Comedy overcomes racial and cultural boundaries
Iranian-born comic Maz Jobrani is taking the micky out of the world one country at a time and the audiences are loving every minute
New York: History says Maz Jobrani is descended from Caucasians. Some Americans think he's a dangerous Arab. Jobrani, however, prefers to call himself "Brown and Friendly".
That's the title of a new comedy special from this Iranian-born comedian who was raised in the US and now travels the world running roughshod over ethnic stereotypes.
Jobrani starts his show laughing at his fellow Persians, then widens his scope to the whole Middle East.
His Indian wife gets no mercy.
Before the end of the show, Mexicans, white Americans, Japanese, the Swiss and more get lampooned, in a variety of perfect accents.
"If you come from a place of love, and you're not saying, ‘I'm better than you', that's one thing that allows you to talk about different ethnicities," Jobrani said in an interview.
"It's almost like laughing with each other.
Upset audiences
"I've had people come up to me after the show and say, ‘Why did you not make fun of Pakistan?' People are actually upset you didn't talk about them. When you do, it's like, ‘Cool, I'm in the circle.'"
Jobrani is 37 with fair skin, a prominent nose, shaved head and dramatic down-swooping black moustache.
He moved from Tehran to the San Francisco Bay area with his family when he was 6. A love of theatre led to stand-up comedy and roles in film and television, including Life on a Stick, 24, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Knights of Prosperity. His new one-man show premiered in January and was released on Tuesday on DVD.
In the fourth grade, Jobrani endured insults after Islamic revolutionaries took hostages inside Iran's American embassy. In high school and college, he was called "shaikh" and "camel jockey". Then came the World Trade Centre attacks, which changed the lives of many Middle Easterners living in the US.
"Definitely in the West, we're all cast as the same now," Jobrani said. "Whether you're Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Iranian, Afghan or whatever, you just get thrown into this category. And nine times out of 10, you're depicted as bad."
The cure for this disease is familiarity.
