Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
If you need a pick-me-up in life, look no further than [Maz Jobrani](https://www.instagram.com/mazjobrani/?hl=en). You may recognize the name from his hilarious stand-up comedy specials, or maybe you’ve seen him on the small screen in shows like CBS’ _Superior Donuts_, _Grey’s Anatomy, Curb Your Enthusiasm,_ and _Shameless_. Regardless of how you know him, the Iranian-American comedian and actor is hilarious, and he’s here to uplift the masses with his humor and endless good energy.
As one of the founding fathers of the Axis of Evil comedy tours, Jobrani describes himself as a “comedian, actor and bald person”. “And fully vaccinated, double Pfizer! Not to judge other people,” he adds with a laugh.
At the top of this year, Jobrani unleashed his newest comedy special aptly titled _Pandemic Warrior_, and resorted to adding in virtual stand-up from quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic to keep his fans laughing. Filmed all the way overseas in Dubai, the special deems Jobrani the first American comic to tape an original stand-up special in the United Arab Emirates.
Beyond that, Jobrani has his own podcast, _Back to School with Maz Jobrani_, inspired by the never-ending questions of his young son.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Jobrani via Zoom, who was posted in Los Angeles in high spirits. Read below as we discuss his love for Eddie Murphy, his sense of humor, his first role acting, shooting _Pandemic Warrior_ in Dubai, his podcast, fatherhood, goals, and more!
Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
**Given your background growing up in Iran, did you think you’d be where you are today?**
I left Iran when I was 6 years old, right before the Iranian Revolution. I grew up in Northern California, Marin County. No, I didn’t think I’d be where I am today simply because coming from an immigrant background, anyone who's got immigrant parents knows: most immigrant parents want you to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer. I fell in love with comedy and acting at a young age because I was a big fan of Eddie Murphy.
I used to watch him when he first came on _Saturday Night Live_, I saw all of his specials. I have tickets from the time I saw him do Raw at the Oakland Coliseum in 1987. I wanted to be like Eddie Murphy, but my immigrant parents wanted me to be more like Doogie Howser. They wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer, and it became a struggle for the next almost 15 years to try and win my parents over. It wasn’t until I was 26 years old, I’d dropped out of a PhD program of what was going to be Political Science and it dawned on me that you live once. You’ve got to live and do what you love, you can’t live for other people. At the age of 26, I decided to go for it 100% and I’ve been going since.
**At what point did you realize you were funny?**
When we came from Iran and the revolution, back then parenting was not the way it is now. Modern parenting, you spend time with your kids. Modern parenting, you worry about their screen time. When I was a kid, nobody worried about our screen time. Nobody spent time with us. They used to sit us down in front of that TV; I’d watch Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker on and on and on and on. Those were the early voices of comedy that entered my head.
I became a fan of comedy. A lot of my friends were funny, and some of my friends were, very honestly speaking, funnier than me. It's just they didn’t know how to turn that into a career. When I was 12 years old, I did my junior high school’s musical. As soon as I went on stage, I felt alive. I was in the right place. I kept going. The first person that told me I was good on the stage was the director of that play-- her name was Shirley Bonbright. Her name’s still in my head. When we’re rehearsing one day, I was one of the younger kids in the play so I had a background role. I was feeling under the weather, but I showed up at rehearsal because Shirley Bonbright said “You guys need to be at rehearsal. If you’re going to be in plays, you’ve got to be serious and show up.”
I showed up, I said “Hey Ms. Bonbright, I’m under the weather but I’m here today.” It was a musical called The Boyfriend, I was the background dancer/singer. She told us “whenever you’re on stage in a musical, you’ve got to be smiling and singing loud.” I was under the weather, but smiling. She stopped the whole rehearsal and goes, “everybody stop.” She points at me and goes “look at him! He was sick, he came, he’s dancing, he’s singing, he’s smiling. You’ve all got to learn from him!” One of those moments where “oh, she’s talking about me. This is amazing.” \[laughs\] Ms. Bonbright planted in my head that I can do this-- and here I am.
