Speaker 1: We start the rehearsal and I'm up there, I'm singing,
Speaker 1: I'm dancing, I'm smiling. And then she stops. The whole rehearsal.
Speaker 1: Everybody stops stop. She goes look at him, Look at him.
Speaker 1: You see him. He's sick, he's here, he's singing, he's smiling.
Speaker 1: You gotta learn from him. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's me. So it was a moment of like positive
Speaker 1: reinforcement made me feel I can do this. And then
Speaker 1: the year later, eighth grade, I come back and I
Speaker 1: get the lead. I'm little Abner and Little Abner and
Speaker 1: you know, I've been bitt and I loved it and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to do it. And every time I
Speaker 1: tell I tell a story, how like throughout my schooling,
Speaker 1: they would always be like, oh, you've got what it
Speaker 1: takes to do this. So my parents would come to
Speaker 1: the shows and the director or the teacher would say,
Speaker 1: you know, your kids got the thing for this, and
Speaker 1: my parents, oh, thank you, thinking and we get in
Speaker 1: the car. My dad would be like, that bitch is crazy.
Speaker 1: Don't listen to her. You're gonna be a doctor or
Speaker 1: a lawyer. Hi, I'm maz Jobrani and I am bald.
Speaker 1: Hi friends, welcome back here to Off the Beat. It
Speaker 1: is I your trusty host, Brian Baumgartner. Today I have
Speaker 1: a very special treat for you, because, as you just heard,
Speaker 1: my guest is the hilarious actor and stand up comedian
Speaker 1: Moss Joe Brownie. Now, if you know anything about Moss,
Speaker 1: you know comedy isn't his only specialty. He actually studied
Speaker 1: political science at UC Berkeley and then later dropped out
Speaker 1: of his PhD program to do what yes, to pursue comedy.
Speaker 1: It's what all smart folks do. This was a great
Speaker 1: move for Moss. He now has six comedy specials, a memoir,
Speaker 1: and countless TV appearances. Today, we're going to dive into
Speaker 1: his unique take on comedy, not shying away from hard
Speaker 1: time tompics like politics and race and why humor has
Speaker 1: a unique power to make this kind of statement and yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna crack some jokes along the way. This one
Speaker 1: it is pretty pretty special. Let's jump right in with
Speaker 1: my friend and yours, Moss Joe Browny. Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it, Bubble and Squeak. A Bubble and Squeaker
Speaker 1: cookie every month left over from the Natio. Hi mas,
Speaker 1: Hey Brian, how are you? I'm great, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me, Thanks for having me, buddy. What's
Speaker 1: going on? Hey? You know what? Not a whole lot,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited to see. Where are you right now?
Speaker 1: I'm in Los Angeles. Where are you? Okay? Well, so
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a rainy day in southern California.
Speaker 1: I'm there as well. It's insane, crazy, right, yeah, And
Speaker 1: there's nothing more boring than talking about the weather. But
Speaker 1: it's a reality. That's it's a reality. And it's also
Speaker 1: I've been my whole life. I've been in California, like
Speaker 1: since I was six years old. And the only time
Speaker 1: I remember raining almost as bad was I think I
Speaker 1: was like in the fifth grade in northern California and
Speaker 1: cars were literally like the water was up to the window. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was crazy, and they made us evacuate. We
Speaker 1: lived on a on a hillside, they made us evacuate.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've seen it this bad since. And
Speaker 1: this might be worse than that, I mean worse and
Speaker 1: better and all of the above. Yeah, No, it's insane.
Speaker 1: Cars stopped today, stuck right around my house in rivers
Speaker 1: of water trying to get through. But it's so nutty.
Speaker 1: But you know what, it's warm and cozy here between
Speaker 1: the two of us. I want to talk about your career.
Speaker 1: I have a little bit of an existential conversation about
Speaker 1: comedian versus actor. Will do that, but I first want
Speaker 1: to start back at your youth. You were born in Iran,
Speaker 1: but came to California very early on. Is that right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I was born in Iran and then late seventy
Speaker 1: eight as there was protests. There's protests in the streets
Speaker 1: of Iran. The leader back then was the Shaw, and
Speaker 1: the Shaw was a monarch. He was a king. He
Speaker 1: had helped modernize the country and he had gotten the
Speaker 1: country to some level of prosperity. But he had people
Speaker 1: that didn't like him because he was a king, and
Speaker 1: so clearly, you know, there were many groups that couldn't
Speaker 1: be vocal against him, you know, you know, he had
Speaker 1: a secret police and all that kind of stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there was all these different groups that were critical
Speaker 1: of him or opposed him. And what happened was these
Speaker 1: protests started started out in the streets of Irun. They
Speaker 1: got bigger and bigger and bigger, and what would happen
Speaker 1: is his military or somebody would show up at the
Speaker 1: protests and they would shoot into the crowd and somebody
Speaker 1: would die, and then that would cause more protests to
Speaker 1: just grow and grow and grow. And so eventually, late
Speaker 1: seventy eight, my father was on business in New York
Speaker 1: and he told my mom, He's like, why don't you
Speaker 1: bring the kids to New York for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, hopefully things will cool down
Speaker 1: and we can all return. And we didn't expect to
Speaker 1: stay this long because really we left my baby brother
Speaker 1: back there. I came with my older sister, Mariam. At
Speaker 1: the time, I was six. I guess you must have
Speaker 1: been eight. And I always like to say we packed
Speaker 1: for two weeks and we stayed for forty four years. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: you just never went back, whatever back because things got
Speaker 1: worse and worse, and early seventy nine the Shaw actually left.
Speaker 1: Then that's when the revolution really happened. And there was
Speaker 1: actually a great documentary that was on HBO recently called
Speaker 1: Hostages that kind of talked about that time and how
Speaker 1: Ayatollahomeni comes in and really, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people at that time, thought, oh, this is going to
Speaker 1: be great because now that the Shah's gone, will have
Speaker 1: a democracy and everyone will get along. Well, actually it
Speaker 1: got worse because what happened was you ended up with
Speaker 1: this religious fundamentalist regime that didn't care about you know,
Speaker 1: women's rights, LGBTQ rights, religious minority rights. They led us.
Speaker 1: Then we ended up in a war with Iraq, so
Speaker 1: millions of people died there, and we've seen now more
Speaker 1: and more recently how brutal the regime is with executing
Speaker 1: people and imprisoning people. And just last year they killed
Speaker 1: Massa Amini, who's this twenty two year old girl walking
Speaker 1: on the street with her hair out of her job
Speaker 1: just a little bit, and so it became even more brutal.
Speaker 1: And it's been hard to be away from Iran for
Speaker 1: forty four years. And I'm very American. I grew up
Speaker 1: watching baseball and football and you know, playing those sports
Speaker 1: and knowing American media. But there's always been a part
Speaker 1: of my heart that has remained in my childhood home.
Speaker 1: And it also breaks my heart to see the young
Speaker 1: people of that country suffer the way they have. So really,
Speaker 1: all I could hope for is for a free run
Speaker 1: where they could be fully democratic, like we are, well,
Speaker 1: we're kind of democratic, we're going the other way. Would
Speaker 1: you say, growing up, like, how important was it for
Speaker 1: your parents for you to feel a connection to Iran
Speaker 1: or were you just trying to become sort of fully
Speaker 1: Americanized as a six, seven, eight year old. I mean,
Speaker 1: not that you were fully conscious. But looking back, I
Speaker 1: don't think that my parents have even thought about it
Speaker 1: like that. I think I think that they were just
Speaker 1: they were like they assumed because my parents, imagine, imagine
Speaker 1: being in your at that time. My mom was probably
Speaker 1: in our mid thirties or so, and my dad was
Speaker 1: in his mid to late forties. Imagine if that far
Speaker 1: into your life you had to get up and just
Speaker 1: go to a totally different country. You don't speak the language,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you barely speak the language. They're there.
Speaker 1: The good news was my father, since he was a
Speaker 1: successful businessman, he had the resources financially, he brought a
Speaker 1: lot of money over which, by the way, he ends
Speaker 1: up losing them in bad real estate investments, but still
Speaker 1: to come over here. I don't think that they were
Speaker 1: consciously going, oh, we must make sure our kids speak Persian.
Speaker 1: And eat the Persian food and all that. It would
Speaker 1: just assume that that's what it was. So they would
Speaker 1: speak Persian to us, we would speak Persian to them.
