This Friday night at The Ritz-Carlton in Dubai International Financial Centre, Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani will bring his jokes back to Dubai.
The funny man launched his career as part of the Axis of Evil comedy tour in 2005, becoming popular for poking fun at Middle Eastern stereotypes and being mistaken for an Arab.
He has since been seen on television and in theatres with Hollywood cameos and late night talk-show appearances. He released a memoir, I’m Not a Terrorist, But I’ve Played One On TV, earlier this year.
Talking to tabloid!, the 43-year-old father gets serious for a moment about race and politics in America, the racist roles he’s turned down and the evolution of the stand-up circuit in the Middle East.
First things first, for those who have seen you in Dubai before — what can we expect this time around? What’s different?
Well, this time around I’m going to dye my hair blonde. That and also I’m always working on new material so people will see stuff they haven’t seen before. I tend to bring back a few old jokes, but since I haven’t been there [since] May of 2014 there will be a lot of newer material. Also, I’m very excited to see what the promoters, Leo Events, have done in getting the word out. They’ve had a very fun and hip campaign so I’m hoping that we will get a really fun turnout that night.
You’ve performed to Dubai’s crowds before — what do they tend to be like? What jokes get them laughing hardest? Anything off-limits?
Dubai crowds are very international and I love that. I like to talk to the audience to see who’s there that night and it is entertaining for me when those conversations lead us to a place we didn’t expect to go.
Your book, I’m not a terrorist …, came out earlier this year. How have the reactions been?
The reactions have been very positive for the book. It made the Los Angeles Times’ bestseller list and was covered by a lot of media in the US. I tried to talk about the issues of growing up Iranian in America and I think that many Arabs in the US probably have had similar experiences. It’s really an immigrant’s story told in a funny way. I hope that people who read it get a good laugh but also feel some connection to it. I try to be positive and encourage people to pursue their dreams in telling some of the stories in my book.
Now that it’s been out a few months, how are you feeling about the book? Do you feel like you were able to tell the story you wanted to tell?
Yes, I think I was able to tell the story I wanted to tell and tell it in a tone I wanted to tell it in. Writing a book is a very long and arduous process. It was like going through therapy as things I had forgotten from many years ago would come up. However, if you do it bit by bit, one day you wake up and you’ve written over 200 pages. It was a very rewarding experience.
You’ve always been the kind of comedian who touches on race and politics. How would you say the current political climate in America impacts your stand-up?
I dealt with race and politics a lot more during the Bush administration. At that time both [George] Bush and [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad were in power and providing comedians fodder on a daily basis. I would say that Obama has given us less. However, there’s still a lot of stuff that is going on between the US and the Middle East that I try to touch upon: the nuclear deal, Isis [Daesh], continued discrimination of Muslims in the US. I don’t think those things will go away any time soon. I also tend to do more material about my kids. Being a dad has given me a whole new arsenal of jokes.
Other than stand-up, you’re known for your cameos and roles in television shows and films — how do you decide which roles to accept and which to say no to?
I try to do roles that I know I would enjoy. Early in my career, I took a few roles playing a terrorist and I didn’t like that. I felt it was feeding the negative stereotypes of Middle Easterners and Muslims in the US. So I made up my mind not to play those parts anymore. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to play all kinds of parts, an Arab-American secret service agent in the Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn movie The Interpreter, a doughnut shop owner in the Ice Cube movie Friday After Next and, most recently, I played Jafar, the Disney villain, in the Disney Channel movie Descendants. It was a fun part to do because in this version, Jafar has grown older and over the hill. The movie was more about his kid as well as the kids of three other Disney villains.
Can you tell us about a role you’ve turned down?
Sure … I usually turn down the audition. I don’t let it get to the point where they’re offering me the role if I know I’m not going to want to play it. One time an audition came in for a show that was being produced by Joel Surnow who was one of the creators of 24. I guess he is conservative and had wanted to create a conservative version of the Daily Show. They wanted me to audition for a sketch they were doing, in which three architects go in to pitch ideas for the design of the new Twin Towers that had been destroyed on 9/11. The first two architects were American and European and they had regular ideas. The third architect was Middle Eastern and he wanted to design the Twin Towers with a bullseye on them. In the sketch, he explained that to him that was a nice way to welcome people to the building. The intent behind the sketch was to show that the Middle Eastern guy wanted to attack the buildings again. I found it insulting and turned down the audition. I also asked that my representatives let them know the sketch was insulting.
Who are some fellow comedians out there right now that have caught your eye?
There are so many funny people. All you have to do is go on YouTube and watch one that will lead you to another and another and another. You could spend years watching them. Here’s a shortlist — JB Smoove, Sebastian Maniscalco, Chris Delia, Natasha Leggero, Lewis Black and on and on and on.
As someone who’s been part of the growth of the Middle Eastern stand-up scene, how would you say it’s evolved in the past five or 10 years?
I’m very excited to see the growth of stand-up in the region since I came there in 2007 with the Axis of Evil comedy tour. Back then there were only a few locals doing stand-up and on a much smaller scale. Now every country has a stand-up scene. Still, the difficulty for local comedians is that there aren’t enough clubs for them to get up five-10 times a week. That’s ultimately what you need to do to get really good at it. That’s why I’ve heard even Chris Rock say that if you’re really serious about stand-up you should move to New York or Los Angeles so you can get on stage at least 10 times a week.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’ve done a few guest star roles on TV recently. I finally got to do a part on Grey’s Anatomy, which will be in the season premiere in September. That was fun because I got to play a serious part and actually cry in the show. I’ll tell you, it ain’t easy! Besides that, I have written and star in an independent film called Jimmy Vestvood; Amerikan Hero. I describe it as the Persian Pink Panther meets Borat. It premiered at the Austin Film Festival last year and won the jury and audience awards for Best Comedy. We hope to release it wider in January so we’re working on that, as well.
Don’t miss it
Tickets to Eid with Maz Jobrani are Dh295, Dh395 and Dh550, available on platinumlist.net.
