Comedian Maz Jobrani is back with a fresh take on being an immigrant in Trump’s America
Jobrani also puts his commitment to LGBTQ rights in his act
In his 2017 Netflix comedy special Immigrant, recorded live at the Kennedy Center, Maz Jobrani does a great bit about rushing down to LAX to join the protests when the Trump administration first announced its travel ban. Despite a run-in with riot police, he’d do it all again.
“It felt really good to go to that travel ban protest,” Jobrani says. “I would go to another protest in the blink of an eye.”
The proud immigrant from Iran was eager to exercise his civil liberties as an American citizen, and while he later enjoyed exercising his right to joke about it, Jobrani takes seriously the right of the people to raise their voices in protest.
“I’m always very proud of people that go out and do it,” he says, alluding to the No One Is Above the Law demonstrations that were being held nationwide that very afternoon.
Best known for his standup specials and a role on the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts, Jobrani puts his passion for politics into his quick-witted comedy, which also mines his cross-cultural experiences as the Persian dad of two all-American kids with his Indian wife.
An outspoken LGBTQ ally, Jobrani also puts his commitment to equal rights in his act.
“I do it because I am someone who came from Iran to America at a young age and I know that, about a year or two in, the hostage crisis happened and I remember being picked on,” he says. “They would call you back then ‘Fucking Iranian.’ And so, I’ve always felt a tie with people who are persecuted just for whatever their background might be. Whether that’s a racial thing, or an ethnic thing, or a religious thing, or a sexual thing, I’m always on the side of those that get persecuted for no reason.”
Jobrani has honed his cultural sensitivity into sharp humor meant to shake up the close-minded.
“I mean, it’s just stupid to me that people say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t get married because you’re gay.’ It used to be, ‘You shouldn’t marry because you’re black and they’re white.’ Who are you to judge somebody else? They’re not affecting you. So, yeah, it actually gets me upset, and then I go, ‘If I could find a funny way into this, then we’ll be in good shape.'”
Maz Jobrani performs Friday, Nov. 16, at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $29 to $125. Call 202-467-4600 or visit Kennedy-Center.org.
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