Comedian Maz Jobrani | LIVE at The Kennedy Center

Thank You Damien thank you a Kennedy Center Aspen Institute I'm Maz Jobrani I'm a comedian thank you yes thank you I have no idea what I'm doing here this is very serious topics and then me because I live in Los Angeles and whenever I come to DC I feel like you guys are doing things the yeah I mean in LA you run into people that are auditioning to play people that are doing things but here you're actually doing things it's amazing so thank you very much a few of these sessions I've watched I felt very dumb um no I think I'm gonna go back to school because I have some of the Allen case stuff and Sarah Lewis I was like well I got a study I didn't it was beautiful and and this is amazing and um I'm sorry Ronnie an American and I guess I'm opening the race section of the afternoon thank you yes the race section which means if you don't laugh you're racist put it out there that check yourselves so just by I just want to find out by applause where are the non-white people here non-white bye applause Thank You alfre woodard thank you for yes and now where's the white people bye applause white people yes thank you thank you very much for being interested in race um no I want to thank the UH Aspen Institute and Kennedy Center for recognizing the race is not just black and white there's a lot of Browns uh yes the brown lady thank you for clapping um no because I've heard people nowadays I've heard some people say that Muslim is a new black and then I've heard people say orange is a new black but having seen what's been going on in the US the past year so I would say black is still the new black it's just that we're just joining a lot of Muslims and brown people are joining uh we're just being shot at by rednecks not by cops yet yeah oh whatever okay now was getting racy hello hi how are you um I'm a comedian I got acknowledged welcome back he asked he had an opinion during lunch it was yeah you had the year the the Union man right sir yes good opinion uh no but I'm first of all I wanted to uh before I get into race I just wanted quickly there was the question about freedom of speech coming off a famous piece it was question about freedom of speech internationally and how we deal with it here versus internationally and I I get this question a lot when the whole Charlie Hebdo thing happened people said why are Muslims so upset about the depictions of Muhammad and first of all I'm not a scholar in Islam and I'm not even that religious really but I did say in response that in America we have free speech but we also have limitations as we all know but but as a comedian I experienced it firsthand during the the Iraq war there was leading up to the Iraq war I had jokes about President Bush surprise I'll be honest with you Bush was great for comedians Obama's horrible um oh my god I had Bush and Ahmadinejad that was the president Iran it was like it was gold I mean this is I I'd have to write you I just report you know I'd be like you know it was a happy like he he choked on a pretzel haha um it was crazy am i dinna John no gays in Iran oh my god uh it was great um and now nothing um anyway Thank You President Obama um but no I was doing jokes about the bush about Bush leading up to the war and people would laugh and then on the eve of the war people stopped laughing at the same jokes and I realized that there was a line the administration it's sold which was if you criticize the war you're criticizing the troops and had to remind people that that wasn't the case I was like I wasn't on stage going like you know what I love the administration it's those damn troops that pissed me off and it's crazy because I actually had a show at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles I once had a girl in the front row who was in the military I was doing a Bush joke she goes you can't make fun of our commander-in-chief during a time of war and I was like whoa whoa whoa wait a minute I go that's the whole point of this country that's the beauty this country I came from Iran I go that's why I love America I go I couldn't make fun of the President of Iran in Iran as if I did that in Iran you'd be like hey that was a good show was your next show I'd be like there are no more shows the Ministry of no show showed up the next show will be in prison so I just want to say we also have a lot of things that were sensitive to if you want to piss off Americans go on Twitter and put something out there about gun control and see the vitriol you get off of that it's true I mean so you know I just want to hold the mirror to ourselves a little bit as well now getting back to race again like I said I'm a Ron Ian's American and I think one of the best things that I've seen in in the current culture in America is that there's a lot of interracial marriages and and mixing of cultures I did that myself I married an Indian woman who's here tonight so I'm irani and she's Indian we have our kids we have two kids they both look like her I told her I said there's a reason why there's a billion Indians in the world their genes are so dominant I'm telling anyone who sleeps with an Indian that kids are coming out Indian I'm telling you this I'm sick Iranian Indian Indian black Indian Indian friend of mine Weis not even Indians yet Indian food one night the kids came out India I'm just telling you right now uh so so like I said I I came to America I was six years old when I came to America it was at the revolution 79 revolution in Iran and I came to America my father was a businessman he was staying at the Plaza Hotel I was six years old I come to The Plaza Hotel across the street from FAO Schwartz the best toy store in the world and I was like oh my god this revolution is working out for me and it was going great in my mind as a kid until I don't know I was different until the hostage crisis happened which is when I was in the fourth grade at the time and that's when I think America really started taking note and I was in the fourth key there was a sixth grader back then who started calling me he would call me an F an Iranian that's what they would call you back then an F and they would actually use the real word but we're at the Kennedy Center so I'm sticking with F and Iranian so he feel like dude you know F and Iran I'd be like dude first of all it's not Iranian it's Iranian secondly you're bigger than me so is whatever you want it to be and thirdly I'm Italian um hey man survival baby so and then and then things got good for a little bit they got