**What about your first big break in acting?**
When I played the character Moly in Ice Cube’s Friday After Next, the third of the trilogy he did. That was me going out and auditioning. At that time, I was working as a receptionist at a marketing firm in LA. I went, auditioned, I got the part. I got 2 weeks off, went and filmed it. For two weeks, I lived like a movie star. They’d feed me, they gave me a trailer. They had PAs talking to me: “Mr. Jobrani, your scene is ready, let’s go.” I’m hanging out with Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Kat Williams, Terry Crews… it was great.
**Were you starstruck at all?**
I wasn’t. It was fun, it was great because they’re all comedians. Kat Williams, Terry Crews, and I, we weren’t known at that time. The 3 of us were new... we were comedians being funny. Kat Williams is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and hung out with. I knew him from stand up so we’re hanging out, having a good time. The only person I was maybe starstruck by was Ice Cube and John Witherspoon because those two to me were already established. Mike Epps was established, but again, he’s stand-up. That was cool, that was the role of Moly. I went back to working as a receptionist after the two weeks, I was back answering phones. It was pretty cool.
Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
**Fast forward to now, you have _Pandemic Warrior._ Highlight from shooting that?**
Now, I have 5 comedy specials plus a sixth one. My first one was called _The Axis of Evil_ Comedy Tour, there were a bunch of us in it. Then I did 5 solos, the previous one was called _Immigrant_ on Netflix. There’s been so much anti-immigrant sentiment, in that one I was trying to show that people like me who are immigrants actually love America. We contribute to America. The new one _Pandemic Warrior_, streaming on Peacock, was filmed in Dubai December of 2019. The goal was to bring it here in 2020. However, the pandemic hit and everything went on lockdown.
What was interesting, I saw some comedy specials that’d been filmed before the pandemic and came out under the lockdown, and it looked like it’d been filmed on Mars. There were audiences sitting close to each other, no masks, the comedian was talking about the traffic. I’m going “What world is this happening in?” For my special, it was going to be named _Peaceful Warrior_ when I filmed it in Dubai. Since the pandemic hit, I decided to film portions of me doing stand up in a closet in my house, the way I’ve been performing the last year during lockdown. I put that in the beginning and at the end to give it context, and renamed it _Pandemic Warrior._ I tell everybody the special was filmed in Dubai and in my closet, that’s how I filmed it.
**How was it in Dubai? You’re the first American comic to film a standup special in that country, wild!**
I’ve been going to Dubai now since 2007 when we went with The Axis of Evil Comedy tour, I’ve got a pretty good following there. Dubai is a cool place simply because of how diverse it is. I love diversity. If I’m in a crowd and I have only one type of people there, I’m not a fan. I love it when I can be in front of a diverse crowd. Anyone who’s visited knows they've got Emirates who are from Dubai, they’ve got Iranians, they’ve got Indians, they’ve got Filipino, they’ve got British..everything.
I love that because for me, my comedy shows are something where I can bring different people together and laugh together. It’s in my wheelhouse, it’s what I love doing. That was cool to be able to do that. If anybody watches the special, they’ll see. I go to the audience, I start talking to the audience. There’s someone from Turkey, there’s a Cuban person. They’re from all over the place, it’s cool. There’s somebody from Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia. It’s not just a comedy show, it’s a geography lesson!
**Talk about being a power to young voices today. How can you continue to push for change?**
It’s so important to listen to the voices of the next generation. I know a lot of comedians. They try to label it and say cancel culture. They’re trying to cancel us. You know what, let’s listen to what’s happening. Perhaps there’s some validity to what’s being said and we need to evolve as performers, comics, writers. For me, I’m enthusiastic about the future. I have a 10-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son, and all the time I’m learning from them.
I’m very enthusiastic about the future because when I started doing acting and comedy 23 years ago, there weren’t this many diverse voices in Hollywood. If you’re playing the part of a middle easterner in a TV show or a movie, it was written by somebody who didn’t come from that background. Usually, it was a caricature. Now, we’ve got many shows out there being told from authentic points of view, whether it’s Ramy or Mindy Kaling. There’s a ton of shows and voices coming up. You’ve got Yara Shahidi, you’ve got Hasan Minhaj. A lot of diverse, positive voices going through Hollywood. That encourages me.