Speaker 1: There were times actually, because my reading and writing in
Speaker 1: Persian continues to not be that great because I left
Speaker 1: when I was in the first grade, so there weren't
Speaker 1: times when they would sign us up for like Persian
Speaker 1: classes on a weekend and I hated it. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh God, what I hate this. So but but but
Speaker 1: really culturally speaking, and for them, it wasn't like they
Speaker 1: even had an option. It wasn't like my mom was
Speaker 1: going to be like, oh I'm gonna my dad wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna be like I'm gonna watch less American sports so
Speaker 1: that you become more Iranian. It was just like, I'm
Speaker 1: only going to speak to you in Persian and you're
Speaker 1: gonna respond to me in Persian, and that's all there
Speaker 1: is to it. You know. Okay, what about you assimilating
Speaker 1: into learning English going to school? Obviously you're learning English
Speaker 1: in school, right, Yeah. Well, I actually went to an
Speaker 1: international school in Iran, so I already spoke English. But
Speaker 1: coming to America, I mean, you know, as a six
Speaker 1: year old, and then seven and all those young ages.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be different, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's like the last thing you want is to be different.
Speaker 1: And first coming over from Iran to America, Iran I
Speaker 1: think had some European influence, so my mom would dress
Speaker 1: me up a little more European e and already in
Speaker 1: America they're like, you know, what's wrong with you? Why
Speaker 1: are you wearing those clothes? And then and then there
Speaker 1: was times when like just little minor things became big
Speaker 1: things in our grade. Right, so we had a day
Speaker 1: called Pizza Day, and Pizza Day was where every kid
Speaker 1: was going to bring some ingredient to the school. We're
Speaker 1: gonna cook pizza together. This is I think third grade.
Speaker 1: And so I was in charge of sausages. So I
Speaker 1: go grocery shopping with my mom and my aunt and
Speaker 1: in Persian the word for hot dog is so cease sausage.
Speaker 1: So so we're there, I go I need sausages, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you need so cis. So they give me a pack
Speaker 1: of hot dogs, which really is like, I mean it's
Speaker 1: a it's a small sausage. Really, I mean sausages are
Speaker 1: it is? So I show up with a you know,
Speaker 1: pack of hot dogs, and of course all the kids hah,
Speaker 1: he brought hot dogs. I know these are sausages. Those
Speaker 1: are hot dogs, you know, like ruined my my, my
Speaker 1: whole life. And I go home and tell my mom
Speaker 1: these are not this is hot dogs, like this is socias.
Speaker 1: Now that story comes full circle when years later I
Speaker 1: went to study abroad in Italy. When I was in college,
Speaker 1: I go to pizzeria and they have pizza with hot
Speaker 1: dogs on it, and I'm like, you bastards. I was
Speaker 1: right all along. So yeah, so I was just trying
Speaker 1: to blend in. Man. I just wanted to be American.
Speaker 1: I mean I played baseball, I you know, American culture.
Speaker 1: Like that's probably where I discovered listen. By the way. Also,
Speaker 1: my dad and I think this was just parenting of
Speaker 1: the time. But I didn't play catch with me or
Speaker 1: any of that. I mean, he was a great father.
Speaker 1: He was very generous, he was giving. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: let's go outside and play catch, you know. So because
Speaker 1: of that, like I was learning a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: from American television. So I'd sit there and watch hours.
Speaker 1: I'd watch Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Leave it to Beaver all
Speaker 1: these reruns. That's that's how I think I came upon
Speaker 1: comedy my first you know, like finding Eddie Murphy when
Speaker 1: I was ten years old and going, what's Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 1: I want to do this, you know? So, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was trying to blend in. Yeah, I read Eddie Murphy
Speaker 1: was one of your first loves. That sounds weird, but yeah,
Speaker 1: one of your heroes, one of your first heroes. There
Speaker 1: you go in comedy. When did you start performing? Were
Speaker 1: you in school plays or yeah? It was basically so
Speaker 1: in the seventh grade, they had they had a musical.
Speaker 1: I went to Delmar Middle School in northern California and Tibron.
Speaker 1: They were doing The Boyfriend and I don't know why
Speaker 1: we all decided to do it, but it's a handful
Speaker 1: of guys decided to do it some girls and went,
Speaker 1: I go, let's try this. So I go and I auditioned,
Speaker 1: and again it was seventh and eighth, so most of
Speaker 1: the leads went to the eighth graders. Seventh graders were
Speaker 1: just background dancers. And there was a lady named Shirley
Speaker 1: bomb Bright. She was our director. And Shirley Bombright said
Speaker 1: when you're doing a musical. When you're on stage, you
Speaker 1: always need to be smiling, when you're dancing, smiling and
Speaker 1: singing and radiating. Oh, and she said. The other things
Speaker 1: she said is you're part of an ensemble, so you
Speaker 1: better be here. So one day I go to the rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I go, Miss bomb Bright, I just gotta let you know.
Speaker 1: I'm a little under the weather. I got a cold,
Speaker 1: but you told me I gotta be here. So I came.
Speaker 1: I'm here, and then we start the rehearsal and I'm
Speaker 1: up there, I'm singing, I'm dancing, I'm smiling. And then
Speaker 1: she stops. The whole rehearsal. Everybody stops stop. She goes,
Speaker 1: look at him, Look at him. You see him. He's sick,
Speaker 1: he's here, he's singing, he's smiling. You gotta learn from him.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, that's me. So it was
Speaker 1: a moment of like positive reinforcement made me feel I
Speaker 1: can do this. Then the year later, eighth grade, I
Speaker 1: come back and I get the lead. I'm little Abner
Speaker 1: and little Abner and you know, I've been bitt and
Speaker 1: I loved it and I just wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: And every time I tell I tell a story how
Speaker 1: like throughout my schooling, they would always be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got what it takes to do this. So my
Speaker 1: parents would come to the shows and the director or
Speaker 1: the teacher would say, you know, your kids got the
Speaker 1: thing for this, and my parents, oh, thank you. Thinking
Speaker 1: we get in the car, my dad would be like,
Speaker 1: that bitch is crazy. Don't listen to her. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be a doctor or a lawyer. So they had they
Speaker 1: didn't see the spark inside you. They were not interested
Speaker 1: in you pursuing this as a career. Right, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: wasn't that they didn't see the spark. It's that I
Speaker 1: think you know again, immigrant parents, that's all they knew,
Speaker 1: and it was a previous generation. I was just talking
Speaker 1: to somebody about how my daughter or twelve now and
Speaker 1: I'm encouraging her to become a dj okay And I
Speaker 1: was like, if I went to my Irani dad back then,
Speaker 1: I want to be a DJ, like a d what
Speaker 1: you know, You'd be like, what are you talking about it?
Speaker 1: But you know, we live in a different world where
Speaker 1: people are making millions on TikTok or whatever, and so
Speaker 1: back then I don't think they understood at all what
Speaker 1: this meant or how it went. There was nobody in
Speaker 1: my family. There was one. My aunt had married this
Speaker 1: American guy. He was the only guy who kind of
Speaker 1: was like, oh, you're interested in this, let's go to
Speaker 1: the bookstore and get some books on acting. And it
Speaker 1: was kind of having me look at that. But other
Speaker 1: than that, they I just think my parents didn't know
Speaker 1: what this was. And there was a lot of throughout
Speaker 1: my life. It was a lot of detours, you know,
Speaker 1: because of my parents. I started political science thinking I
Speaker 1: was going to be a lawyer. Then when I went
Speaker 1: to Italy to study abroad, I thought maybe I'd come
Speaker 1: back and be a professor. So I got into a
Speaker 1: PhD program, and then I dropped out of that, and
Speaker 1: then I was going to go work in advertising. But
Speaker 1: all along I always would find opportunities to get on stage.
Speaker 1: I would kind of play a local play here there,
Speaker 1: and I was always like, I love this. Right then
Speaker 1: I was like, what am I going to do with it?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know how it is. It's like, it's
Speaker 1: not like you just apply to a school and then
Speaker 1: you come out of that school and then Hollywood starts
Speaker 1: hiring you. You know, what I'm saying, Oh, if it
Speaker 1: was that easy, right exactly. So you mentioned getting into
Speaker 1: political science. This ends up being a significant thing for
Speaker 1: you in your career. Were you doing plays at Berkeley
Speaker 1: or well, because it was Berkeley, were you just finding
Speaker 1: other other ways to perform? Well, it's interesting you said
Speaker 1: that because again at Berkeley too. So I sot some year,
Speaker 1: I forget what year it was. Maybe it was like
Speaker 1: my I don't forget what year it was. To be
Speaker 1: honest with you, must have been senior. One of the years.
Speaker 1: As I was signing up for classes, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll take an acting class, and I remember it
Speaker 1: was all very last minute. Did one semester of an
Speaker 1: acting class at Berkeley, and the teacher was like, you
Speaker 1: got what it takes. So every time I encountered somebody
Speaker 1: who was teaching, it was like, you've got what it takes.
