Maz Jobrani hopes to ‘bring people together’ with ‘Mr. International Comedy Tour’ at Kennedy Center
He filmed his very first Netflix standup special at the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital back in 2017.
“It’s ‘Mr. International’ because I wanted ‘Mr. Worldwide,’ but Pitbull has that; I’m the other bald guy,” Jobrani told WTOP. “I tour all over the world, so I was like, ‘What are we gonna call this?’ In my act, I talk about my travels. Back in the day, standup comedy was just national, you’d just do the comedy clubs in America, but now myself and a lot of comedians are in the Middle East, Australia, Europe, Asia, it’s really become an international art form.”
Of course, he acknowledged that the state of the world is troubling right now with multiple wars.
“I’m a human being, so when I see the fighting, the wars and all of the atrocities, it breaks my heart,” Jobrani said. “I understand people who say it’s not a time to laugh, and I get it, they can’t imagine going somewhere and laughing. … My job is to hopefully bring laughter and escape for an hour and a half, or two hours and bring people together. … People from different backgrounds come together and we laugh together and find our common humanity.”
Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1972, Jobrani’s family fled the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and moved to America when he was 6 years old, so he mostly grew up in Northern California. He rose to fame alongside Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader and Dean Obeidallah as the “Axis of Evil” comedy group of Middle Eastern comedians combatting post-9/11 prejudice in 2005. It’s a theme that continued in his aforementioned 2017 Netflix special titled “Immigrant.”
“I shot that at the Kennedy Center in 2017 when there was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment,” Jobrani said. “With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I saw [a pundit] saying we have Afghan and Palestinian refugees coming, claiming they’re going to be dangerous to America, I just like to remind America that the biggest threat to America are Americans. Statistically speaking, immigrants have contributed to America. We’re the land that accepts refugees.”
Beyond commenting on world politics, Jobrani also jokes about the universal stuff of everyday life.
“I talk about being a parent, I talk about getting older,” Jobrani said. “My kids are now teenagers and it’s just such a strange thing to go into this phase of their life and how we have to wrap our heads around them no longer being our babies. … I have an aunt who still talks to me like I’m a baby. I’m 51 years old and when she talks to me, it’s like [in a baby voice], ‘How are you doing, Mazzy Wazzy?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not Mazzy Wazzy, I’m 51!'”
He finds that joking about raising teenagers connects with parents in the audience.
“My daughter is 12, my son is 15, anyone who has teenagers knows their rooms are a mess, it looks like the Tasmanian Devil went in and did circles,” Jobrani said. “There was a father, mother and their teenage daughter in the audience and I go, ‘How old are you, young lady?’ ‘Oh, I’m 17.’ I said, ‘Let me ask you a question, guys, do their rooms get cleaner?’ The father fell out of his seat laughing. That was the biggest punchline of the night for him.”
If you want to prep for next week’s live shows at the Kennedy Center, be sure to check out his recent streaming standup specials “Pandemic Warrior” (2021) on Peacock and “The Birds and The Bees” (2023) on YouTube.
“Specials are a double-edged sword for comedians because people can watch the special, but then they come to your show and they go, ‘Wait, I’ve already heard those jokes,’ so you’ve gotta write new jokes!” Jobrani said. “As you’re watching your [own] special, you’re like, ‘That’s so cool, the world can see it now,’ then you go, ‘Oh no, the world can see it now!’ So I’ve been working on new material.”
Listen to the full conversation on my podcast below: