Valuetainment - Former Iranian Refugee Turned Comedian Opens Up

00:00:00.000 So my guest today is a comedian, an activist, an author. He did something that was not an easy

00:00:06.180 thing to do back in 2016, I believe it was, when he went to the Middle East and he did this tour

00:00:11.860 where it sold out 27 different places, Dubai, Beirut, Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, in front of the

00:00:18.960 King and the Queen of Jordan. And we had Amman four years ago. We were putting an annual convention

00:00:23.840 together in Las Vegas. We had, I don't know, four or five thousand people there. And we brought

00:00:28.080 Amman and he, I mean, the crowd fell in love with him immediately. When this guy's on stage,

00:00:35.380 he lights up. But at the same time, the reason why I wanted to bring him on, I respect his opinion.

00:00:40.420 I think when a country like us is in a situation that it's at, sometimes we need comedians.

00:00:45.600 Comedians can play the role of a synergist to kind of lighten the load and get us to say,

00:00:50.080 listen, can we all just get along?

00:00:58.080 Maz Jabrani, thank you so much for being a guest on Valuetainment.

00:01:18.840 Thank you for having me, Patrick. I appreciate you having me on. Actually, that tour you mentioned

00:01:23.140 was the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. It was in 2007. I appreciate you.

00:01:28.940 Yeah, I know. It's good because as I'm getting older, I like that you kind of pushed it up a

00:01:32.940 little. So now I felt younger for a second. I was trying to make you younger, but

00:01:36.720 2007. So the talk you gave on the TEDx, the one that's got 15, 20 million views, was that 07?

00:01:45.940 No, that one was, I believe, in 08 or 09. So the story goes, in 07, we went with the Axis of Evil

00:01:52.540 Comedy Tour. That was me and three other Middle Eastern American comedians. And we were the first

00:01:57.920 group of guys who came out on Comedy Central who were from our part of the world doing stand-up.

00:02:03.040 And I always say it was the first time you saw Middle Easterners on American television and we

00:02:07.920 weren't killed. We were just telling jokes. And so that tour took us to the Middle East. And it was

00:02:14.680 amazing. Like you just said, we got a chance to do 27 shows over 30 days. The King of Jordan showed up

00:02:20.320 at one of the shows. And that set us off. And then after that, we kept going back. And the TED talk

00:02:26.080 that you're talking about that has something like 15 million views happened a couple of years later

00:02:30.680 in Doha, Qatar, which I'm sure you've been to. It's a beautiful, it's a smaller version of, let's

00:02:37.480 say, Dubai, but it's still beautiful state-of-the-art. And what I love about that TED talk

00:02:44.600 is not just the fact that, oh, I got a chance to go do this TED talk, but the fact that they

00:02:51.140 did it in Doha. So when they go to the audience, you see people dressed in the traditional Arab garb

00:02:58.260 and they're laughing. And to me, that is a message that I think we should share around the world,

00:03:04.620 that people from that part of the world love to laugh just like anywhere else.

00:03:07.540 And by the way, you were not holding back. I mean, you were, you were, you were taking shots

00:03:13.100 at everybody. And it was the best seven minutes of comedy. Some of the best seven minutes of comedy

00:03:19.060 that's out there. I enjoyed watching it. But here's a simple question for you. You're smart.

00:03:23.600 You're eloquent. You're very well-spoken. You're, you have a great processor. You're witty.

00:03:29.960 How do you, as an Iranian, not become a doctor, a lawyer, or a dentist, or an engineer? How do you do

00:03:36.020 this? How do you become a comedian? Patrick, I tell you, as soon as you said smart, witty,

00:03:40.460 all that stuff, I was ready to just hang up and say, I'm one. I'm done. I'm out of here. No,

00:03:45.060 you know, man, you know, our parents did not want this. I always, I jokingly say, I say,

00:03:50.180 when I first did this, I disappointed my dad. I disappointed my mom. I disappointed the entire

00:03:55.940 Iranian community because, you know, I would hear them talking behind our backs and they all thought

00:04:01.700 that this was going to be some big disappointment. And I jokingly say that we would go to parties

00:04:05.740 and I could overhear people going, did you hear about Jobrani's son? He's almost a drug dealer

00:04:10.280 because to them, comedy may as well just be drug dealing, you know? And, um, 23 years ago when I

00:04:17.020 started doing this, Patrick, uh, there were not other Iranian Americans doing it. Um, not to say

00:04:23.440 that it was anything that I was groundbreaking. It was just that it was the thing that was groundbreaking

00:04:27.780 for me was doing what I love to do. Cause you know how it is. You run into fellow Iranian

00:04:33.800 Americans or fellow immigrants, kids of immigrants, whether they're Indian or Chinese or whatever.

00:04:38.880 And if they're not doing lawyer, doctor, engineer, that's, that's in a way it's going,

00:04:43.820 Oh wow, you went against the norm. And so for me, what happened was my parents wanted me to be a

00:04:49.920 lawyer, be a lawyer, be a lawyer, be a lawyer. And I didn't want to be a lawyer since I was 12 years

00:04:55.360 old. I was on stage. I love being on stage. I wanted to be like Eddie Murphy. I did plays.

00:04:59.920 I was always on stage. And I'll be honest with you because of my parents pushing me when I was in

00:05:05.080 my mid twenties, it took me till I was 26 years old when I had the light bulb moment. And I go,

00:05:10.140 you live once. So you got to live for you. You got to do what you love doing and make yourself happy.

00:05:17.080 Once you make yourself happy, then you can make those around you happy. And then if you're really

00:05:21.920 lucky, you can make those who don't know you happy. That's not easy. That's yeah. That's,

00:05:27.740 that's not only not easy to do, it's tough to be aware of it, especially when you're younger,

00:05:32.040 because it's such a, and you know, the middle Eastern culture is a very pressured type of an

00:05:37.800 environment. You know, it's not like it's a judgmental type of an environment, not in a

00:05:43.600 negative way. It's just a high standard, high expectation. And you kind of want to be pressured

00:05:48.540 to deliver for the people you love the most. But so at 12 years old, you're following Eddie Murphy.

00:05:54.340 You kind of want to be the next Eddie Murphy. If I'm in high school with you at 14, 15 years old,

00:05:59.320 who was Maz at 14 or 15? At 14, 15, you know, I've always been this person who I get along with

00:06:05.560 everybody. So I, I love sports. So I played soccer and I played baseball. So I had my friends that were

00:06:10.740 the jocks. I loved being on stage. So I had friends who were the drama friends, right? I was a, I was

00:06:18.800 always nice to people. I don't, I don't think I got in any fights in high school. So I had friends that

00:06:23.640 were from all walks of life. And I personally, the reason I became a comedian was because I was a fan

00:06:29.380 of comedy. So my closest friends were funny. So I love being around these guys. And I'll be honest

00:06:35.040 with you, Patrick, there's people that I grew up with that were definitely funnier than me,

00:06:39.620 but they just didn't have the vision or the drive to end up doing what I ended up doing. Because I knew

00:06:46.700 from a young age, I go, I want to be on that stage in that, on that screen. That's what I want

00:06:52.800 to do. So I was able to get to where I am because I knew where I wanted to go.

00:06:57.780 So you said 23 years ago, 1998, is that kind of when you first started? Is that, is that your?

00:07:02.920 Yeah. So up, up until then I was doing plays. I was keeping my toe in the water while I was trying

00:07:07.640 to keep my parents happy. So I was going to go be a lawyer. And then while I was in college,

00:07:13.320 my junior year, I went and studied abroad in Italy for one year. And I tell every young person,

00:07:18.660 I go, if you can go study abroad, go, get out of here, go to another country, experience it. You

00:07:24.180 grow exponentially. It's one of the best years of your life. But while I was there, I go, oh,

00:07:29.060 there was a professor. I liked what he was doing. So I said, maybe I'll come back and become a

00:07:32.560 professor. So I come back and tell my parents, I go, I'm not going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be a

00:07:36.140 professor of political science. And right there, my mom goes, what are you talking about? Like,

00:07:40.540 yeah, my mom goes, there's no money in being a professor. I go, mom, how do you know about the

00:07:45.220 market for professors? You don't know what you're talking about. So anyway, started grad school to

00:07:49.760 get my PhD in poli sci. While I was there, I started doing plays again. And so I always had my toes in

00:07:55.960 it, always had my toes in it. And then again, what, what, what I was telling you, I eventually dropped

00:08:01.740 out of grad school, went to an advertising agency and just got a job as an assistant at the advertising

00:08:07.880 agency, but still kept doing plays. So I'm doing the play, uh, at that time. And I have a video of

00:08:15.160 the play and I'm in the ad agency, making a copy of the video for the other actors in our play.

00:08:21.600 And while I'm doing that, there was a guy by the name of Joe Ryan. Now, Joe was older than me. He was

00:08:27.340 in his sixties at the time. He was a really nice guy. Very, always very, um, supportive. And he goes,

00:08:33.560 hey, Maz, you're funny. Have you ever thought about getting into acting and comedy? I go, Joe,

00:08:38.000 throughout my life, I've wanted to do it. My parents kept pushing me in another direction.

00:08:41.700 I said, you know, in the next few years, I may go for it. And he goes, let me talk to you. He takes

00:08:45.540 me into his office. He sits me down. He says, Maz, listen to me. I'm in my sixties. And he goes,

00:08:51.960 when I was in my twenties, I wanted to do some things. And he goes, I never got around to doing it.

00:08:57.340 Wow.

00:08:57.840 Because if you really want to do it, you got to go for it. And that was another light bulb moment

00:09:02.100 that Joe Ryan gave me. And that's it. And that moment was then I enrolled in, in comedy classes

00:09:09.900 and I started going. And that was again, 1998. I just, I, I, I went to my boss. I said, listen,

00:09:15.380 man, I know I'm working for you at the ad agency, but now my priority of in my life is going to be

00:09:20.720 comedy and acting. So if you want me to quit, I can quit. And he said, no, you can stay until you get

00:09:25.520 stuff. But that was the light bulb moment, 1998, Joe Ryan, and the rest was history.

00:09:30.640 Okay. So, so political science, was that because that's the route to being a lawyer or because you

00:09:34.980 had interest in politics?

00:09:36.760 No, it was more the route to being a lawyer. I, and, and for me, I'll be honest, once I signed up

00:09:41.240 for that, I really found it very interesting because you start learning history. You start

00:09:45.580 learning about how government works. You start learning a lot about, about a lot of stuff and

00:09:49.720 it opens your eyes. You know, as an Iranian American, I grew up in America trying to avoid

00:09:55.480 my history and my background of Iranian. Cause I wanted to blend in with all my American

00:10:00.180 friends. You know, whenever my parents would show up with their thick Persian accents, I was like,

00:10:05.160 oh no, they're going to give away the fact that I'm Iranian. And my friends are going to know that

00:10:10.380 I'm not American. But once I went to college and I started studying stuff, I go, oh my God,

00:10:15.680 America had a hand in overthrowing a democratically elected leader in Iran. And, you know, you start

00:10:21.360 learning the history of what got us, where we are. And I think it's good because especially

00:10:25.540 nowadays, you know, we forget history. And if we don't remember history, we are going to repeat

00:10:32.040 the errors and the mistakes that we've made in our past. And so I think it was a, um, uh, a, a good

00:10:40.840 major for me to, to take. It's interesting what you just said. America had a hand in overthrown a

00:10:45.320 democratic leader, uh, in Iran. We'll get to that here in a minute as well, because I kind of want to

00:10:49.960 see some of your thoughts there. Cause I know behind, uh, every comedian I sit with, or I speak

00:10:55.480 with the deeper you go, listen, every one of them has a glimpse of genius. It's, it's not easy to be

00:11:03.100 a comedian. Comedian is not like to be able to have the second you have to come up and be witty and

00:11:08.280 come, you know, it's not an easy job to do, but let me, let me ask you one question about 98 to

00:11:14.780 2008 to 2015 to 2021. How much has the industry of comedy change in that 23 years?

00:11:24.680 Well, the industry's changed a lot. And it's interesting because I have young people asking

00:11:29.660 me questions sometimes. How do I get started? What do I do? The basics are still there. It's

00:11:34.680 like, if you watch, let's say baseball, you know, the, the, the, and you ask a baseball player, they

00:11:40.500 say, yeah, you got to really get good with your swing and you got to work on your infield and you

00:11:43.820 got to work on your throat. You know, the basics are still there. And the basics for comedy, I tell

00:11:48.020 everybody, if you want to be a standup comedian, the basics are get on stage as much as you can

00:11:54.260 and write as much as you can. And what I mean by that is when I say get on stage as much as you can,

00:12:00.100 that means you got to get on stage five, maybe 10 times a week. And you do any number of minutes.

00:12:06.000 Like some clubs will say, Oh, you get three minutes. When you start out, they might say you get

00:12:09.740 three minutes, you get five minutes, you get 10 minutes. Now you get 20 minutes, but you got to

00:12:14.480 do all of that. And, and when I say write as much as you can, you don't want to be in this business

00:12:19.580 for 20 years and be doing jokes that you did 20 years ago, because people are going to lose interest.

00:12:24.800 And also you as a human being are going to grow. So I have jokes from my first solo special was called

00:12:31.700 Brown and Friendly in 2008. That's when my son was born. So I have jokes of my son as a baby.

00:12:37.820 Now my son is 13. But if I'm on stage doing jokes about my son as a baby, and I'm still doing it,

00:12:45.800 I feel like a fraud. So get on stage as much as you can, write as much as you can. However,

00:12:51.100 the way the industry has changed is now more than ever, you can be in control of your own destiny.

00:12:58.860 Because when I started, you had to go get this, there was a booklet with all the agent names,

00:13:03.800 hopefully an agent sees you get into a club, maybe somebody sees you, you move up the ladder

00:13:09.180 of the club, etc, etc. That's how there was no social media, even my space was maybe new or hadn't

00:13:15.220 even started yet. But now you can end up in any social media format that you choose to you can go

00:13:22.880 and get a fan base. I know comedians right now, who don't have that many years under their belt as

00:13:28.640 comedians. But they ended up on let's say clubhouse or on tick tock or on one of these things. And they

00:13:35.980 ended up with 100,000 500,000 a million followers, the clubs are booking them. So these guys have

00:13:42.260 grown their own business. Now they need to grow into their into the level of delivering in the

00:13:49.140 business because you could have the fans. But if you don't have the years under your belt, they're

00:13:54.800 going to come see you live. And about 30 minutes in, you're going to be out of material and they're

00:13:58.960 going to go, where's the other half an hour of the show? Yeah, and pros catch that fairly quickly,

00:14:05.140 you're gonna, you can probably tell when somebody is winging it, and they haven't really prepared for

00:14:09.740 it. I'm assuming when you when you're in the space, like you, not just us, the audience can tell. So

00:14:15.680 the audience shows up, listen, the fact is, the audience sees you, this was happening early on when

00:14:20.160 that show, Last Comic Standing was happening. Sometimes you'd have comedians who had less

00:14:25.440 experience, but they were winning on that show. And so audience members would tune in on NBC and

00:14:32.000 see a comedian do three minutes and go, Oh, I love this guy. And then they go see him live. And they

00:14:37.380 realize, Oh, he doesn't have more than the three minutes or more than 20 minutes or 30 minutes. So

00:14:41.180 it's disappointing to the audience member as well. Comedy is a is a is a art form where you really can't

00:14:48.180 fake it. And you can't you very rarely see a young success in comedy and music, you could be 15 years

00:14:55.060 old, and have the voice of an angel and have a producer find you and say, let's go make music.

00:15:00.420 And you could be 16 years old, just be a superstar. In stand up comedy, you got to put in five to 10

00:15:07.460 years before you really start finding your own point of view stand up comedy is about having a point of

00:15:12.580 view. It's about delivering that point of view. And very rarely throughout our history, we've seen really

00:15:17.540 young successes, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Chappelle started at the age of 14. So by the

00:15:24.340 time he's 21, he's already hitting it, right? So but it's a rare thing. Usually with comedians,

00:15:30.340 you got to be you get to your mid 20s, early 30s before you start seeing some success. Because

00:15:36.980 listen, Patrick, when you first start out and stand up, you're offstage, you and I are talking.

00:15:42.900 When I first start out and stand up, when I go on stage, you would see the person emulating the

00:15:49.940 hero, their comedy hero. So I'd be on stage trying to be like Eddie Murphy, I'd be on stage trying to

00:15:54.420 be like Richard Pryor. But the longer you spend on stage and, and finding your voice, the closer the

00:16:01.460 person offstage becomes to the person on stage. And eventually, what ends up happening is, that's how some

00:16:07.620 of my writing happens, because I get so comfortable with who I am on stage, that I'll be offstage

00:16:15.060 talking to a friend of mine about something that happened. And without even trying, I'm writing my

00:16:19.940 material. I'm expressing my opinion offstage the same way I would on stage.

00:16:24.980 And then so do you get off right off the bat and say, shit, I just said a joke I've never said

00:16:28.100 before. Let me write it down so I can remember. Are you doing that?

00:16:30.900 Absolutely. I do that. Or what I do is I often record my sets on stage. And so what will happen

00:16:37.700 is, especially in LA, in LA, we do continuous comedy, which means because you're in LA or New York,

00:16:43.540 where you have, you know, all headliners on a lineup at the comedy store, or the laugh factory,

00:16:49.540 or the comedy cellar, all these places, you're going to see headliner after headliner after

00:16:54.260 headliner. And we each do 15 to 20 minutes. Well, in that 15 to 20 minutes, I say to myself, okay,

00:17:00.540 I'm going to do 10 minutes of material that I've done before, and five minutes of newer stuff to try

00:17:06.960 it out. I'm going to sprinkle it in. So what will happen is, I'm recording it in case the stuff that

00:17:12.500 I sprinkle in works. Then I go back and I listen to it. I go, oh, that worked that way. Great. Oh,

00:17:17.720 don't forget to add this little element to that joke. So that's how it's working. So I'm listening,

00:17:24.080 I'm recording it all the time on my iPhone. Makes sense. You know, in Hollywood, what do they call

00:17:28.880 a triathlete, you know, triple threat, you can dance, you can act, you can sing. What is a triple

00:17:34.800 threat in comedy? Is there such a thing as a triple threat or no? I mean, comedy, I was, I compare comedy

00:17:40.680 to boxing, because in boxing, you can do the heavy bag, you do the speed bag, you can shadow box,

00:17:46.840 you can, you know, jump rope. There's so many different things. You can get better at endurance,

00:17:50.980 you can get better at, you know, your agility. There's so many different places in boxing that

00:17:56.900 you can work out and get better and better at. Similarly with comedy, there's so many different

00:18:01.840 facets to it. You can become a better writer by writing and writing and writing. You can become

00:18:07.000 more charismatic on stage by just getting on stage, getting more and more comfortable.