**Do you have a secret love for dancing?**
\[laughs\] I started in musical theater when I was back in middle school. I love singing and dancing. I’ve been waiting for somebody to put me in a Baz Luhrmann movie, I guess that’d have to be Baz Lurhmann. Put me in the next _La La Land,_ the Maz Maz Land or something. Best kept secret in Hollywood, I can sing. I’m a pretty good singer, #1.
Second best kept secret in Hollywood, I can move pretty well. As long as we’re moving on the right. On the left I’m a little not as good, but on the right I’m good. I did a show right before the pandemic called _The Funny Dance Show_ with a couple comedians. They had us dance and do a dance competition. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize how hard it is. Whew, the dancers are serious athletes. I didn’t know how hard it was, but I loved it. If I could do it, I’d love to do it.
Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
Photo Credit: Storm Santos, Styling: Kaylee Jackson
**Talk about your new podcast Back to School with Maz Jobrani.**
Back to School with Maz Jobrani is available wherever podcasts are available. Basically what happened is, anyone who’s got kids knows: your kids will ask you questions you don’t know the answers for. Rather than googling it, I’ll bring in experts to learn from them. Eventually it evolved into an excuse to talk to really interesting people. We’ve had politicians on, athletes, celebrities... We had a lady who ‘s a cave diver; she dives underneath glaciers to find organisms. We had someone who helped build and land the Rover on Mars. It’s been cool. People can go on there and find the topics like “oh, that sounds like an interesting topic.” We talked to Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen. We talked to a former FBI guy who’s helping track the right-wing extremists. It’s all over the place, but it’s been fun.
**How’s fatherhood treating you?**
Fatherhood is summed up with this shirt my daughter got me for my birthday. It says: “I don’t need Google, my daughter knows everything.” That’s fatherhood. Fatherhood.
is about being present and trying to participate. So many times I’ve gotten out of my comfortable chair and done whatever they’ve asked me to participate in. My daughter loves Just Dance, she’ll say “let’s do a dance competition!” I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just doing it.
Or playing ping pong with them and finding out that your 12-year-old son is better at ping pong than you are. It’s been fun. One piece of advice I can give any parent here, if you can, get your kids to play tennis, so you can do it too. That’s been one sport I can participate in with them. We’ll go on the court and hit the ball whereas all their other sports they’re on the field or on the court with their own friends and I’m watching. Tennis is a sport you can play with them and play with them till you’re older too. Little pro tip on parenting.
**What’re you most excited for going back on tour again?**
When I’m on stage I’m alive. That’s really what I’ve been feeling. If you’ve been in LA, the clubs opened up, the Comedy Store, the Laugh Factory. Last night, I did 4 sets in town and that was fantastic. The traveling part of it is exhausting, going to different time zones is exhausting. I’m doing the Dubai Comedy Festival on May 21st, that’s a 17-hour flight. You get there, you’re in 12 hour different time zones. It takes you 3 or 4 days for your body to adjust. That part is hard, but the getting on stage and going “what’s up?!” We’re alive, let’s do this! That’s a good feeling, I’m looking forward to more of that.
**Do you have any goals for yourself at this point?**
My goal is to grow hair by 2040. I’m kidding. I’m a very active person. I don’t know if it’s my immigrant work ethic instilled in me as a young kid, but I can’t sit on my butt so I’m always doing something different and new. The goal I’ve been putting into the universe is I’d love to have my own show, the Maz Jobrani Show. Now what that is remains to be seen. I’m constantly pitching shows and hoping one of them sticks. When that happens, my next goal would be to be able to produce stuff for my talented friend. I’d love to have a production company and be involved in producing. Basically, I want to be Kevin Hart. How’s that for your answer? I just realized it used to be Keeping Up with the Jones’, now it’s Keeping Up with the Harts.
**Anything else you want to let the people know?**
The only thing I want to tell people is I got a dog. My first dog ever, her name is Yasu. It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done so if you’re considering getting a dog, get a dog. I was really hesitant and now I’m not. I enjoy walking with her and the love she gives me. The message of this whole interview is get a dog and get vaccinated. Those are the 2 things you should take away from here.
You can follow Maz Jobrani on social media @mazjobrani, and to purchase tickets to his upcoming performances visit MazJobrani.com
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