Speaker 1: And I think that just meant like I like being
Speaker 1: a ham. I was comfortable. I wasn't self conscious. I
Speaker 1: was up there doing it, you know, And so even
Speaker 1: there I was like, wow, people could tell them. The
Speaker 1: people that are in this world keep telling me go
Speaker 1: for it. But you, within yourself, you didn't couldn't make
Speaker 1: the choice to listen to them. Yeah, I think you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've read about this. First of all, your brain
Speaker 1: isn't developed till isn't fully developed till like your mid
Speaker 1: twenties or so, so you have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: going on in your head right that maybe you're not
Speaker 1: I'm always I'm always amazed by comedians who go I
Speaker 1: started when I was seventeen, I go, what, how did
Speaker 1: you know? You know? Chappelle started when with fourteen? I go,
Speaker 1: why does that even happen? And I had dabbled in it,
Speaker 1: I kept doing the plays and my parents, I think
Speaker 1: it convinced me do something legit and then do the
Speaker 1: plays on the weekend. So I think in my mind,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, that's right. You know, I'll just
Speaker 1: you know, do the local playhouse and I'll be a
Speaker 1: lawyer whatever. So while I was in high school, there
Speaker 1: was a talent show and they said, anybody any talents.
Speaker 1: I said, I'd like to try my hand to stand up,
Speaker 1: and so I would write this material. And back then
Speaker 1: I'm a teenager, So the materials are mostly sex based.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, my influenced by Eddie Murphy and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. So one of the jokes I remember
Speaker 1: I came up with it was like, why is our
Speaker 1: genitalia in the middle of our body, which is the
Speaker 1: least comfortable place, Like it should be on our palm
Speaker 1: of our hands to just go around high fiving and
Speaker 1: having sex all day? And so I would write this
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, this is great, and then
Speaker 1: the next day i'd read it, I go, this is
Speaker 1: horrible because I'm in my head right, and I ended
Speaker 1: up canceling. I was like, guys, I can't do this.
Speaker 1: I just freaked out. And I was actually lucky. I
Speaker 1: think that I canceled because they said, Okay, if you're
Speaker 1: not going to perform, you need to at least show
Speaker 1: up and help run the show, just like by seating
Speaker 1: people and stuff. So turned out the audience for that show,
Speaker 1: we're basically a bunch of juvenile delinquents. So if I
Speaker 1: went up there and died in front of those guys,
Speaker 1: it would have probably, you know, quashed my dreams for
Speaker 1: the rest of my life, right, But I didn't do it, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, just a side note. Years later, there's
Speaker 1: a comedian named Jeremy Hats. It was very funny. I
Speaker 1: saw him doing that joke. I'd never done it. I
Speaker 1: saw him doing it, which makes you go, oh, a
Speaker 1: professional did it. It wasn't it wasn't that bad material,
Speaker 1: But so I tried. I didn't do it. Then when
Speaker 1: I was at Cow one day, I was having just
Speaker 1: this like horrible day, and I'm sitting at this bar.
Speaker 1: It's called the Bear's Lair, and they say stand up
Speaker 1: comedy competition and it was already on. It was like
Speaker 1: we got to watch it, and it was like National
Speaker 1: Lampoon's Comedian, Young comedian, you know of the country or whatever.
Speaker 1: And the two guys who went up there I knew
Speaker 1: one of them, and the other guy I didn't know,
Speaker 1: but they were horrible. And I'm watching them and I, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, if they can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1: And I always say I would say, you're inspired by
Speaker 1: greatness in mediocrity, right, And so then I said, the
Speaker 1: next time I get a chance, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 1: So then I was listening to the hip hop station.
Speaker 1: They go, there's a comedy competition, submit your tapes. So
Speaker 1: I just came up with a tape of me doing
Speaker 1: different accents and like like a dating tape, and me
Speaker 1: being different characters. I submitted it and then they hit
Speaker 1: me back. They go, congratulations, you want a sixteen finalists.
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, I was in this stand
Speaker 1: up comedy competition. I had no material, right, and I
Speaker 1: had to start writing it. And I wrote like this
Speaker 1: five minute sketch that was just me doing different accents.
Speaker 1: And then I went to the hip hop station to
Speaker 1: promote it, and I quickly found out I was the
Speaker 1: only non African American comedian and the whole thing. And
Speaker 1: then while we're promoting it, they start doing yo Mama
Speaker 1: jokes and they all know each other. They're all on
Speaker 1: the stand up comedy circuit. I'm not, and they're like,
Speaker 1: Yo Mama, this is yo Mama that I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: the middle. IM like what am I doing? And again, Brian,
Speaker 1: what was interesting was the guy who put this competition
Speaker 1: together was like a real estate agent who I think
Speaker 1: was trying to make a quick buck. So he'd gotten
Speaker 1: a theater in Oakland and was going to do this
Speaker 1: show with all these people, and I guess he had
Speaker 1: trouble selling tickets. And again I think I lucked out
Speaker 1: because if I'd gone up in front of whatever it
Speaker 1: was few thousand people African American crowd and done my
Speaker 1: little stupid act. I would have bombed. It would have
Speaker 1: been the death of me, you know. And so again
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to do it then. And
Speaker 1: so then I was like, okay, I've got this in
Speaker 1: my back pocket. I see what I do. So then
Speaker 1: I come down to La I'm working in that summer,
Speaker 1: and it just so happens that another person working in
Speaker 1: this place I'm working is Alex Borstein, you know, marvelous
Speaker 1: missus Mazel and all that. So she tells me, she goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm doing some standup. You want to come, come with me,
Speaker 1: we'll go. So we went to a place called Gallagher's
Speaker 1: in the Valley and I took that stinky act of
Speaker 1: mine with the accents, and I did it at Gallagher's
Speaker 1: and the owner of the club was like, hey, you're
Speaker 1: pretty good, you know, give me your name and number.
Speaker 1: I gave it to him. Then I did it at
Speaker 1: the Improv in Santa Monica, and again it was mediocre.
Speaker 1: This my two first two times doing stand up. It
Speaker 1: was you know, you're horrible, but you're you got a
Speaker 1: little something right. And then I just went back to
Speaker 1: school and again with my parents, you could go to
Speaker 1: grad school and all that, and I just let it go.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't for another few years until I really
Speaker 1: got serious with it. What helped you make the decision
Speaker 1: to be serious with it? So I go to grad
Speaker 1: school for political science at UCLA. I go audition for
Speaker 1: their mainstage play. I get in. I love it. It's
Speaker 1: very avant garde, and by night I'm doing a play.
Speaker 1: By day I'm going to my poly CID classes, and
Speaker 1: all the polysyd conversations are like, what is the purpose
Speaker 1: of a political scientist? And it's like, well, it's not
Speaker 1: about teaching. It's about publish or perish. Come up with
Speaker 1: a thesis, go around the world and defend it, and
Speaker 1: then write another book. If you're lucky enough, some politician
Speaker 1: may use one of your ideas to like, you know,
Speaker 1: this horror. So by night I'm like loving it at
Speaker 1: the play. By day I'm like, oh what am I doing?
Speaker 1: So I drop out of grad school. Then I get
Speaker 1: a job in advertising, because again I felt like I
Speaker 1: needed some sort of secure job. While I'm there, I
Speaker 1: start doing some plays just as a hobby, and then
Speaker 1: I was in my mid twenties and I was at
Speaker 1: the advertising agency. There was a guy by the name
Speaker 1: of Joe Ryan who was in his sixties. And Joe
Speaker 1: was a producer at the ad agency, one of the
Speaker 1: nicest people ever, kind of like a guardian angel with
Speaker 1: sorts for me. And there was a play I was
Speaker 1: doing and I was making copies of the tape, dubbing
Speaker 1: the tape in the dub room to give to the
Speaker 1: other actors, and Joe happened to be in the dub
Speaker 1: room and he watches. He goes, hey, you're pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about doing this professionally? And I
Speaker 1: was like, Joe, my middle school teacher told me to
Speaker 1: do it my high school universe I've been wanted to.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know what I'm gonna do, Joe,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work for a few more years, you know,
Speaker 1: put away some money, and then when I'm thirty, I'm
Speaker 1: going to try it. And he goes, let me talk
Speaker 1: to you for a second. Took me in his office.
Speaker 1: He goes, look I'm in. He goes, I'm in my
Speaker 1: sixties right now. And he goes, there were some things
Speaker 1: I wanted to do when I was in my twenties
Speaker 1: and I never did it because we really want to
Speaker 1: do it, do it. And it was a lightbulb moment.