00:18:11.660 You can get better at crowd work. Crowd work to me is the close, is very similar to boxing because

00:18:18.200 you're throwing something out and they're throwing something back and you got to react off of that.

00:18:23.300 And that, that's a muscle you got to exercise. For me, early on in my career, when I became a

00:18:28.020 regular at the comedy store, Mitzi Shore, who owned the comedy store, made me a regular. And what that

00:18:32.380 meant was throughout the week, they would put you up on their lineup. And since I was new, they weren't

00:18:38.060 going to give me the best spot of the night. They were going to give me the last spot of the night.

00:18:41.960 So I'd end up on stage at 1.30 in the morning when the club's going to close at 2. And at 1.30

00:18:48.280 in the morning, you can't go up and just start doing your act and say, oh, my girlfriend broke

00:18:52.200 up with me. And no, 1.30 in the morning, it's you and five people in the audience. So you just start

00:18:58.020 talking to them. You go, why are you guys here? Where are you from? You're from Sweden? What's that like?

00:19:02.060 And that conversation and coming back and forth, you're working out this muscle so that later on

00:19:08.320 down the line, when you're in front of a thousand people and you're doing a show and a lady gets up

00:19:14.660 in the middle of your act and starts to go to the bathroom, you're going to, you're going to, you're

00:19:18.800 going to be like, hey, where are you going? And start talking to her. And the crowd's going to love it

00:19:22.560 because, you know, you're on it. And I actually compared that a little bit to surfing as well,

00:19:28.060 which is when we start doing crowd work, it's like surfing. If you catch a good wave,

00:19:34.940 you know, in surfing, I think that what they do in surfing is they're in the moment because you're,

00:19:40.180 that wave's coming, you catch it, you're on there. I guarantee you, there's no surfer on a surfboard

00:19:45.780 who's thinking about their taxes, thinking about their, you know, oh, did I leave the, did I leave

00:19:51.260 the iron on? No, that's surfers in the tube and going, I got to get through this. Similarly with standup,

00:19:56.760 if you're doing crowd work and you catch that wave, sometimes Patrick, I'll say things that I

00:20:03.620 didn't even think about my instincts, just saying it. And then the laugh comes and I go, what did I

00:20:09.420 just say? And I go, oh, okay, that's cool. Cause I'm in the moment, you know? Yeah. So, so that's,

00:20:15.140 that's interesting. So better writer, better on stage, crowd work. I can see that. Which of those

00:20:20.400 three is the hardest one to learn? Is it, is it the writer? Is it better on stage? Like, you know,

00:20:26.060 I guess some people learn through watching somebody and mimicking their body language and

00:20:29.940 how they move and how fast they run and certain things they do from your experience for comedy,

00:20:34.140 which has been the hardest to duplicate? Well, for me, I'll be honest, since I started doing

00:20:38.640 plays at the age of 12, I got into the junior high school musical and they taught us how to stand on

00:20:44.360 a stage. One of the things a lot of actors don't realize when you're on stage, you got to open your

00:20:48.820 body to the audience. You got to make sure they can see you. And similarly, when you do standup,

00:20:53.860 you got to make sure the audience can see your face. I've seen comedians show up. They pull their

00:20:57.920 hat down over their eyes and you can't even see their expression. So they're not thinking about

00:21:02.280 that stuff. So there's a stage presence for me, standing on stage was the easiest part from day

00:21:08.420 one. Being on stage was fine. Having energy on stage was fine. For me, the writing was the hardest

00:21:15.120 because I always thought, well, what am I going to write about? How do you write? How do you know the

00:21:19.340 rhythm of writing? And it took me a while, but eventually you start realizing, A, you got to

00:21:23.900 write what you know, because you're the only one who knows that experience. So whatever that is,

00:21:29.140 you know, and it's my point of view. Listen, if I'm doing a joke about being a dad, there might be

00:21:34.000 another dad comedian who's got a similar joke. But if it's coming from my experience, then it's my

00:21:38.700 experience. And I can tell you that joke. Makes sense.

00:21:41.040 And the other thing about writing comedy, there's a rhythm to it. It's like a math equation. It's

00:21:47.360 almost like ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. It's got to be, there's a rhythm. So as fellow

00:21:53.380 comedians, sometimes we'll sit in the back of the room and watch a comic do his act or her act.

00:21:59.500 And afterwards, we'll go over and say, hey, when you did this, this, and this, have you thought about

00:22:03.620 saying this afterwards? And they say, oh, that's cool. Let me try that out. And similarly,

00:22:07.500 comedians will come to me and say that. They go, when you do this, you should do that. So

00:22:11.480 we all know the rhythm now. But for me, writing was probably the more challenging part of it. But

00:22:18.260 now I feel very comfortable. Why? Because I know my voice. As a matter of fact, I try to challenge

00:22:24.900 myself sometimes by sitting in the back of the room and seeing if I can write for other people.

00:22:30.060 And if I can, that to me, if I give, if I give what's, it's called the tag to their joke,

00:22:34.900 to their punch, to their joke. If I can give someone a tag and it works, that's almost more

00:22:40.980 of a sense of pride to me than giving myself a funny joke.

00:22:45.660 Got it. Because it makes you a multi-dimensional where you can now kind of watch somebody and know

00:22:53.800 what the next move would be. It's almost like in a movie, you're watching saying the next line should

00:22:57.820 be this. And if you say it before they say it, you know, it's like, hey, it's an element of writing

00:23:02.900 the script. Let me ask you, in the game of sports, in basketball, in football, you'll see the video

00:23:08.820 of Kobe Bryant doing all the shots that he makes and they'll put it right next to Jordan. It's like

00:23:14.240 exact kick, same time, you know, turn, same time. And then you'll see Jordan stole the move from Dirk

00:23:20.800 Nowitzki, where he goes out and kicks it out and, you know, the shot. Or, you know, you're seeing

00:23:25.120 Booker right now taking a couple of the footwork from Kobe. And it's a very normal thing in a game

00:23:30.280 of sports, right, that people do that. But stealing jokes and comedy, that's like the ultimate.

00:23:37.120 What is it with comedy and the amount of controversy sometimes you see when it comes

00:23:43.300 down to somebody using somebody else's jokes? Where is the, you know, crossing the line to say,

00:23:49.160 listen, man, you took my joke, that's mine, that's not cool. You know, I've had Carlos Mencia on before,

00:23:54.280 you've seen a Carlos Mencia on Rogan back and forth from God knows how many years ago it was.

00:23:58.160 Why is that so serious in the comedy industry?

00:24:01.740 Well, you know, doing the technique for a shot is different, right? Because there's only

00:24:06.900 certain ways you can shoot. I mean, you know, you're not going to have, you know, Kevin Durant

00:24:12.460 jump in the air to do a jump shot and spread his legs wide and, you know, make a funny face and

00:24:18.520 throw it up and it goes in. There's a technique to it, right? So that's the technique. Similarly with

00:24:23.200 standup, there's techniques to certain things. Again, like I said, there's techniques to being

00:24:30.040 present on stage. If you look at a bunch of comics, you'll see the ones who are high energy have kind

00:24:35.420 of a similar way of presenting themselves. But the jokes themselves, that stealing that, the analogy

00:24:43.680 would be, let's say in basketball, it wouldn't be so much, oh, you are doing the same move that I'm

00:24:49.780 doing. But it's almost like saying, you, you are, you know, you've been watching my press conference

00:24:57.360 and saying the same things I say, or even going one step further. It's almost, it's, I would almost

00:25:04.900 say it's like you took my trophy. Because, because our jokes are, are what make us. That's our story.

00:25:11.880 I spent blood, sweat, and tears to write my act. My act is my act. Now, if you go, especially this

00:25:20.980 happens, unfortunately, where a bigger act will go and see an unknown act and say, oh, I like that.

00:25:29.580 And then they'll go do that on TV. And now they've put their stamp on it. And this poor kid who's been

00:25:35.800 working, you know, working as the doorman at the club and getting three minutes of stage time once

00:25:44.240 a week, he just had his whole act that it took him a year to build stolen from somebody. And that

00:25:50.460 person's doing it on TV. That is just a total no-no. And in stand-up, you know, it's closer to what

00:25:58.640 they do with music. When a lot of musicians go, oh, you took that riff that I did and you put it in

00:26:03.540 your song and now you're making millions of dollars. Uh-uh. Ain't gonna go. You know, I looked

00:26:08.240 up, you know, the, in Michael Jackson, mamase, mamasa, mamakusa, mamase. I looked it up and that

00:26:14.020 was an African singer who had a song that said, mamase, it was mamasa, mamasa, mamakusa. That's

00:26:19.580 the whole thing. And it's funny because supposedly Michael was doing the song and at some point he

00:26:25.200 started riffing because the song has nothing to do with mamase, mamasa, mamakusa. He just started

00:26:29.220 saying mamase, mamasa, mamakusa. The song takes off. This guy shows up and goes, well,

00:26:33.540 that's my song. You can't just do my song and your song. So that's the thing. And, and

00:26:38.480 in comedy, listen, the, the one good thing is matter of fact, early on, when I first got

00:26:43.660 into comedy, I was talking to somebody, I said, isn't there a way for us to copyright

00:26:47.660 our jokes so that nobody else can take them? And unfortunately there is no, you know, government

00:26:54.660 entity where you could say, oh, here's my copywritten joke. You know, you can do that with your scripts.

00:26:59.420 You can go to writer's guild of America, not comedy, comedy can't, but the best, the best

00:27:04.440 thing you can do is get it out on a special. And once it's out on a special and it's there

00:27:09.920 and if somebody comes and says, oh, you took that joke from so-and-so you go, no, I did

00:27:15.400 that joke in 2008. Here's the proof. And that's all we can do. So, and by the way, by the way,

00:27:20.880 one last thing, joke stealers, eventually we, they get ratted out. So the comedy that

00:27:28.320 all comedians know who the joke stealers are.

00:27:31.220 Would it be fair to say, it's kind of like you watch, you know, you see, uh, uh, they'll

00:27:35.660 show Joe Biden and Johnny Carson shows a video of Joe Biden, you know, telling the same exact

00:27:39.920 speech of a, somebody in a Britain parliament says it, or a, even Ivanka Trump, when she gave

00:27:45.380 the speech and they went and said, Michelle gave the speech just a few years ago, similar

00:27:48.440 to it. Is it similar to that when politicians kind of give the same, would you, would you

00:27:53.020 use that as an analogy?

00:27:54.740 Absolutely. And it was Melania Trump and it's, it is plagiarizing. Yeah, it's, it is plagiarizing,

00:28:00.000 especially if, listen, the problem with comedy, by the way, is, you know, I always, I always

00:28:05.220 say I'm jealous of musicians because a musician can have a concert and at some point they can

00:28:09.220 go, uh, I'm going to sing this song from the Rolling Stones and they just sing a Rolling

00:28:13.800 Stones song and they just say that was, and everybody knows it's a Rolling Stones song and

00:28:16.880 they say, I'm going to do it. A comedian can't be on stage and say, I'm going to do an Eddie

00:28:21.620 Murphy joke. Now this, this next segment is Eddie Murphy. I can't just do that. You know,

00:28:27.940 that would be so awkward. I can see that part. You know, I'm going to tell this joke from, uh,

00:28:32.500 you know, George Carlin. It's my favorite joke. He said, but I think I can say it better than he

00:28:36.780 does. You know, I had a guy one time told me, he said, uh, I like your marketing strategy. I want

00:28:42.140 to kind of use it myself. Do you mind if I use it? I said, yeah, sure. He asked permission.

00:28:46.660 I thought it was respectful. I said, you can do it in Chicago. I was dressed as George Washington

00:28:50.900 and I had this event that had my wife dressed as lady Liberty. And, you know, we were acting

00:28:55.300 out certain things. I came out as a, uh, uh, uh, general, a patent from George C. Scott,

00:29:01.240 you know, the movie patent. And I did the whole five minute skit. I want to be able to do this

00:29:05.520 in my event of Chicago. I said, go ahead and do it. I said, what's your gift? He says,

00:29:09.140 my gift is I get to see people who have come up with ideas, but I can do better than they do with

00:29:14.360 the idea that they came up with. I feel like sometimes there are certain people in the comedy

00:29:18.160 world that maybe in certain business are like, I can probably take that guy's joke and do it

00:29:22.160 better than he's doing it with the, uh, with the platform that I have. I don't know. I think sometimes

00:29:26.800 I don't care. Yeah. I don't care how good do you think you are. You can't take someone else's

00:29:31.820 first of all, there's, there's, there's two sides to this. One is you're taking that poor guy's joke

00:29:36.700 and going and doing it. Secondly, though, you have to live with yourself that you've stolen someone

00:29:44.340 else's joke. That isn't a sincere thing coming from you. So eventually that's got to start eating

00:29:50.720 away at your own sense of self-worth or your own sense of being a comedic, um, uh, creator, because

00:29:58.660 it goes again, it goes totally opposite to what I told you a second ago about sitting in the back

00:30:04.800 and saying, Oh, I want to write extra jokes for this comedian. Cause I want to be able to tell

00:30:09.400 people I'm good enough to write jokes for other people. When you start stealing jokes, you're

00:30:14.160 saying, I'm not even good enough to write jokes for myself. I'm stealing jokes from other people.

00:30:19.060 And that's got to wear away at your self self-worth and your self-confidence to go, God, am I a fraud?

00:30:25.280 I mean, really, ultimately, I think that happens underneath, you know? And so I think in every industry,

00:30:29.820 you're going to get exposed. If you do that, there's ways to get exposed in every industry. I always

00:30:33.800 say a bad idea always gets exposed. It doesn't matter. You can, it can convince you for a minute

00:30:39.780 for six months, 12 months, eventually five, six, seven years later, people are going to say,

00:30:43.040 this is not a good idea. I don't support it. And that happens in every business.

00:30:47.560 Let me tell you this too, before you leave that, I was going to say as a comedian, there was,

00:30:51.400 there was a comedian named Freddie Soto, who was one of the funniest people I ever knew. And

00:30:55.460 unfortunately we lost him like 10, 12 years. Freddie Soto. Freddie Soto. S-O-T-O. If you look

00:31:01.740 him up, he was this Mexican American comic out of El Paso. He was a regular at the comedy store.

00:31:06.680 He was a guy I looked up to and he was brilliant. And I remember one of the first times that I got

00:31:13.600 a good encouragement, I was at the comedy store. It was late. It was like one, one of those one 45 in

00:31:21.220 the morning spots. And I didn't know Freddie was sitting in the way back because the room is very

00:31:25.260 dark. Mitzi sure used to make the room really dark and put lights in your eyes. So it would blind you.

00:31:30.960 And the reason was she didn't want you to see too much of the audience to feel self-conscious.

00:31:36.240 She wanted you to feel like you're doing comedy and to avoid and just, just be you. So, um, at that

00:31:43.140 point there was three people that were in the club that I could see on the side and it was two nerdy

00:31:49.420 guys with one really hot girl. And so I went on stage, I was newer to comedy. So I just started doing

00:31:55.360 my act. And then two minutes in, I go, I'm thinking to myself, why am I doing my act? I turned to them,

00:32:00.540 I go, I'm curious. How did you two end up with her? What's the story here? The next thing you know,

00:32:06.100 I'm having fun with them. They're laughing where I'm making jokes off of what they're telling me.

00:32:11.900 I have a fun time. We call it a night. The whole club ends and they leave and the lights come up

00:32:18.020 and I see Freddie Soto was sitting in the back. So I go sit next to Freddie and he says, Hey man,

00:32:23.400 you're funny. I go, thanks. He goes, you know, he goes, I've realized comedy is not about bits.

00:32:28.520 He goes, you're either funny or you're not. And he goes, you've got, you've got the comedy,

00:32:33.460 the, the, the thing. And he also said, he goes, you know, if, if it's just one bit that's going to

00:32:39.520 make you, then you're not, then forget it. So similarly, if you have someone, I've had people say,

00:32:44.940 oh, so-and-so stealing a bit you used to do. I go, well, that's fine. I got a thousand other bits

00:32:50.220 and I'm going to keep writing. And if that, that's that person's problem, you know, I'm not so,

00:32:57.200 cause sometimes comedians will say, oh my God, he took my bit. And it's their end of their life.

00:33:01.700 No, you better, you better have more than one bit. Yeah. You know, Ray Kroc, the founder of

00:33:06.440 McDonald's said something very interesting one time. They asked him a question. They said, Hey,

00:33:10.280 so how do you feel about the fact that everybody's stealing your idea? You know,

00:33:13.140 with this whole franchise model and what you've done with McDonald's, he says, you can take our

00:33:17.640 system. You can take everything you're doing. You cannot take our mind and our heart away from us.

00:33:22.660 We are very good in business. So at the end of the day, you're going to find out who the real

00:33:26.860 business people are. Just like in your world, when Freddie Soto said, you're going to know who's

00:33:30.660 funny and who's not, you figure that part out. Here's a question. And Ray Kroc, by the way,

00:33:34.080 I saw the movie, Ray Kroc stole the thing from the other guys. From the two brothers that he bought it

00:33:38.600 from. Yeah. So talk about that guy, that guy, you know, the two brothers didn't have

00:33:43.060 a vision. They didn't want to scale. This guy wanted to scale and he wanted to be known as

00:33:46.620 the founder. And yeah, you know, it is what it is. So, but going back to a guy like you in every

00:33:52.080 world, you know, we like to see redemption stories. I'm curious to know what you're going to say,

00:33:57.120 since you're in this space, redemption stories, Robert Downey Jr. goes away for a few years. He

00:34:01.900 comes back, he crushes it. And we love that story. You see it in sports. A guy goes away,

00:34:07.460 he comes back. He does very well for himself. You think a Mencia has a shot of redeeming himself

00:34:14.580 in the comedy world? Is it too late for him? Gosh, I think with Mencia, like I think from what

00:34:20.380 I've heard, I haven't run into him from what I've heard, he's doing fine in the clubs and he's got

00:34:25.240 his fans. The thing about comedy is you can, I mean, if you get, if you get burned in the industry,

00:34:32.400 it's hard to come back depending on what it was. Is it pretty political or no? Is it a...

