she'll be like, OK, listen. I need two T-shirts from the comedy show and give me three DVDs. The neighbors are asking for them.

MCEVERS: Before your father passed away, what did he think about your career?

JOBRANI: My father, you know, he lived - he lived the last years of his life in Iran. And I don't know if he quite understood what I was doing. So he would still on the phone - he'd be like - I'd be like, Dad, my acting is going well. My comedy is - he's like, very good, very good. So when this is all done and you go back to school and you get your Ph.D., then you can come work with me. And I was like, no, but Dad, this is professional - this is real. And he's like, I get it. But when you get the degree, then we can talk. I had to tell him how much I was getting paid on the TV show and he's like, oh! OK. So this is a real job.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

JOBRANI: And I was like yeah.

MCEVERS: Nice. Well, Maz Jobrani, thanks so much for sharing your stories with us.

JOBRANI: Thank you for having me - really fun.

MCEVERS: Maz Jobrani's new book is "I'm Not A Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV." You might also hear him as a panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.