Speaker 1: I was like, you're totally right right then and there
Speaker 1: I went and signed up for improv acting classes at
Speaker 1: the ACME Theater, which is where Alex had gone. And
Speaker 1: then while I was there, Judy Carter, who was a
Speaker 1: stand up comedian who teacher stand up comedy, she happened
Speaker 1: to be in the class with me, and she was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know at t stand up comedy classes. I go,
Speaker 1: oh my god. I always felt comfortable on stage, but
Speaker 1: I just never knew what to write about. So I
Speaker 1: took her class and then from there I just went
Speaker 1: and that was it. I was in my mid twenties
Speaker 1: and I was twenty four years ago, twenty five years ago. Chase, Wow,
Speaker 1: were you into did at all in becoming an actor
Speaker 1: or for you was it about being a stand up comedian?
Speaker 1: It was both. I love both, you know. So I
Speaker 1: came from acting, you know, the whole time, as from
Speaker 1: a kid, I was always acting, acting, acting up and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is great. You get to
Speaker 1: work with people, you get to put something up. And
Speaker 1: then and then once I got into acting in front
Speaker 1: of the camera again a lot of fun. But I
Speaker 1: also was a big fan of stand up. I just
Speaker 1: I you know the problem. I'd been intimidated by stand
Speaker 1: up because when you do play, if if something doesn't
Speaker 1: go right, you can blame the other actors, the director,
Speaker 1: the right. There's a lot of people to blame. Right
Speaker 1: when you do stand up, I thought, oh my god,
Speaker 1: if people don't laugh, this is my soul that they're
Speaker 1: not laughing at, you know. But then I've come to
Speaker 1: learn now that I do stand up, stand up is
Speaker 1: also a work in progress, so you should never give
Speaker 1: any set too much weight. Whether you kill or you die,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get up again that same night or the
Speaker 1: next night, and you'll go again, you know. I like
Speaker 1: to compare it to like a canvas of piece of
Speaker 1: artists never done until you film it, put it out
Speaker 1: as a special, and then you work on your next canvas.
Speaker 1: So I love both. I've always loved both. I guess
Speaker 1: the immediacy of stand up comedy is pretty amazing. Do
Speaker 1: you consider yourself a comedian or an actor? I? You know, both? Again,
Speaker 1: Like I was, just it's interesting because recently I haven't
Speaker 1: had as many acting gigs for probably multiple reasons. One
Speaker 1: is I'm touring a lot. Two is, as you know,
Speaker 1: it's just like this world seems to have gotten I
Speaker 1: was just reading an article about how competitive it's gotten
Speaker 1: past the pandemic, because before the pandemic, that casting director
Speaker 1: would call in fifteen or twenty people he knew or
Speaker 1: she knew wead audition and one of us would get it.
Speaker 1: Now they're getting one hundred tapes coming in from all
Speaker 1: over the place, so it's even harder to get parts.
Speaker 1: And so because of that, I've been acting less. But
Speaker 1: I was just looking because somebody was asking for my
Speaker 1: real and I was looking at some acting stuff I did,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, that was fine. I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1: So I'm confident in what I've done, and I'm confident
Speaker 1: in being able to do it again, and I want
Speaker 1: to do it again. And really it just comes down
Speaker 1: to like a wanted to be involved in quality projects,
Speaker 1: be getting a chance to do stuff that's fun and challenging.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, I took I took an acting
Speaker 1: gig one time. They were doing this play called Homebody Cobble,
Speaker 1: which was written by Tony Kushner and the director was
Speaker 1: Frank Gallotti, and they put it up at the Amindson
Speaker 1: Center and Maggie Gillenhall was playing one of the parts,
Speaker 1: and Lindami there was. It was a good you know,
Speaker 1: all New York actors, and I thought to myself, Gosh,
Speaker 1: when else am I going to get a chance to
Speaker 1: do a show at the Amindson Center. And the only
Speaker 1: thing was I played this doctor. I do basically like
Speaker 1: a two or three minute monologue describing the injuries that
Speaker 1: have happened to this woman. And it's all very technical,
Speaker 1: and then I'm done, and I got nothing else in
Speaker 1: a three hour play. And I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1: At first, I was, Oh, it's gonna be cool. And
Speaker 1: then the more I did it, I was like, what
Speaker 1: am I doing? Because also it was taking away my
Speaker 1: night because I usually I'm a stand up so I
Speaker 1: gotta go do stand up. And it got to a
Speaker 1: point where I like brought a guitar. I was learning
Speaker 1: guitar backstage. I was having fun with the other actors.
Speaker 1: I would go for a run, like around downtown LA
Speaker 1: while they're acting, while they're doing the play, I'm jogging.
Speaker 1: A couple of times I left the show went to
Speaker 1: the Comedy Store, did a set and came back just
Speaker 1: to take a bow, and I started and then I thought,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I'm never gonna do
Speaker 1: a project again because oh, so and so is in it.
Speaker 1: I want to be in it. It's like, no, you
Speaker 1: should do it because it's something that excites you. Otherwise
Speaker 1: he's just gonna be like a weekend. You're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: I'm done. You know the Comedy Store you just brought up.
Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about your history with
Speaker 1: the place and how it affected your career. Comedy Store
Speaker 1: is like the mecca of stand up comedy. I guess
Speaker 1: it was like ninety nine or so. And the way
Speaker 1: you used to become a regular. Mitchie Shore, who's poably
Speaker 1: Short's mother was the owner of the club, and you
Speaker 1: would have to be recommended by another comedian. There was
Speaker 1: a comedian named Mike Marino. He's still a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: He I got him to recommend me. And then when
Speaker 1: you recommended, that means on Sunday night when they're doing
Speaker 1: the open mic night after all the open micers, which
Speaker 1: by the way, it's a circus. It's like you get
Speaker 1: you get like you know, pimps, and you get like
Speaker 1: crazy people. It's really crazy. After all those you get
Speaker 1: the showcasers and so people that have been recommended. So
Speaker 1: you do three minutes, and if Mitsi likes you, they
Speaker 1: get word back to you to come back a few
Speaker 1: weeks later. Do six minutes. You do six minutes. If
Speaker 1: she likes you, you get somebody gets word to you.
Speaker 1: She doesn't talk to you, by the way, it's like
Speaker 1: very mafia. She doesn't talk to you. Yeah, yeah, she's not.
Speaker 1: She would sit in the back. There's an exit, like
Speaker 1: a little exit sign right at the back of the
Speaker 1: original room. The original room is this dark room, and
Speaker 1: there's an exit sign at the back of the room
Speaker 1: from the stage you have to walk through, and Mitzi
Speaker 1: would sit at the chair right next to it. She'd
Speaker 1: be eating her popcorn. So every time you're done, you
Speaker 1: walk past her. But she wouldn't talk to you, like
Speaker 1: you're not you're you're nobody still, So three minutes, six minutes,
Speaker 1: no talking, come back and do ten minutes. If once
Speaker 1: you did the ten minutes, if she liked you, on
Speaker 1: the way out, she would grab your arm and then
Speaker 1: you know, she'd tell you you're a regular, which means
Speaker 1: now you can come perform there on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: So I did my three six ten and then I'm
Speaker 1: passing by her and it felt like a lifetime. Like
Speaker 1: it's only twenty feet, but it felt like a mile.
Speaker 1: And then she grabbed my arm and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's happening. I go this is where
Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy used to perform, this is where Robin Williams.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, this is it. My career is
Speaker 1: taking off. She pulls me and she goes, you're very funny,
Speaker 1: and that's how she used to talk. You're very funny.
Speaker 1: I go, thank you, missy. She goes, I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: you're a regular. I go, thank you, missy. She goes
Speaker 1: there every thought about wearing the outfit. I go, what outfit?
Speaker 1: She goes, you know, the hat in the gown. I go,
Speaker 1: hat and gown. Yeah, the hat in the gown. I go,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. She wanted me to wear a turban
Speaker 1: and a Dishtasha on stage, and I was like, uh, sure,
Speaker 1: that sounds like a great idea. Walk down the stairs
Speaker 1: and I go, what did I just agree to do?
Speaker 1: And I'm freaking out. Oh my god, I got to
Speaker 1: wear a turban on stage, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: will be the end. And so then she was old
Speaker 1: at the time. So I'm thinking to myself, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is a Sunday night. I go by tomorrow when the
Speaker 1: booker calls me. I'm hoping Mitsy's forgotten about the outfit.
Speaker 1: So the booker calls me. The first thing she says,
Speaker 1: her name is Corey. She goes, Moss, congratulations, I heard
Speaker 1: you're a regular. I go yeah. She goes, and Mitzi
Speaker 1: told me you're gonna wear the outfit. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no. So now I'm talking to Corey. I'm like, Corey, listen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I should. I'm not. You know
Speaker 1: what happens if I don't. She goes, do I really
Speaker 1: have to tell you, like meaning like you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get any spots? And then I and then she's tried
Speaker 1: to convince me. She goes, listen. Mitsy is a genius.