00:34:37.880 It's political, but it's also like what it was. So Robert Downey Jr. had addiction problems and

00:34:42.320 he comes back and people are rooting for him. They're like, oh, we want you to do better,

00:34:45.500 right? But if you, if you get caught for plagiarizing or stealing, unless, and I'm talking

00:34:52.680 about the industry now, unless he were to come back and say, I'm going to make a movie about a guy

00:34:57.340 who lost everything because he got caught plagiarizing and then he grows and he comes

00:35:02.000 back and, you know, he realizes he's going to be himself or he does a one-man show about it.

00:35:06.220 Self-deprecation, you know?

00:35:07.480 Self-deprecation, yeah, self-deprecation, but also like showing that there's growth. I mean,

00:35:11.160 maybe then, but the good thing about being a comedian or a performer that tours is your fans

00:35:18.560 love you. I mean, you're going to lose some fans because of that, but you're still going to have

00:35:22.720 some hardcore fans. I mean, Mencia is still a great performer. He gives a great show.

00:35:27.340 So I'm sure that he's doing great on the road. I don't know about the redemption in the business

00:35:33.160 per se, simply because of what I just said, unless if they come up with, I mean, listen,

00:35:37.040 it's hard enough to make it in this business without having to have redemption because,

00:35:42.080 you know, I've been doing this 23 years. I've sold like three or four different shows and this

00:35:46.780 and that, but it's never gone to the, you know, to tell, you know, on air because it's hard to make

00:35:52.740 it. Now, much worse if I had done something that had a black check mark against me and now I want

00:36:00.040 to come back. I almost feel like you got to address that thing in your comeback.

00:36:04.620 Yeah. I, you know, Kevin Hart and I were, you know, when, when he came out with the Irresponsible

00:36:08.700 Tour, I had him out as well. I think I had him out the year after you, two years after you had him.

00:36:13.180 I don't know what it was, but were you 2017 when you came out and you performed?

00:36:17.720 I did 2017.

00:36:18.760 2017. I remember we were talking off air. The thing about when you came out, which was

00:36:23.360 specialist, the week before your performance, I remember we got a call and, you know, your,

00:36:29.200 your sister passed away, right? Which was, and we were having a conversation. My guys like Pat,

00:36:35.480 this is what I said, whatever Maz wants to do, Maz gets to tell us what he wants to do. It's his

00:36:40.340 choice. And you still chose to come and people walked, everybody knew, but within the first two,

00:36:46.960 three, five minutes, everybody knew. And I said, right, this guy's a one, a pro, but it was great

00:36:52.640 to see you come up there and doing what you do with the audience. I remember when that whole thing took

00:36:55.740 place with you, but we brought up Hart a year later or maybe two years later and he did the

00:37:01.320 Irresponsible Tour and he kind of went up there and he talked, but listen, first time I messed up,

00:37:05.920 I'm glad I messed up. But the second time I messed up, I really messed up. You know, he went

00:37:11.080 up, just said, this is what I did. That's what I did. And you're saying, take a page out of Kevin

00:37:15.200 Hart's playbook to see if you even stand the chance to make a comeback. Yeah. I think you need

00:37:20.360 to address the elephant in the room, right? So if I, for example, whatever, got caught for embezzling

00:37:27.280 money and I did, I mean, Richard Pryor is a great example. Richard Pryor set himself on fire trying

00:37:34.100 to smoke crack. And then he went on stage later and did an act where he talked about setting himself

00:37:41.540 on fire and he made it funny because he goes, you'll never run faster than when fire's chasing

00:37:45.500 you and it's on your back. And whatever he did, you have to address it. You have to address it

00:37:51.300 somehow, either, either in a funny way or in a sincere way. You could go up to, if I had embezzled

00:37:55.740 money, let's say I were Bernie Madoff and now I've gotten out, I'm doing standup.

00:38:00.060 Either I better have some jokes about it or I better go on stage and go, look, guys, thank

00:38:03.840 you for coming out. I appreciate you giving me a second chance. I embezzled all that money

00:38:07.820 and, you know, I don't know what got in it. Whatever it is, I did my time. You have to address

00:38:13.420 it because if you go on stage and you don't address it, then, you know, no one's going to,

00:38:18.780 people are just going to be thinking about it the whole time. That makes sense. I mean, you know,

00:38:21.420 we'll see what happened there. When we had him on, I told him, I said, why don't you reach out to

00:38:24.520 Rogan over the internet, Twitter, send him a tweet. And so once you guys get together,

00:38:27.740 he never ended up doing it, but who knows what's going to happen there, but it is what we wish

00:38:31.480 every one of these guys, nothing but the best. And hopefully he'll redeem himself. But Rogan had

00:38:35.840 a, we talked about Robert Downey Jr. Earlier. Rogan had him on. I don't know if you had a chance to

00:38:40.420 see that one when it was Downey Jr. and him, if you haven't seen it, it's a great one. I mean,

00:38:45.140 it's just, it's, it's very interesting when they, they're talking to each other. Joe says,

00:38:49.700 what's off limits today in Hollywood. And, you know, Robert starts kind of laughing and cracking

00:38:55.660 up. Where are you going with this? And he says, the one movie, Tropic Thunder, right? He says,

00:38:59.520 Oh yeah. Is Tropic Thunder doable today? Can you do Tropic Thunder today? And Robert says,

00:39:06.040 I don't know. You know, can you, can you not? Because, you know, you know, acting like a different

00:39:10.360 personality and color and all this other stuff. He says, I don't know if we can get away with that

00:39:14.740 today. Maz, what is the, is there any off-limit stories for comedians today? Are there stuff that

00:39:22.720 maybe you could have touched 10 years ago that you're better off just not touching today?

00:39:27.560 Listen, man, it's an ever evolving world. I always say that. I think we need to grow as

00:39:32.500 individuals. There's certain words that were said in the fifties that you can't say now. There's

00:39:37.160 certain words that were said in the eighties. You can't say now there's certain words that would say

00:39:40.560 five years ago. You can't say now. And I think on the one hand, you know, I have kids and they,

00:39:45.560 sometimes they show me and they tell me and they lead. And that makes me believe in the future.

00:39:54.280 Cause I go, wow, these kids are, are progressive and they see a world where all the colors come

00:39:59.540 together. And it's not about the colors, but it's about your character, either a good person or a bad

00:40:03.500 person. Right. So, um, I think that we need to grow. I think comedians though, end of the day,

00:40:08.740 we get to choose you live and die by the laugh. So if you sit there and go, I want to tell this joke

00:40:15.560 that's going to be talking about something that let's say is derogatory to women or as misogynistic

00:40:21.840 or as could be construed as racist or whatever. You know, if you're that passionate about it,

00:40:28.060 get on stage and try it and see what happens. Cause the audience will tell you either they won't laugh

00:40:34.140 or the get up and walk out or they'll laugh. You know, there's some comedians who push that

00:40:40.780 envelope and still come around with a punchline that makes the audience go, Oh my God, I didn't

00:40:46.260 see that coming. Um, and there's some, a lot of comedians that have been, you know, canceled for

00:40:52.540 things they said. And the, the unfortunate thing is nowadays on social media too, you might just throw

00:40:57.580 something out that you think, you know, very little about, you might say, Oh, whatever. Uh,

00:41:04.000 gosh, it's so dark today. Uh, blah, blah, blah. And use some terminology that might be construed as

00:41:10.860 racist, but you weren't meaning it to be that. But then all of a sudden people are coming at you

00:41:14.500 and you're going, Oh no, you know? So that's also a different thing. Cause a lot of times people take

00:41:19.020 things out of context. And, and, and that's why I always tell people, I go, if you're about to go,

00:41:23.680 I mean, unfortunately social media doesn't do this, but I, I, I would say it to the fans of

00:41:28.640 that person. If you're going to get upset at someone that you're a fan of, look at their full

00:41:35.440 history. So if you know somebody who's been, let's say an advocate for black lives matter and has been

00:41:41.240 an activist and has been vocal for, uh, racial equality and all that stuff. And then someone says,

00:41:48.960 Oh, they made a racist tweet. Then look at it and go, Oh, was that an intentional tweet? Was

00:41:53.600 that a, was that a mistake? And don't judge that person off that one tweet, look at their full

00:41:58.600 story. But unfortunately social media doesn't do that. Yeah. You know, the thing is for, for me,

00:42:05.140 like when I was in the army, we would joke and you'd sit there and you always had the funny guy

00:42:10.160 in the army, the army's filled with funny guys and telling jokes. 90% of the jokes would get you

00:42:16.420 canceled today on any given day. If it made it out on YouTube, if it was heard, you're going to be in

00:42:20.480 trouble if we mix it up. But I understand if politicians have to walk on eggshells, I get

00:42:27.200 it. Okay. Yes. You chose to go say you have the solutions to help a County, a city, a state,

00:42:32.020 a country. Yes. You, every word comes out of your mouth. You're going to be judged for it because

00:42:36.940 that's your job. I understand if a parent, fine, you're a parent, you talk to your kid in a certain

00:42:42.660 way that kid's going to remember it for 20 years, but a comedian walking on eggshells, like we got to have

00:42:48.360 a place where somebody can get up and say what everybody's thinking about. Like, you know how,

00:42:53.120 you know, Hey, let me address the elephant in a room. And I'm home. And I was like, Oh my gosh,

00:42:57.240 you addressed it. Shit. That was kind of cool. Cause I was thinking about it. If we can't address

00:43:02.320 the elephant in the room, who the hell can, if comedians can't do it, you know, like who else

00:43:06.820 are we going to rely on to do that? Pastors, you know, you're, listen, you're absolutely right.