good for a little bit and then the movie not without my daughter came out and I don't you guys remember that movie Sally Field Alfred Molina they play a couple they're married in America Alfred Molina plays uh Iranian in America in America the guy is the nicest guy in the world he's like doing poetry and cooking for her and he you know he's like I love you I want to cook and clean you know uh and then he says let's go to Iran for a break and they go to Iran and the guy changes on a dime he just like he's you know he's I would kill you in sacrifice you like a sheep and it's crazy and it's based on a true story but the problem was as an Iranian male back then like it was like I'll tell you ruined our dating life like no at that point all Iranians became Tony it was crazy I'm serious and it's and so that was the second thing that that like affected my youth and then the third one obviously the more the biggest one was after September 11th and we all know that the problem with with a lot of this stuff is that when these things happen people go people go nuts and they were shooting Indians Sikhs that had nothing to do with it and I personally never experienced racism towards me but my mother who's got a thick Persian accent she had an experience in Los Angeles she went to a Costco and she moved someone's cart out of her way to get to the product lady comes back and goes who moved my cart and my mother is a elegant Persian lady she goes you know what the cart was in my way I had to move it to get to the cereal or whatever she was trying to get and and the lady right away goes why don't you go back to your country right away it was right after September 11th and my mom said this is my country and then the lady took her cart and started walking away and she turned to my mom and goes to my mom and my mother is a very proper Persian lady she doesn't like to cuss so she said she came back with the best comeback she could think of she said she who says it is it yes she said yeah yeah like a five-year-old come back oh there you go mom you know I am rubber you are glue yeah so that was that was that and then and and then I'll tell you as an Iranian American actor it's funny I grew up in Northern California Marin County and growing up I got to play all kinds of parts I was doing play since I was 12 I got to be little Abner who's this hillbilly kid I got to play Batman in high school I was like wow and I was like I want to go to Hollywood and be an actor and play all kinds of parts and then when I got there and they find out you're Middle Eastern descent they go oh you're Middle Eastern great here's a part can you say I will kill you in the name of Allah and you go yeah I could but can i maybe play the doctor in this and they go yeah then you can hijack the hospital yeah like no you're not getting it so then so then I just I wrote this book that just came out it's called I'm not a terrorist but I've played one on TV and thank you and in it I tell the story how early on in my career I took a part in a Chuck Norris movie of the week thank you no it was crazy it was actually I had to debate whether I wanted to take this part or not because I didn't feel right but I had a job and I was like maybe maybe if I take this part it will lead to me being able to quit my day job and then moving on into a full career of acting so this was before September 11th I was going to play an Afghan terrorist who was going to blow up a building in Chicago and I said you know what I'm gonna take this part and I'm gonna show why this guy's doing what he's doing through my acting through my says Espeon ability I will show why I'm such an idiot um so I took the part I went down to the wardrobe fitting and they go here's your shirt here's your pants here's your turban and I was like no well I go listen I've done my research Afghans in America don't wear turbans I go Indians Sikhs wear turbans I go let's get this right and the girl was like dude this is a Chuck Norris movie what are you talking about and I was like no you tell the producers I've done my research we should get it so she said I'll talk to the producers we'll see what I'm so dumb the next day at my war in my dressing room and there's my shirt and my pants and a scarf and I said Oh see I told you if you talk to them they'll see it my way I will gladly be the scarf wearing terrorists and she goes that's not a scarf that's the turban he's just got to wrap it back up so I felt like an idiot and and then I I went back to my agents I said no more terrorist parts and then the TV show 24 came calling and they yeah and they said we have a terrorist I said no and they said but he changes his mind halfway through the mission I was like ooh the ambivalent terrorist that's interesting so I did that um and yeah they kept coming at me man just when you think you're up they keep pulling you back in as patina anyway so then that was the last time I did a terrorist part and I haven't worked since um no I'm kidding no I uh I I didn't do any more after that and one of the reasons is because you realize there's actual real-world results and effects you know you see these shootings that do happen I think in North Carolina was recently these two Muslims got shot by their neighbor you see you hear about kids getting picked on and beat up at schools and the problem is I've traveled all over the world doing stand-up I've done stand-up in the Middle East and most people I've met in the Middle East are good people and they're just living their lives anyway I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap it up because they told me I have a minute left but I just want to thank you guys again for inviting me to be a part of this and I thank you guys for listening and and this has been an honor to be a part of this so I'm Maz Jobrani thank you very much and enjoy the rest all right

Channel: The Kennedy Center

Views: 496,364

Rating: 4.7118535 out of 5

Keywords: Aspen Institute (Nonprofit Organization), John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts (Venue), Arts Summit, arts, technology, science, talk, conversation, society, Maz Jobrani (Film Actor), comedy, jobrani, maz, comedian, Performance (Visual Art Form), The Kennedy Center, Kennedy Center, Kennedy, Washington D.C., performing arts, performance, performing arts center, perform, art, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, national cultural center, stage, digital stage

Id: A8NySjRJ4Q0

Length: 12min 23sec (743 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 03 2015