Speaker 1: She sees something in you. She helped Rosanne Barr create
Speaker 1: her character Andrew Dice Clay came up with the Dice
Speaker 1: Man at the comedy store. This is Mitsy seeing something
Speaker 1: for you. Just do it. And now I'm like debating,
Speaker 1: how do I get out of not wearing a turban
Speaker 1: on stage? So now starting negotiating with her, I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: what if I do my act and then at the
Speaker 1: end I have a character and he puts on the turbans.
Speaker 1: She's like, that's great. And then I go, what if
Speaker 1: I do the act and then at the end he
Speaker 1: doesn't put on the turban, but he's like this, like this,
Speaker 1: like Palestinian guy whatever. I had all these different characters right. Finally,
Speaker 1: after a little bit of research, I was reminded, first
Speaker 1: of all, my father had moved back to Iran at
Speaker 1: that point. And then there had also been some Iranian
Speaker 1: I don't know, commentator or comedian or something who used
Speaker 1: to go on the Persian TV stations here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: which does everything in Persian and it broadcasts all over
Speaker 1: the world, and he used to make fun of the
Speaker 1: Mullahs in Iran. So supposedly he was at an outdoor
Speaker 1: rally somewhere and some supporters of the mullah showed up
Speaker 1: and they threw rocks and they blinded the guy. So
Speaker 1: I took that as my ammunition, and I called Corey
Speaker 1: the book or I said Corey. Listen, I've been doing
Speaker 1: the research. I'm getting the turban together. Just so you know.
Speaker 1: First of all, my father's in Iran, So if I
Speaker 1: do this and word gets back that his son is
Speaker 1: making fun of Mullah's, he might be in trouble. I go. Secondly,
Speaker 1: there was a guy here who made fun of them,
Speaker 1: and they threw rocks. They blinded him. So I said,
Speaker 1: they might even come after me. I go. Worse yet,
Speaker 1: they might come after the club. And so she was like,
Speaker 1: She's like, let me call you back in a few
Speaker 1: minutes later she calls. She's like, you know what Mitzi said,
Speaker 1: Where's something comfortable. You'll be fine. So I got out
Speaker 1: of where the outfit? Man, how do you credit your
Speaker 1: time there as as launching your career? Do you believe
Speaker 1: that resolutely? I arm grab by Mitsy change your career absolutely,
Speaker 1: because that's where I grew exponentially. Because what happens is,
Speaker 1: and this is what I tell young comics all the time,
Speaker 1: you need to grow in uncomfortable situations. So Mitsi used
Speaker 1: to put me up at like midnight on a Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and I'd be at the comedy store, like hanging out
Speaker 1: with Joe Diaz, and there's Joe Rogan and there's like
Speaker 1: you know, and then Andrew Dice Clay bumps you, and
Speaker 1: then Eddie Griffin bumps you. And they're all doing like
Speaker 1: really dirty material and you got to go up after
Speaker 1: that and do jokes about the Iraq War, you know,
Speaker 1: But I learned. I learned so much from that. Like
Speaker 1: one of the things I learned was to always, you know,
Speaker 1: if you can, if the comedian before you says something
Speaker 1: outlandish or something that just kills, reference that because the
Speaker 1: audience then knows you were in the room. But if
Speaker 1: you go up and go did that guy just say
Speaker 1: blah blah blah and they laugh, that already is a
Speaker 1: laugh and you're in the room with them, and then
Speaker 1: you go from there. Yeah, I learned so much, you know.
Speaker 1: Joe Diaz told me one time that there was another
Speaker 1: comedian who he saw I think I think he was
Speaker 1: the laugh factory or something, and there was a comedian
Speaker 1: that was killing and there was another comedian who was
Speaker 1: supposed to go next, and the other comedian was like,
Speaker 1: oh god, her, I don't want to go next. For
Speaker 1: those people who don't know Joey Diaz is like it
Speaker 1: talks like this, he's very gruff like that, and he
Speaker 1: goes comedy store comics. We just go for it, like
Speaker 1: And the truth is, because I'd had to go up
Speaker 1: after these killer comedians, it never came to my mind that, oh,
Speaker 1: you have an option to go to the booker and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, I don't want to follow that. It's
Speaker 1: like you got to follow it, you know. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I grew exponentially at the Comedy Store and I owe
Speaker 1: that club and Mitzi Shore a lot. And that's why
Speaker 1: I filmed my special there was because it was really
Speaker 1: special to me. You've also played a lot of roles
Speaker 1: in film and television, the West Wing descendence, Malcolm in
Speaker 1: the Middle. What was the first role in film and
Speaker 1: television that you feel like helped you to grow in
Speaker 1: that industry, both in terms of awareness and in terms
Speaker 1: of your own work. It's interesting, Brian, because you know,
Speaker 1: we think we're known for one thing, and then somebody
Speaker 1: knows us for a completely different thing, right, and you
Speaker 1: just never know what that thing is going to be.
Speaker 1: So I did the movie Friday After Next where I
Speaker 1: played Moley, who was this guy who was a donna shop.
Speaker 1: I hired Mike Epps and ice Cube to work at
Speaker 1: my strip mall. And as I did it, you know,
Speaker 1: Kat Williams was me. Kat Williams and Terry Crews were
Speaker 1: the three new cast members that joined the Friday family
Speaker 1: on that And when I was on set, a lot
Speaker 1: of people coming up going like, this is this is
Speaker 1: going to launch your career. This is the thing, man,
Speaker 1: this is the thing, right And it did help my
Speaker 1: notoriety or my people knowing me within certain communities, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't a movie that was seen by the industry
Speaker 1: as much. But still like in the comedy scene, when
Speaker 1: I would go do comedy shows, you know, sometimes I
Speaker 1: go do like Latino rooms or something and people like, hey, Moley,
Speaker 1: you know, and like my buddy who was a comedian, goes,
Speaker 1: you got to bring some headshots. They'll buy them from you.
Speaker 1: So I was like selling merchandise. After my show, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm I was like, I'm nobody, but these
Speaker 1: guys are buying this stuff. But it was interesting because
Speaker 1: I'd done Friday After Next and I had also gotten
Speaker 1: this commercial. There was a commercial for I think for
Speaker 1: like Chevy or something where I'm driving a car and
Speaker 1: the song come on. The song they used to be
Speaker 1: a song that goes under umm oh up and then
Speaker 1: now whatever that is. So when that song comes on,
Speaker 1: I start breaking to the song, like taking breaks and
Speaker 1: I mean breaking the car. And so the guy's trying
Speaker 1: to drink his coffee and he keeps and I'm messing
Speaker 1: with him basically, and it became kind of a popular
Speaker 1: commercial was running a lot. So Spike Lee is going
Speaker 1: to direct the Pepsi commercial and it's for the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and I get an audition for it, and I go
Speaker 1: there and there's like a thousand people lined up just
Speaker 1: all the way out, and my brother in law, who's
Speaker 1: also an actor, I think he was there, and a
Speaker 1: few other people that are recognized. We're all standing around
Speaker 1: and we're all standing in line, and then they're on breaks.
Speaker 1: So Spike Lee has walked out and he's walking past everybody.
Speaker 1: Everyone's kind of got their eyes on Spike Lee. They're like, oh, there,
Speaker 1: there's Spike Lee. And then he walks up to me
Speaker 1: out of everybody, and he goes And and now so
Speaker 1: Friday AFTERNXT has just come out, the commercials just come
Speaker 1: out and Spike Lee goes, hey, man, you're the guy
Speaker 1: from and I was waiting for him to go Friday.
Speaker 1: He goes, you're the guy from that commercial, and I
Speaker 1: was like yeah. And then and then when I went
Speaker 1: in to do the audition for him, they would say
Speaker 1: step forwards, say something about yourself, and then step back.
Speaker 1: So I stepped forward. I go, yeah, my name is
Speaker 1: Mojo Briannie. I'm a comedian. And then Spike Lely goes
Speaker 1: and tell them you're the guy from the commercial. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I guess I am. To Spike
Speaker 1: lee I was the guy from the commercial. Meanwhile, I
Speaker 1: thought it was gonna be the guy from the movie.
Speaker 1: So really it's hard to tell, like, oh that thing,
Speaker 1: you know that that that led to the next thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I was on a couple of
Speaker 1: TV shows, you know. I did Descendants was a Disney movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of. I played Jaffar and it
Speaker 1: was kind of a small part. And then one day
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there at a pool at a tennis club
Speaker 1: with my kids at the time. They were like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, eight or nine, I'm just sitting there, they're swimming,
Speaker 1: I'm like eating a burger or something, and this group
Speaker 1: of kids they all start kind of like on the
Speaker 1: in the swimming pool, like five or six kids. They
Speaker 1: started kind of coming towards me. Yeah, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: the hell is going This is weird. And then they
Speaker 1: come over they excuse me, Oh yeah, are you Jaffar?
Speaker 1: I go yeah, oh my god, you go you're his favorite?