00:43:11.320 And if you come to the comedy clubs, we are, they are like, it's the, I think the place where

00:43:16.500 it gets carried away is when somebody films it, puts it on social media, that person wasn't in

00:43:21.100 the room, takes it out of context and it blows up. Cause a lot of, I've been at comedy clubs

00:43:25.600 recently and a lot of comedians are saying things that could be construed in certain ways, but the

00:43:30.360 audience for the most part is getting it. Let me ask you when you're doing it at the comedy club,

00:43:34.560 do you guys always have it live with the camera on, or do you guys say, turn off the cameras?

00:43:38.080 For the most part, uh, a lot of clubs don't allow filming. So if someone's filming you

00:43:43.880 come tap them on the shoulder, no, no, we're not, you know, that's not allowed because also it's not

00:43:48.160 about, it's not even about, Oh, we're afraid that it's going to get out and there's going to be

00:43:51.660 backlash. But more importantly, if I'm working on my act so that I can put it on a special and some

00:43:57.160 bozo comes there and puts it online and now that thing's already out there. So now when I go to

00:44:01.880 Netflix and go, Hey, I got this great joke, they're going to go, well, it's already out there.

00:44:04.840 Right. So that's really the main reason why we don't want that stuff. And I'll be honest with

00:44:09.140 you. I actually recently had an experience where I lost a potential job to, uh, a retweet that I did

00:44:17.460 because this company that was going to hire me, I retweeted something that had to do with

00:44:23.020 the CEO of the company, but I didn't intentionally, I didn't even think about it. Like years, like a while

00:44:28.220 back, someone had done some video and I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Retweet. That's it.

00:44:33.020 I didn't think anything about it. I didn't care about the CEO of the company. I didn't have any

00:44:36.680 sort of, it was just that the, the tweet that I saw was making a social commentary, um, based on,

00:44:43.980 um, income inequality. And I said, okay, I could be, you know, I'm, I'm for income in income

00:44:49.540 quality. Yeah. And so a couple of years later, here I am about to get a job and they come back to me

00:44:55.880 and they said, Oh, you tweeted something against our CEO. I go, what? I don't even know what you're

00:44:59.880 talking about. And they showed me that. And it was so ridiculous because I, I just laughed. I said,

00:45:06.900 I can't believe that this, like you just said, I have to watch my tongue when it comes to a retweet

00:45:12.400 on something silly like this. And similar to what you said, I said, I'm a social commentator.

00:45:16.620 I should be able to comment on what's on my mind. And unfortunately we live in such fragile times

00:45:23.420 where these kinds of things happen and you know, it is what it is. Yeah. For me with that part,

00:45:28.120 it's, it's like, let these guys, leave these guys alone, do what you got to do and, uh, offend all

00:45:33.000 of us, say whatever you got to say, because God knows some people are thinking about it. Now, of

00:45:36.520 course there's certain areas you don't want to touch. That's a little bit of a, uh, distasteful.

00:45:41.600 I get that, but distasteful, if you're so distasteful, you're just not going to make it. There's

00:45:47.020 certain comedy I watch where I'm like, you know what? That's just not funny to me. I don't,

00:45:51.420 I can't do anything with it, but take it. Some people find it funny. I would never go

00:45:54.920 pay to watch somebody like that speak. But when I listened to Chappelle and Chappelle special comes

00:46:00.420 out and he says, let me talk about abortion. Yes, you ought to have the right, but we should also

00:46:05.260 have the right. Like, Oh, I never thought about it that way before, you know, or John Stewart comes

00:46:09.320 out and says, Hey, what do you mean? This, uh, you know, the drug is not man-made and he does it on

00:46:15.100 Colbell. You're like, shit, just about 12 months ago. Anybody that ever said this on a video,

00:46:18.500 every video was taken out, but he can get away with it. I want Stewart to keep having the ability

00:46:24.640 to do that because he has the card of what I am a, I don't know what I'm talking about.

00:46:29.900 Just a comedian. I don't, you know, I'm just a comedian. I don't know what I'm talking about.

00:46:33.820 Comedians want to act like they're dummies, but we know comedians are geniuses. You ain't

00:46:37.260 know dummies. Comedians are smart, but we need that. I think we need a little bit of that.

00:46:41.360 And, uh, the more it gets away from it. Yeah. That's why I was kind of like,

00:46:44.640 is there anything you guys cannot touch today where you feel like you're walking on eggshells?

00:46:48.160 You saw what Barkley said the other day. I don't know if you caught that. This was like a month

00:46:51.500 ago when Barkley said, I don't like my job anymore. And he said, what do you mean you don't like your

00:46:56.500 job anymore? He says, uh, half the time off camera, I'm being told what I can and can't say.

00:47:01.400 What? I just want to talk. I want to have a good time. I'm going to probably stop doing this in two

00:47:05.380 years. Cause I'm not having fun anymore. So when you try to silence everybody to that level as well,

00:47:10.560 and it no longer becomes fun, then the guy doing his job is not having fun. And if the guy that's doing

00:47:15.880 his job is not having fun, we're going to feel the fact that that person's not having fun doing

00:47:20.540 their job. Anyways, that was pretty interesting perspective. You, uh, uh, sharing with us on

00:47:24.860 what the market is like right now for comedians. So let me go a different angle for you. You're

00:47:29.040 Iranian. I'm Iranian. Uh, you came right before the revolution. Do you remember the exact date

00:47:34.980 when you guys came out here or no? Do you remember like, I know it was 78, but do you remember the date?

00:47:39.900 Uh, we came, uh, I think it was December of, uh, 78. Wow. And yeah, yeah. December 70. It was the

00:47:49.280 coldest winter in New York. We land in New York and my, we were going to try and live in New York,

00:47:55.680 but it was so cold. My mom said, let's get the hell out of here. And it's funny. Cause as my mom

00:48:00.080 and dad later separated and divorced, et cetera, my dad would say, I was going to buy this building in

00:48:05.160 New York that's worth $150 million now. And your mother told me not to buy it. I'm like, dad,

00:48:10.500 get out of here. You know, December of 78. Wow. So do you actually have memories of living in Iran or no?

00:48:19.380 Dude, my memories of living in Iran, you and I were talking a little bit about, um, um, uh, Rocky.

00:48:25.520 So one of my memories of living in Iran was seeing Rocky at, uh, uh, um, like five or whatever the age

00:48:35.080 was seeing Rocky. My father was a big boxing fan. So, uh, we love Muhammad Ali. I love Muhammad Ali.

00:48:44.120 One of the reasons I think why I do what I do is because of Muhammad Ali, because I remember Patrick

00:48:50.420 years later, when I came to America, I always thought of Muhammad Ali as, as this amazing boxer,

00:48:56.060 but I come to find out he was an amazing humanitarian. And I remember driving on La Brea Avenue

00:49:01.840 when I was working, uh, in the advertising agency and Apple had this ad campaign called

00:49:08.320 Think Different. They had Muhammad Ali, Gandhi, Einstein, Einstein. And there was a picture of

00:49:13.780 that famous picture of Ali where he's punching and it's got his fist. And I'm looking at it as I'm

00:49:18.660 driving. I'm an assistant. I'm making like $20,000 a year doing nothing. And, and I see the picture

00:49:26.660 Ali. I go, Oh my God, that guy touched the whole world. And I go, God, I want to do something where

00:49:33.280 I can affect people. And, and that was one, that was all when it was building up to that Joe Ryan

00:49:38.940 moment. And, um, and I just, I just, you know, I loved what he stood for. He had the belt,

00:49:47.320 the championship belt. And he goes, I'm not going to Vietnam to kill the yellow man that I have nothing

00:49:53.980 against. And I go, that guy gave up everything. So that is something to aspire to, to, to, to,

00:50:00.320 to, to live on your principles. So Muhammad Ali, uh, Rocky, I remember I had Spider-Man, uh, comic

00:50:07.360 books. Um, I, I just, I remember a lot. I was, it was a regular, you know, I don't know. What were

00:50:13.980 you in Tehran, dude? Um, I think we were in the North, like the nice area of Tehran. My father was a

00:50:18.700 successful, huh? Gandhi. I don't know where the area was, but I just remember my dad was,

00:50:24.160 my dad was a successful businessman. My dad, the closest I can, uh, say is my dad was like,

00:50:30.000 uh, Vito Corleone in the Godfather. People that needed things would go to my dad. He would help

00:50:34.380 them out. And, uh, and I always thought like maybe my dad's exaggerating until when he passed away,

00:50:40.140 I would run into people who'd be like, listen, if it weren't for your father, my family never would

00:50:44.200 have gotten out of Iran. Your dad did this. He was a very generous man. And so, you know, as a kid,

00:50:50.620 you know, I mean, it was very Western cause it was under the Shah. So we had a lot of Western

00:50:55.420 influence. So as a kid, I just had a regular, almost American upbringing, you know?