Speaker 1: And I'm like there was a small part. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I think the kids lying bullshitting but okay,
Speaker 1: but still I was known to them as Jafar. I
Speaker 1: had no idea. I hadn't even thought about the fact
Speaker 1: that I was gonna have like eight year old an
Speaker 1: eight year old fan base, right, right? Did you feel
Speaker 1: like there was a learning curve once you got on
Speaker 1: set and we're acting in front of a camera as
Speaker 1: opposed to you know what at that point you were
Speaker 1: doing a lot of which was standing up in front
Speaker 1: of people and having that immediate response. Well, the first
Speaker 1: thing I learned. So the first movie I did was
Speaker 1: a movie named Maryam written and directed by my buddy Roman.
Speaker 1: Sarah and I had been used to doing plays, and
Speaker 1: as you know, when you're doing a play, you performed
Speaker 1: the last seat in the theater, right, It's all very large, right,
Speaker 1: and you do it once and you're done. And I
Speaker 1: remember just like the first day on the shoots an
Speaker 1: independent film and h and I think we started my
Speaker 1: first take, I was, you know, like, hey, how are
Speaker 1: you you know, like speaking loudly, you know, and then
Speaker 1: it comes back He's like, you can just bring it
Speaker 1: down a little bit, and I was like okay. And
Speaker 1: then the next take was like medium level, Hey how
Speaker 1: are you? Like no, no, like really bring it down.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, how are you? It's like that's perfect.
Speaker 1: I'm like really because yeah, he's like the cameras right
Speaker 1: there and like okay. And then we did like we
Speaker 1: did the master shot and then go, okay, actress, take
Speaker 1: a break. You guys this that and I'm walking away.
Speaker 1: I go that's it, and then come to find out, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it. There's gonna be this. You're gonna do
Speaker 1: this same scene fifty different angles. So yeah, that was
Speaker 1: the learning curve of it. Um. You know, I think
Speaker 1: you learn on on set that it's just about getting
Speaker 1: yourself there emotionally after you've been sitting in your trailer
Speaker 1: for several hours, right, So that's really what it's about.
Speaker 1: And then and then there's the live audience was a
Speaker 1: whole different ballgame performing in front of a live sitcom audience,
Speaker 1: which is it goes back to a little bit of
Speaker 1: like playing to the back but also playing within the room.
Speaker 1: So it's all I love it, man, It's I love
Speaker 1: being on sets. I love doing stuff. You know, I
Speaker 1: could do it all day long. I have heard or
Speaker 1: read that you have said that there are roles that
Speaker 1: you would not play, that you and that you have
Speaker 1: turned down. Can you talk to me a little bit
Speaker 1: about about that. Well, you know, early on in my
Speaker 1: career's funny because again I come from this place where
Speaker 1: as a kid, I played Little Abner. Then in high
Speaker 1: school we did we did a musical of Batman. It
Speaker 1: was like our own version of Batman. So I was Batman.
Speaker 1: So in my mind, I'm like, Okay, I could be
Speaker 1: Little Laberner, I could be Batman, I could be a cop,
Speaker 1: I could be what, I could be everything. And then
Speaker 1: I come to Hollywood and the first audition I get
Speaker 1: was actually for a security guard in the TV show
Speaker 1: Chicago Hope audition And the next my agent calls me,
Speaker 1: he goes, hey, I got another audition for Walker, Texas Ranger.
Speaker 1: He's like a European terrorist and then we get calls
Speaker 1: from both saying you got both parts, but you gotta
Speaker 1: choose because they both shoot the same week. I go, okay,
Speaker 1: I said, let's do the security guard. But then as
Speaker 1: people find out more and more that you're of Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern descent, clearly going to be offered parts of Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern descent. And now we're in the late nineties, early
Speaker 1: two thousands, so auditions are coming in for terrorist parts.
Speaker 1: And so I was at a date. I was at
Speaker 1: my day job at the AD Agency, and I was
Speaker 1: looking for I was hoping to get enough film and
Speaker 1: TV work where I could quit my day job. So
Speaker 1: I got this. So Chuck Norris was doing a movie
Speaker 1: of the week called The President's Man, A Line in
Speaker 1: the Sand, and the audition with the part was an
Speaker 1: Afghan physicist who's come to Chicago to build a bomb.
Speaker 1: He wants to this is before September eleventh. He wants
Speaker 1: to blow up a building. And in my mind, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'll take this part, but the way
Speaker 1: I will perform it, I'm gonna show through my acting
Speaker 1: why this guy has chosen to kill innocent Americans. So
Speaker 1: in the biography that I wrote, you know, his parents
Speaker 1: suffered at the hands of the Americans, so he's always
Speaker 1: wanted vengeance and all this stuff. So I go down
Speaker 1: to Dallas where they where they filmed this, and I
Speaker 1: show up and I'm playing I'm gonna being an Afghan
Speaker 1: in America. And so I go to to the fitting
Speaker 1: and they go, here's your shirt, here's your pants, here's
Speaker 1: your turban. And I go, oh, no, no, I go,
Speaker 1: Afghans in America don't wear turbans. I go, especially if
Speaker 1: I'm an Afghan who's thinking of blowing something up, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be walking around with a turban in Chicago.
Speaker 1: And the lady was like, well, the producers and they
Speaker 1: all want you to wear it. I go, let them know.
Speaker 1: I've done my research. You know. If I were like
Speaker 1: with the Northern Alliance or the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I go in Chicago. Trust me, I'm Iranian. I
Speaker 1: know Muslims. They don't. I go, maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: scruff on the cheeks, you know, the beard, maybe a
Speaker 1: button all the way button up, But the turban is
Speaker 1: a bad idea. She goes, all right, I'll tell them.
Speaker 1: Next day, I go to my dressing room there's my shirt,
Speaker 1: my pants and what looks like a scarf. And I'm like, oh, yeah, see,
Speaker 1: clearly they want me to wear a scarf. She's like, no,
Speaker 1: that's a turban. You just gotta wrap it back up.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh great. So I did the part and
Speaker 1: I felt kind of I felt bad doing it. I
Speaker 1: was like, what am I doing? So when I came
Speaker 1: back to Los Angeles, I told my agents, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, no more terrorist parts. And then the TV
Speaker 1: show twenty four I just started taking off and they
Speaker 1: got in touch. And they were notorious for not telling
Speaker 1: you the plot of the show. You'd get an audition,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, he's a whatever, he's a guy who
Speaker 1: owns a laundromat. But there's gonna be a twist. He like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? They go, well, we can't tell you.
Speaker 1: It's all right. So the audition was for a terrorist
Speaker 1: and I said no thanks. They go, but he changes
Speaker 1: his mind halfway through the mission. I go, oh, the
Speaker 1: ambivalent terrorist. That sounds cool. So that was the last
Speaker 1: time I did a terrorist part. And then after that
Speaker 1: I said no more of this stuff. So there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of auditions that have come in or now
Speaker 1: my managers and agents know. Like my agent called me
Speaker 1: one time. He's like, listen, I'm getting ready to pass
Speaker 1: on an audition that came in. I just want you
Speaker 1: to make sure. I want to make sure you're cool
Speaker 1: with that. I said, sure, what is it? He goes
Speaker 1: just two words, flight ninety eight or whatever with United
Speaker 1: ninety eight or the airplane that went down. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I go, are there any like FBI parts I can play?
Speaker 1: And he goes, yeah, but they're all white guys. I go,
Speaker 1: I forget it. I don't want to play therorist. You
Speaker 1: you've written a film script called Jimmy Vestwood American Hero?
Speaker 1: Is this true? Is this? Is this? Is this? No?
Speaker 1: This was a movie that we actually did a few
Speaker 1: years did Yeah, we did it. We filmed it. So
Speaker 1: it was my the first film I ever wrote. I
Speaker 1: wrote with my friend Amir ohebs In, and then our
Speaker 1: director was Jonathan Kesselman. It was basically my homage. I
Speaker 1: was a big fan of Pink Panther growing up, so
Speaker 1: it was kind of like my Persian Pink Panther. Because
Speaker 1: the storyline of a guy who's in Iran he wins
Speaker 1: the green card lottery to come to America and he's
Speaker 1: always wanted to be an American hero because back in
Speaker 1: the day he used to watch Steve McQueen movies. And
Speaker 1: he comes to America and he wants to be like
Speaker 1: a cop and save the day. But the best job
Speaker 1: he can get is working as a security guard a
Speaker 1: Persian grocery store, and from there he goes on to
Speaker 1: get involved in this plot. Anyway, the movie was. It
Speaker 1: was such a great experience because I got to get
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends to come on and do
Speaker 1: the movie with us, and it was just a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. But it was a lot of work. I
Speaker 1: have so much respect for filmmakers, you know, because we
Speaker 1: wrote it together. We crowdfunded the money, so we ended
Speaker 1: up distributing it ourselves. And the truth is it was
Speaker 1: like it wasn't a financial success. But the first week
Speaker 1: we came out, we were in four theaters and per
Speaker 1: screen average, we were number four in the box office
Speaker 1: Mojo after Captain America. That's awesome, And I was like,
Speaker 1: look at that. I got. I got the I got
Speaker 1: the screenshot of it and everything, and to this day
Speaker 1: there's clips of it now that people put on social media.
Speaker 1: So every once in a while, I'll see it circulating
Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's my film. So yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a cool experience. You've done not one, not
Speaker 1: even two, but five comedy specials starting with Access of
Speaker 1: Evil in two thousand and seven. The Access to that
Speaker 1: started as a tour, right, Yeah, so I've actually done
Speaker 1: six comedy specials. Six comedy specials. Yeah, I just keep
Speaker 1: you know that. I think the key is Brian that
Speaker 1: I keep talking about my life and so as my
Speaker 1: kids grow, as I grow, as things change, you know,
Speaker 1: and also things I'm observing. I think, like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a sit down and write jokes kind of
Speaker 1: guy where there are just evergreen jokes that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be telling forever and ever So because of that, I've
Speaker 1: I've been forced to or I just keep I keep
Speaker 1: getting up at the clubs in LA and I keep,
Speaker 1: you know, writing new material. And so the Access of
Speaker 1: Evil Comedy Tour was a tour that actually started at
Speaker 1: the Comedy Store Mits. Sure put me and a few
Speaker 1: other Middle Eastern comedians together, right a little bit before
Speaker 1: September eleven, she was like, I think there's gonna be it.
Speaker 1: She was almost she had like an epiphany. She goes,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a need for a positive voice for
Speaker 1: Muslims in the world. Yeah, and so so she saw
Speaker 1: that and U and then we toured and then that
Speaker 1: turned into a comedy special that was an OH seven,
Speaker 1: and then my first solo special was called Brown and
Speaker 1: Friendly and O eight and then I've gone on and done.
Speaker 1: You know, the lie one was called Pandemic Warrior, where
Speaker 1: I filmed it in Dubai, and now I got the
Speaker 1: new one coming out that I just filmed at the
Speaker 1: Comedy Store, which I'm calling The Birds and the Bees.
Speaker 1: The Birds and the Bees. How do you decide when
Speaker 1: it's time to film the special? Is there a date?
Speaker 1: And you say to yourself, I gotta be ready by
Speaker 1: now because if not by this date, because if not,
Speaker 1: I'll just keep tinkering. Or do you wait until you
Speaker 1: feel like you're you're ready for it? You know, I've
Speaker 1: been doing stand up comedy consistently since I started in
Speaker 1: ninety eight and then really touring in oh six oh
Speaker 1: seven around there just constantly, like all the time. And
Speaker 1: so you're out, you're doing you know, in town, you're
Speaker 1: doing fifteen twenty minute sets. You tour, you do one
Speaker 1: hour sets and it just keeps chiseling. It's just chisel, chisel, chisel.
Speaker 1: And then there's nights where you're like, wow, what a night.
Speaker 1: We should have filmed that, and really, like you know,
Speaker 1: usually around a year and a half to two years
Speaker 1: in you've got this nice hour plus I think you
Speaker 1: start talking to your agents and managers. You're like, listen, guys,
Speaker 1: this is ready to go. You're ready now, Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: find the right place for it's what's gonna make it special.
Speaker 1: And you know, this time around, like I said, I thought,
Speaker 1: since I've done I've done I've filmed specials in Dubai,
Speaker 1: I've filmed the special in Stockholm, Sweden, i filmed the
Speaker 1: special the Kennedy Center, I've done LA And I was like,
Speaker 1: I've never done a club special. And I said, this
Speaker 1: is where I got my start. So let me go
Speaker 1: back at the beginning of the special, I tell the
Speaker 1: story of the whole turban thing again and uh, and
Speaker 1: yeah it was great. I mean, it's um. You know.
Speaker 1: The other thing I've learned in this business is you
Speaker 1: have to create your own opportunities because if you don't,
Speaker 1: ain't nobody gonna call, you know, So I'm constantly just
Speaker 1: trying to create opportunities, and it's just in my nature.
Speaker 1: I can't stop running. I think some immigrant mentality. I
Speaker 1: can't just pick my feet up play video games. In
Speaker 1: case it's not clear to everybody listening now, Mas is
Speaker 1: an incredibly smart guy. Gave the commencement speech at UC
Speaker 1: Berkeley in twenty seventeen. I would say that there are
Speaker 1: two through lines through, if not all, most of your work,
Speaker 1: which is politics and also your family. As you mentioned before,
Speaker 1: do you feel like over the last twenty years that
Speaker 1: are twenty plus years you've been doing it and touring
Speaker 1: close to twenty years, do you feel like your politics
Speaker 1: has changed? Do you feel like how you express your
Speaker 1: politics have changed? Well, let me go. Let me first
Speaker 1: of all, thanks for saying I'm smart. I honestly like
Speaker 1: don't feel smart, like I mean, I think. I think
Speaker 1: I'm relatively Listen, if you took the country of three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million people, I would probably fall into
Speaker 1: the smart category. But there's so many people to half. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I think I think the median. I think in the
Speaker 1: Median I'm in the top half. But I've always been
Speaker 1: interested in politics and I've always been a very I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but I've always been a very kind
Speaker 1: of liberal, bleeding heart, kind of like help, you know,
Speaker 1: if I can save the world, let me try and
Speaker 1: help save the world. Listen, first of all, coming from
Speaker 1: Iran and seeing what happened there with this religious fundamentalism
Speaker 1: and how all the rights were taken away last year
Speaker 1: when the protests happened in Iran, I went to some
Speaker 1: schools around Los Angeles and was speaking to these students
Speaker 1: about it, and I said, why should you care about Iran?
Speaker 1: First of all, I should care about Iran because they're
Speaker 1: fighting for democracy, and there is really a battle in
Speaker 1: many countries around the world of democracy versus autocracy or
Speaker 1: or or or dictatorships. And then I also said, if
Speaker 1: you guys think this stuff ain't happened in America, let
Speaker 1: me remind you that just last year they took away
Speaker 1: a woman's right to choose and the decision. Clarence Thomas
Speaker 1: said that we're going to look at gay marriage next.
Speaker 1: And so again, whether you whether you're pro or anti abortion,
Speaker 1: isn't the issue. It's the idea of like do we
Speaker 1: want to live in a society where people have more
Speaker 1: freedoms and choices, or do we want to live in
Speaker 1: a society where someone's traditional or fundamentalist ideology is going
Speaker 1: to tell me how and what I can do. So
Speaker 1: I've always been pretty consistent with being very left leaning
Speaker 1: and and and I've also also been a big fan
Speaker 1: of comedians who are able to be funny but also
Speaker 1: have a statement underneath it. So the truth is I
Speaker 1: kind of watch Colbert religiously because I get my news
Speaker 1: from there, you know, John Oliver, I participate myself. I'm
Speaker 1: one of the panelists from time to time on Weight
Speaker 1: Weight Don't Tell Me on NPR all of those things,
Speaker 1: and then you can go also also back to like
Speaker 1: the George Carlins and the Richard Priors and all those
Speaker 1: other guys who were making political statements. I'm always I've
Speaker 1: always been a fan of that what's the best joke
Speaker 1: you've ever written? You know, it's funny you say that,
Speaker 1: because it's not even about the best. It's about it's
Speaker 1: about the jokes. Sometimes when I'm in my head, because
Speaker 1: sometimes the jokes are like stories, so you gotta go
Speaker 1: a while, you get the punch lines in the middle.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm on stage, I'm like what joke can I
Speaker 1: do right now that's a minute or less that will
Speaker 1: help me get a laugh and finish the set right.
Speaker 1: So one joke I do is I do a joke
Speaker 1: about how the worlds are different now now kids run
Speaker 1: the world. I said, when I was a kid, I
Speaker 1: used to have to play with the kids of my
Speaker 1: parents friends. Now I have to play with the parents
Speaker 1: of my kids friends. And I go. When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, we walk into a party, I was five
Speaker 1: years old. As soon as we walk in, my dad
Speaker 1: would be like, go go play with Amir. And I
Speaker 1: was five years old. I was like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to play with am Heir. He'd be like, go play
Speaker 1: with Amir. And I'd be like, I'm here twenty nine
Speaker 1: years old, and he'd be like, that's not my problem,
Speaker 1: that's his problem. He's their son. Till he finds a wife.