00:51:00.780 Do you do? Cause I came, uh, uh, I was born October 1878. So you're 72. I'm 78. You're February 26th.

00:51:09.920 I'm October 18th. So I came, uh, November 28th, 1989, right after Khomeini died. Khomeini died is

00:51:16.240 when we came, uh, November, no, July 15th, 89 is when we escaped. November 28th is when we came here

00:51:22.000 in, uh, uh, 1990. We lived in Germany at a refugee camp for a year and a half. So you see Iran there,

00:51:29.000 you leave Iran because of what's going on with the Iran revolution. Good timing on your dad's end,

00:51:32.700 by the way, because at that time, I think the two men was still less than $20, 22 men a dollar

00:51:37.060 later on. I mean, right now it's ridiculous. If you follow some of the numbers on what's going on,

00:51:40.840 what, what do you think about what's going on in Iran today? You know, you see the climate,

00:51:45.220 you see what's going on with water. You see them wanting the revolution. You see China came in and

00:51:48.820 signed a 25 year contract, 400 billion, uh, $400 billion. What do you think about what's going on

00:51:54.140 in Iran today? My heart breaks for every young person in Iran. You know, um, I've seen this for so

00:52:02.020 long, you know, the problem with Iran is it's been 40 plus years of what's been going on. And so

00:52:08.500 you see this, I get people sending me messages, help us. I got no, I got nothing, you know? And,

00:52:14.560 and unfortunately, like I was just in Dubai recently and I'm looking at Dubai and I go,

00:52:18.320 geez, Dubai had no natural resources and look at what they built in the past 30, 40 years.

00:52:23.320 And I go, Iran had all these resources. Iran had and has so much, um, uh, capacity of, uh, brain

00:52:32.120 capacity. I mean, Iranian students were coming to Stanford university to the electrical engineering

00:52:37.620 PhD program. And their first year in the PhD program, they were saying, we've already studied

00:52:43.100 all this stuff in our undergrad. And supposedly they were like some of the top students. And then

00:52:48.440 the problem is those guys come and they stay. Why do they stay? Because they want a better life

00:52:54.060 and they can find that here, but they can't go back to Iran and have that better life because of

00:52:58.120 the government being oppressive. The government's oppressive against women, against homosexuals,

00:53:03.080 against Baha'is, against a lot of people, against young people. And it's an unfortunate thing. It really

00:53:09.660 is this totalitarian state and it breaks my heart. And the question becomes, well, what do we do?

00:53:16.120 Right. How do we help that? How do we help that come out of that? Now, one solution is to attack

00:53:23.480 Iran, like you did with Iraq and get rid of the leadership. I personally, I'm not an advocate of

00:53:29.540 war because I know that even in Iraq, they lost, I don't know how many innocent Iraqis died. Right.

00:53:35.520 So if you did war with Iran, you'd lose half a million, a million people, innocent people would

00:53:40.220 have to die. I don't know. So on the one hand, I go, gosh, that's not the solution. On the other hand,

00:53:44.880 I go, do you try diplomacy? In which case a lot of people are against it. A lot of Iranian Americans

00:53:50.440 are against it because they go diplomacy with this government is giving them more power and

00:53:55.680 more strength. So I really don't know what the solution is. I'm hoping that the people of Iran

00:54:00.900 are able to lead what I hope is more of an evolution than a revolution. Because yes,

00:54:07.600 I want this government to go, but I don't want bloodshed. Like, I mean, there is bloodshed already,

00:54:12.540 but I don't want it to be so bad. So in all honesty, I just try whenever I'm faced with any

00:54:17.700 issues, I try to just show my support for the people of Iran. Currently, there's protests in

00:54:23.380 Huzestan because there's no water. The water's dirty. And I did on my Instagram post, I did,

00:54:31.680 hey, I'm with the people of Huzestan and I want the media to cover this. And I don't know

00:54:38.180 what the future holds, but it just breaks my heart every time I see the news coming out of

00:54:42.540 Iran. It's a complicated situation that's going on. By the way, did you ever follow Feredun Farochzad

00:54:47.540 or no? Did you know his story? I know his story because a friend of mine, so I made a movie a few

00:54:52.940 years ago called Jimmy Vestwood, American Hero. I described that as the Persian. Yeah, I described

00:54:58.780 it as like the Persian Pink Panther. It's a bumbling idiot who wins the green card lottery,

00:55:02.760 comes to America and saves the day. It's a silly movie. I made it for like 12-year-old

00:55:08.140 boys and, you know, teenagers like it and adults think it's a little too raunchy. It's a silly

00:55:14.100 movie. If you're looking for a silly movie, Jimmy Vestwood, American Hero. My co-writer

00:55:17.820 on that is a guy named Amir Ohebsian. He had written a script about Feredun Farochzad that

00:55:24.540 was beautifully written and it won an award. The movie never got made because they never had

00:55:29.240 funding for it. But what an amazing character and what a complicated, interesting story he

00:55:36.340 had. Very complicated. And the way it ended, I don't know if you know the whole story on

00:55:40.220 how it ends in a hotel, what happened to him. So last question I'll ask you before we wrap

00:55:46.080 up here, since, you know, you made a comment earlier. You said when you studied poli-sci,

00:55:51.820 you were curious about history because you noticed the link between U.S. under Carter and the overthrow

00:55:57.120 of a regime in Iran that was pretty much a democracy following a lot of the westernized

00:56:01.840 philosophy under the Shah. Why do you think when the word Shah comes up, you know, and how Iran was

00:56:08.240 before, why do you think some folks bring negative connotations to what he did? Because I bet if I

00:56:15.140 were to ask you, if I were to ask you, what did your dad think about the Shah? Is it fair to say that

00:56:20.160 his assessment will be more positive than negative? Absolutely. I think, listen, the problem is

00:56:25.240 people see everything black and white. They don't see the nuance of it, right? I'll be the first

00:56:29.500 one to tell you as a kid in Iran under the Shah, I thought, oh, what a great country. And there was

00:56:35.220 a lot of great stuff that was happening. We were modernizing. We were, you know, we were someone,

00:56:40.440 we were a country to be reckoned with in the world and headed in the right direction. Now, at the same

00:56:46.040 time, I'll be objective and say, yes, under the Shah, there was Savak, the secret police. There was people

00:56:51.220 who would disappear. There was, you know, people couldn't speak, couldn't criticize the Shah,

00:56:57.240 because that's just what happens when you have a king of any country, you can't criticize that king.

00:57:02.020 And so it, was it perfect? No. Was it better than what's going on now? I would argue yes,

00:57:08.560 because these guys who came and took over really brought in the dark ages. I mean, it got even worse.

00:57:14.000 And so I think we should be able to talk about that and criticize the system before without

00:57:20.420 necessarily saying, okay, now let's, okay, now we've done that. Now let's talk about the current

00:57:24.560 system. And now let's talk about what's going to come next. Let's take Egypt, for an example.

00:57:29.960 Egypt under Hosni Mubarak was very oppressive and limited. And then they got rid of Hosni Mubarak,

00:57:36.480 they had elections, and this guy came in who was a Muslim brotherhood guy. And it got even

00:57:42.660 like as oppressive or maybe more oppressive. And then they got rid of him. And now the military

00:57:47.420 dictatorship. So the question becomes, I honestly don't know what the future of Iran holds.

00:57:52.640 Living in a Western democracy, I appreciate the Western democracies. That's why the last four

00:57:58.000 years, every time there was an attack, and I know our people were divided on Trump and this and that,

00:58:02.940 but anytime there was an attack on the media, or anytime there was an attack on some of our

00:58:07.420 institutions that existed, whether it's the judiciary or whatever, I always thought,

00:58:12.480 wow, we're chipping away at what makes us a democracy. So I've already seen that game play

00:58:18.960 out in Iran, where we got away from what was already a Shah with some freedoms. And then we

00:58:29.820 got to this thing that's even darker, because now it's completely controlled. So I'm just someone who's

00:58:36.880 an advocate for people's voices for democracy. And I think that we should be willing to, it's kind of

00:58:42.920 like the conversation we're having right now in America about critical race theory. A lot of people

00:58:47.040 say, we shouldn't talk about the bad things America did with slavery, or the Native Americans. I go, no,

00:58:54.360 you have to know the good and the bad, and be willing to admit that those things happened. You know,

00:58:59.480 it's almost like saying like, oh, wow, you know, you know, if you had a father who was abusive to

00:59:05.040 everybody, oh, that guy was such a funny guy. Yeah, but he used to abuse mom. Yeah, but he was

00:59:09.500 funny. Well, he used to hit all the kids. He was funny. Remember that time? He stole all the money

00:59:14.760 from the neighbors, but he was a funny guy. Let's not talk about all the other things. No, you should

00:59:19.320 be able to look at the good and the bad. And the Shah brought a lot of good, but there was also stuff to

00:59:24.700 criticize him for. So I think, you know, we just got to keep, you know, an open mind with that. And

00:59:31.220 you, and again, not to compare the Shah with, these guys are the worst. The current regime is, I mean,

00:59:38.520 anything called the regime is usually a bad thing. And they really are. They really are. I have zero

00:59:45.720 sympathy for the leaders of the government of Iran. And, and all my heart, again, goes back to the

00:59:51.800 people. Can you see yourself ever before, you know, while we're still here, do you see yourself

00:59:57.800 ever performing in Tehran? Like, Kabaret Tehran. Do you ever see what you're doing out there and

01:00:02.540 I would love to. The only issue that I have is I perform in English and I'm more comfortable

01:00:09.460 performing in English. So even when I go to the Middle East, the audience has, knows English and

01:00:15.800 they come and they laugh. Sure. So I would have to find an audience of Iranians that speak English

01:00:20.240 well enough. Makes sense. You know what I'm saying? No, it makes sense. I mean, you, you know,

01:00:23.280 because the, the, to, to be able to pull out words and get technical, I'm sure you have to have a

01:00:29.920 depth, uh, vocabulary. And I'm not saying you don't, when I listened to you speak Farsi, you speak

01:00:34.920 very eloquently. I don't, but I can see that taking place with what you're at. Do you see any, any, uh,

01:00:41.200 concerns with today? Like, you know, my, my biggest thing is the following. Here's what I struggle with.