Speaker 1: You have to play with him. So that's one joke
Speaker 1: that I do. The other joke that I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you now that you're asking my favorite, it might
Speaker 1: be my favorite. I was a big fan of Bjorn
Speaker 1: Borgs when I was a kid, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people that aren't of you know, our era, don't know
Speaker 1: who beyond Borg is Bjorn Borg for those you don't know,
Speaker 1: was a tennis champion. He was like the Roger Federer
Speaker 1: or the Djokovic or the Nadal of my era. He
Speaker 1: was this amazing tennis champ. And he famously played John
Speaker 1: McEnroe in a US Open match in the early eighties.
Speaker 1: He lost, and he said what he did. He didn't
Speaker 1: wait around for the trophy ceremony. He walked out. He
Speaker 1: went to his hotel room. He jumped into the pool
Speaker 1: and he said, I never played tennis again. Like that
Speaker 1: was it. He was done. Well. He was my tennis
Speaker 1: hero and I hadn't heard about him in a long time.
Speaker 1: I'm on tour in Sweden. He's Swedish. By the way.
Speaker 1: I'm on tour in Sweden. It's this ruling tour with
Speaker 1: a different city every night. So I run out of
Speaker 1: clean underwear. So I tell the promoter, I go, I
Speaker 1: need underwear. He goes go over there with the airport.
Speaker 1: He goes go buy it over there. So I go
Speaker 1: to buy underwear. They have Borg underwear and it hits me,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, born Borg has a line of underwear.
Speaker 1: That's what he's been doing all this time. He's got
Speaker 1: like underwear line. So I buy the underwear. And so
Speaker 1: when I do this joke on stage, I told that
Speaker 1: whole story and I go, and I'll be honest with
Speaker 1: you guys, I bought this underwear. It's the most amazing underwear.
Speaker 1: I've been recommending to all the guys. Buy the Borg underwear.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. I go. Now when I walk down the street,
Speaker 1: my balls just play tennis with each other. And then
Speaker 1: I made the sun and I go, and then I
Speaker 1: go advantage left not I go. It comes with an announcer.
Speaker 1: So it's a fun bit, and it was. It was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's one of my fun favorite ones. Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 1: You all have written it a memoir. Yes, I'm not
Speaker 1: a terrorist, but I played one on TV. Writing is hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you do a lot of it
Speaker 1: in small form, writing jokes or telling or writing stories.
Speaker 1: Rewarding for you absolutely. First of all, what was great
Speaker 1: about writing a book it was like about it's about yourself.
Speaker 1: Is it's therapeutic because you're writing about stuff in your past.
Speaker 1: You have to think about it, you gott you talk
Speaker 1: to your parents about it. A lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of memories come back and it was it was great.
Speaker 1: It was very daunting, and what I would do is
Speaker 1: so I actually I got a guy, originally as as
Speaker 1: a touring comedian. I got this guy. I go, hey,
Speaker 1: his name was John Methven. I said, why don't you
Speaker 1: We hired him to write it with me. And the
Speaker 1: truth is, as I got going, I realized, you know,
Speaker 1: I like writing, like I want to write with my
Speaker 1: own voice. So I would write it, I would send
Speaker 1: it to him, he would help, you know, shape it,
Speaker 1: send it back and then we'd go. So it was
Speaker 1: kind of like having an editor before having the editor,
Speaker 1: and it helped because also I do better if I
Speaker 1: have a deadline, and if I have a partner, that
Speaker 1: helps with the deadline, because if I don't have a partner,
Speaker 1: I've got fifteen projects just swirling in the air and
Speaker 1: I might not get to it between walking the dog,
Speaker 1: dropping off my kids, you know, kissing my wife. There's
Speaker 1: a lot going on. So so it was daunting, but
Speaker 1: having deadlines having an outline, So it's about don't look
Speaker 1: at it as like, oh I got to write a
Speaker 1: three hundred page book. Look at it as I got
Speaker 1: to write fifteen chapters and then start with each one
Speaker 1: and go and go and go, and in the end
Speaker 1: you're done. Right, You're clearly thoughtful. I wonder you're you're
Speaker 1: feeling about this. For me, so much about telling jokes,
Speaker 1: being funny and stand up is about that live delivery,
Speaker 1: whereas when you're writing and you're expecting someone to read it.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is why I think Steve Martin
Speaker 1: is such a genius, because I will read his books
Speaker 1: and they still make me laugh. Did you find anything
Speaker 1: particularly challenging about that? You know, it was interesting because
Speaker 1: the first I think my first draft came across almost
Speaker 1: too serious, okay, and the editor came back and said,
Speaker 1: listen to you're a comedian. You need to make it funnier.
Speaker 1: So then I was like, okay, now I got to
Speaker 1: find ways, like you said, for it to read funny. Right.
Speaker 1: That's a little bit of a challenge too, because, as
Speaker 1: you said, like how does it read funny? But the
Speaker 1: one thing that it does give you is it gives
Speaker 1: you whereas in stand up you're going to cut a
Speaker 1: lot of the fact because you're telling a story. You
Speaker 1: gotta keep it moving with writing, you know, keep it in.
Speaker 1: It's even like The Godfather when you read The Godfather,
Speaker 1: it's very different than watching it because I tell people
Speaker 1: I go, when you read The Godfather, you find out
Speaker 1: that Vito Corleone yeared one man and that was Luca Brazzi.
Speaker 1: And the only reason he feared Luca Brazzi was because
Speaker 1: Luca Brazzi was kind of a wild card in terms
Speaker 1: of his level of intelligence. Now when you watch it,
Speaker 1: in the movie, they try to convey some of that,
Speaker 1: but Luca Brazzi is nervous of Vito Corleone. Right, So
Speaker 1: the thoughts their thoughts, and Luca, you know, you get
Speaker 1: to go into that, which is kind of cool. So yeah,
Speaker 1: being funny was a little a little difficult, but I
Speaker 1: tried as much as I could, and I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, for the most part, I've gotten pretty good feedback.
Speaker 1: I'm always like pleasantly surprised when somebody shows up at
Speaker 1: one of my shows and has my book. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, and I sign it. You know. Yeah, All
Speaker 1: Things Comedy. You have a podcast on All Things comedy
Speaker 1: called back to School? Right, Well, I had I had
Speaker 1: so done, We're done, because so what happened was I
Speaker 1: did this podcast called back to School with Maz Jobrani.
Speaker 1: It was me and my opening act, Tehran, who another
Speaker 1: fellow comedian, and really it was just like it became
Speaker 1: an excuse to talk to interesting people. But really it
Speaker 1: started with my kids asking me questions that I didn't
Speaker 1: have the answers too. So I was like, rather than
Speaker 1: me googling, why don't I bring experts right? So we
Speaker 1: had like a guy named Frank Figluzzi who used to
Speaker 1: be an FBI agent. We had a guy named fears
Speaker 1: Naderi who helped land the rover on Mars. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting people come on and it was
Speaker 1: very interesting to me. But as the touring started again,
Speaker 1: I realized I don't have as much time, and I've
Speaker 1: really got to start focusing on dedicating my time. So
Speaker 1: we basically put it on ice for now, and perhaps
Speaker 1: I get back into a podcast at some point, but
Speaker 1: for now, I'm just really focused on the touring and
Speaker 1: maybe pitching TV show ideas and all that stuff. I
Speaker 1: know how difficult the touring schedule is. I respect the
Speaker 1: hell out of you for doing it. I think I'm
Speaker 1: in the middle of being on the road for eight
Speaker 1: consecutive weeks, part of weeks, so I feel you and
Speaker 1: I want you to know how much I appreciate you
Speaker 1: coming on here and taking a little time to share
Speaker 1: with us your your journey and your experience. I wish
Speaker 1: you all success and congratulations on the sixth comedy special
Speaker 1: seven seven seven year seven. You said six nowause, let's
Speaker 1: count them actually evil, brown and friendly. I come in peace.
Speaker 1: I'm not a ter. I played one on TV Immigrant
Speaker 1: Pandemic Warrior and this is The Birds and the Bees
Speaker 1: the Birds YouTube. It's coming out. It's coming out at
Speaker 1: the place of your comedic birth. Mosa. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining me, Brian, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you. Moss, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today. This was such a fun conversation this weekend.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna bene watch
Speaker 1: every one of your specials. Kidding well, kind of maybe, listeners,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm going to
Speaker 1: see you next week. Or another very exciting guest, one
Speaker 1: that you might say is the opposite of ornate, Well,
Speaker 1: their name is at least okay, that's a terrible hint.
Speaker 1: You're never gonna get it. That's okay, because guess what,
Speaker 1: I'll see you next week Off. The Beat is hosted
Speaker 1: and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive
Speaker 1: producer Ling Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our
Speaker 1: producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our
Speaker 1: talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is
Speaker 1: Sammy Kats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
Speaker 1: the one and only Creed Brett,