01:00:46.260 I'm curious to know what you think about this Iran. So my mother, she was a two day. I don't know if

01:00:52.540 you remember today, you know, how do you describe what it is? Communists, communists in Iran, two days

01:00:57.500 were communists. Yeah. My dad in Iran, he was an imperialist. So he was a Shah, you know, he loved

01:01:02.560 the Shah. He thought the Shah was great. My mom thought Shah was terrible. And you know, it was,

01:01:07.000 they got two divorces in a span of six years, the span of 20 years. They got married, divorced,

01:01:12.180 married, re-divorced, 20 years. Beautiful. And, uh, probably the best thing that ever happened.

01:01:17.240 It was probably good for the world that my parents got a divorce, but you know, you see, uh, you see

01:01:24.260 how there is 99 things to talk about how great America is, but we spend 99% of the time talking

01:01:35.000 about 1% of what's bad in America. Okay. That's what happened to Iran. You got, you know, women could

01:01:41.900 vote. Women could work in anywhere. Women weren't forced to get married at the age of eight or 13,

01:01:48.860 like the marriage age changed and they could go out there and have their own identities. They had a

01:01:53.420 voice. And then now it changes and they don't have the voice. You know, you could marry a girl at 13

01:01:59.020 years old and you're 42 years old. And Allah says, that's okay with it, right? You can do certain

01:02:02.680 things that's going on like that in Iran. So do you think sometimes over, and like you said, CRT,

01:02:07.520 you said, uh, uh, there are people that don't want to talk about the fact that slavery took

01:02:12.340 place in the past. I don't think the fact that people have a problem. I went to school and I

01:02:16.260 studied slavery history, taught you what slavery was 30 years. But I think it's the fact to say

01:02:19.940 you're this, you're that this is what happened because your family's this, because your family's

01:02:24.920 that. Do you see the playbook of America going in a direction where we're spending more time

01:02:29.400 thinking about what's wrong with America rather than what's right with America?

01:02:32.160 No, I disagree. I don't think that's the case. I think that we, most people know America is a

01:02:39.780 great country. And if they don't, they should travel outside of America and you'll see America

01:02:44.120 is a great country. I just think that there's room for improvement. And I think that what you

01:02:48.840 just said is interesting because you're right. We talked about slavery or Native Americans a little

01:02:53.720 bit in school, but they don't go into depth in it. And it's good for us to know in order to not

01:02:59.640 repeat the past. And I honestly don't think, because I've heard some politicians say,

01:03:03.580 oh, you're going to make the white kids uncomfortable. I don't think teachers are in

01:03:07.340 classes going like, hey, white kid, your dad did this. No, it's saying a good teacher would say,

01:03:12.480 let's look at the history of what we did. There was good white people. There was bad white people.

01:03:16.440 There was good black people. There was bad black people. There was black people who were probably

01:03:20.540 selling out the other black people so that they can make the money and sell out these other people.

01:03:25.600 So I think it's knowledge is power, right? We should definitely know what's going on.

01:03:32.120 But listen, you can say whatever you want about America, but this past election, we had the highest

01:03:37.620 election turnout ever. So that's a good thing. We should work more and more towards that to get

01:03:45.120 more and more people engaged, more and more people aware of what's going on and more and more people

01:03:49.060 voting for their own interests. And as you said, let's concentrate on making America a better place.

01:03:53.960 Let's try and attack the homeless problem. Let's try and build on infrastructure. Let's make voting

01:03:59.080 easier for people. We have the highest technology right now. You had people in the administration

01:04:06.180 who were in charge of voting and said this was the most secure voting election ever. And you went to

01:04:12.960 judges, you went to several judges, and you look at all that and you go, geez, at a certain point,

01:04:18.080 we have to say, yes, this was secure and it's going to be more and more secure. And let's make it more

01:04:22.540 and more available to people so everyone can participate. So when the next election comes

01:04:26.700 around, whether you're a grocery store clerk or you're CEO of a bank, you're going to go and vote

01:04:34.240 because you want to be involved in part of what you just said, this country being such a great country

01:04:38.920 that those two people, one of them is making a billion dollars a year, one is making $20 a year,

01:04:44.500 but they both have a vote. Let's work towards that. And so I don't think by looking at your faults,

01:04:52.040 you're going in that direction. I don't think that's the case.

01:04:54.900 But I think overemphasizing, which is what the media is doing 24-7,

01:04:59.520 is getting America to have more bickers and fights than ever before. And I'm surprised you

01:05:04.560 don't see that trend. When you said a good teacher, you said a good teacher wouldn't say this.

01:05:11.000 So I think what you are also saying, Maz, is the fact that we should get rid of bad teachers.

01:05:15.460 We should also have an opportunity to keep bad teachers and allow bad teachers to get fired.

01:05:20.500 Would you agree with that? At least some bad teachers should get fired.

01:05:23.580 Well, I'll tell you what, you know how you get rid of bad teachers? You start paying teachers more

01:05:27.460 money and then you're going to attract the top, you're going to attract more people.

01:05:31.780 I'm for paying more. I am for paying more and firing the ones that don't,

01:05:35.800 don't, you know, don't give their best. Yeah. Make teaching a desirable job so that people

01:05:43.840 will, people with high capacity will want to be there. So, you know, listen, man, I,

01:05:51.480 the divisions are there and unfortunately, but, but I see, I see love, you know, I see people do,

01:05:57.020 I'll be honest with you, Patrick. I do what I can on my own terms.

01:06:00.260 On stage, I do get sometimes political and say my opinion, but I try as much as I can when I'm in

01:06:08.140 public. I am, I go overboard. Nice. Nowadays, if I come to a door, I let the first, the other person

01:06:14.620 go first, because I know everyone's, you know, under a lot of stress. We've had two years of this

01:06:19.240 pandemic and this and that. So I just go overboard with being nice and courteous. And I think if more

01:06:24.960 of us do that and pay it forward, perhaps the world will smile a little more.

01:06:29.600 I hope you guys don't get silenced, man. I hope you guys can do what you can do

01:06:34.240 as comedians and you don't walk on eggshells because your industry has the ability to unite

01:06:41.100 America. I just, today, I made an announcement this morning at 8 a.m. and I sent a video out

01:06:46.400 and I said, I'm willing to give $5 million if President Trump and President Obama are willing

01:06:53.320 to sit down together for a long form interview to have a conversation together, because I think

01:06:58.700 both of them have their own way of loving America. They have different ideas. Why don't

01:07:03.220 you guys talk to each other for two, three hours and see if we can figure out a way to

01:07:07.140 unite? This was just probably two hours before you and I sat down together and it's got a

01:07:11.940 lot of traction already. We're already getting a lot of things that are coming back. I think

01:07:16.080 we need to be able to hear both sides. Whether you agree with it or not, I think we need to

01:07:19.160 be able to hear both sides.

01:07:20.660 And Patrick, if they don't agree to sit down, you should hire two impersonators and give them

01:07:24.940 $50 each, save yourself a lot of money and just do it.

01:07:28.960 It's a good idea. Buddy, appreciate you for coming out. How can people find you? If they

01:07:32.340 want to find you, what's the best way for them to go?

01:07:35.340 It's at Maz Jobrani, M-A-Z-J-O-B-R-A-N-I, at Maz Jobrani on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, all

01:07:44.500 across the board. MazJobrani.com is all my tour dates. I'm currently on tour and my podcast

01:07:50.360 is called Back to School with Maz Jobrani. So tune in and follow me.

01:07:55.880 We're going to put all of those links below, folks. If you want to go follow Maz, click

01:08:00.480 on the description. All of those links will be below.

01:08:03.160 Ola, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you, truly.

01:08:05.620 Take care, brother. Be well.

01:08:06.380 Thank you.

01:08:06.560 Bye-bye.

01:08:07.780 Bye-bye.

01:08:08.480 Industry comedy, walking on eggshells, Iran, state of America. Curious to know what you

01:08:13.220 took away from this interview. And if you enjoyed this interview, I got two other videos I think

01:08:17.380 you'll like. It's my sit down with Kevin Hart or Carlos Mencia. If you've not watched either,

01:08:22.460 click on those interviews to watch them. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - July 30, 2021

Former Iranian Refugee Turned Comedian Opens Up

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