From Hollywood to Cultural Satire: Omid Djalili on Comedy, Dark Humor, and the Role of Satire in Society

  • Omid Djalili is set to perform in Malaysia as part of his international tour, which also includes shows in New Zealand and Australia. Despite his busy schedule, he graciously agreed to an interview to discuss his unique approach to comedy and his perspective on evaluating comedy shows. – Syd Rezaei

  • What initially drew you to comedy, and how did you realize that it was the right path for you? But then I read your bio and decided to ask: Is it true that you failed A-level exams a record six times and faked the result to gain entry to Ulster University? If yes, that could be considered a real situation joke for someone with your talent.
  • It’s true. It’s true that I lied my way to get into university. Yes, I did lie because I was so desperate I’d written down to my parents that if I didn’t go to university, I would join the French Foreign Legion which was as you know an international army in the desert. So, I had to go to university and in fact, I think it was just bad teaching that I lied to get in. I somehow miraculously got in, but I got into at the time the most undesirable university in the whole of the UK, the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland during the war there.

    So, yeah, it was the determination I think that’s something when I look back at my young self when I was nineteen, I was just completely determined to get what we say a tertiary education. So, yeah, it’s true that it shows my determination and persistence. I had to enter the university and I believed in myself. I thought the world was wrong. I kept getting very bad grades. I kept retaking my exams and I kept thinking they were wrong and I was an A-grade student. I kept getting not like E or D. I always got ES and DS but I kept thinking the world was wrong.

    It takes a certain kind of narcissism for you to believe that, but I had it and I think you need self-belief in stand-up comedy. That’s the first thing but I think my self-belief was off the scale. I had to prove to the world that they were wrong.

    Omid Djalili

  • Your comedy often delves into darker themes such as racism, discrimination, travel bans, and sanctions. While you make jokes about these serious issues, you also provoke the audience to think critically about them. What do you believe is the role of dark humour today, and how do you balance the act of pushing boundaries without crossing the line?
  • That’s a fantastic and very complex question. I think what you’re saying is how I deal with dark humour. I think, for me, there’s a big difference between humour that is funny with dark things.  Now, when you say dark humour, that’s a very difficult thing to pull off. For me, it was culturally relevant too to approach dark and bitter issues. I was supposed to stand up for my people. You know? The time after 9/11, my people were everybody from Iran to Pakistan, to Saudi Arabia etc. I seem to represent a whole region of brown people. It wasn’t so much about doing dark humour. It was about dealing with the things that had shocked the world.

    When two planes hit those buildings at the time, it was something we’d never really seen such a suicide bombing. We have never seen such hatred towards the West. My life was all about acting in Hollywood films. Then it switched. I felt it was more relevant to be a stand-up comedian and I had some success at the time. I just won the Time Out comedy award for best stand-up and the Time Out award was very prestigious in the UK. In 2001, I won the award, so it felt like that was a signal that I was waiting to use stand-up comedy to be a bridge between East and West.

    I think we are now at that junction again where the world’s going crazy, and some people need to stand up and be a voice of reason. Stand-up comedy was a way to make sense of difficult things. So, in a sense, it’s not about dark humour for me. It’s about taking very difficult subjects and using comedy to throw light on them to make sense of them to the world. A confused world. A world that is being distracted by misinformation. Everything is being driven by social media and there’s so much misinformation there. So, I think that is what I was trying to do at the time.

  • I think you knew that if you approach these issues seriously, it might not work. People are more open to the way that comedy explains issues.
  • Yeah, I believe so and well it does work. For a serious approach, we have the news and commentators. We have so many different channels and media to express different viewpoints and discuss it. But comedians are whom people trust because what we really want to do, is entertain people. We want people to have a good night. So, when we come with that understanding that people trust us, we’re not going to do anything to offend them. I’ve done things where I have offended people but we’re trying to make people laugh. So, when people trust you, it means you have some kind of space to really expand ideas in a way that news media can’t.

    You know certain newspapers and publications can’t even talk about some issues because they have a certain viewpoint that they have to push out. They’re paid by certain parties, groups, and companies. You can call it left wing or right wing or some of them have certain agendas whereas a comedian’s agenda is only to make you laugh. So, people trust us, and I think that is something that we take very seriously. Especially young people who get their news now from comedy shows The Daily Show in the US which was made famous by John Stewart and then Trevor Noah. And now John Stewart has come back. These shows are and a lot of young people watch them. They get their news and their viewpoints from these comedians.

  • Political satire is a significant part of your routine. I think Brexit jokes are the most famous ones. How do you navigate the fine line between being provocative and respectful when tackling political issues?
  • The standpoint of a politician is very different from the standpoint of a comedian. Regarding politicians, you know what political party they’re representing, whereas, for a comedian, the best thing is that you don’t even know what their political viewpoint is. Their political viewpoint should be humanity. You know often when we talk about Gaza, and we talk about Israel. I’m going to continue talking about that for about 10 to 15 minutes in my shows. It’s very important that people see that my standpoint is on the standpoint of humanity, peace, and love.

    Regarding the political impacts of comedians, I am sure you can have comedians that come and represent a certain political view and you can enjoy that but usually, they’re preaching to the converted voters. You used the word “satire”. In Persian, I love the word “Tanz” which means satire.  Tanz also means scalpel which means you must injure before you go in to heal. So, the Persians have it right. When we talk about what satire really is, it’s about finding the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. You can be offended, and injured by what someone is saying but they’re saying it to go inside your mind and heal it like a surgeon. That’s what comedy should be working at the highest level. We are society surgeons. We use tanz or satire as a scalpel to highlight the problem and then we throw some light on it. If we do that properly I would think we have to be not so much part of a political viewpoint or political party. We shouldn’t be pushing an agenda. Your gender should always be about humanity. About love, peace, and making people laugh.

    I think that for me that would be the highest level but then again it doesn’t mean as a rule. You can be a left-wing comic; you can be a right-wing comic and you could be funny as well. That’s no big deal but I think comedians should be slightly aloof and above pushing a certain agenda. So, in that sense, we always make fun of foolishness. I think that’s the main job of a comedian.

  • You often incorporate elements of your Iranian heritage into your comedy. How do your family roots influence your material, and do you ever feel a responsibility to represent your culture in a certain way?
  • That’s a very good question. My parents are obviously Iranians. They were very patriotic and that’s what I think because they moved away from Iran in 1958. I think it was the reason, but it was never with the intention of running away. They loved Iran and even though I was born in England, the first language I spoke was Persian. So, my Iranian heritage was very clear. I was very proud of being Iranian at school. There was another Iranian kid at school, and we spoke Persian loudly. People were asking, wow, what is this language? We call it Persian.

    But we stopped speaking very loudly in Persian after 1979. When I was thirteen or fourteen that changed, and we went very quiet. We were embarrassed because of all the projections in the media about our country. So, when things happened in Iran, I knew that I was not supposed to do much because Iranians can represent themselves but just for a British audience I tried to explain our culture, to explain some of the political unrest, to explain explaining what’s going on in Iran.

    In September 2022, I basically gave over my social media mostly to what was going on in Iran and I think that felt right because I’m a proud Iranian. It was a whole bunch of us together, all the Iranian comedians, me, Max Amini, Maz Jobrani, and Tehran as well. There are 87 million people that we are connected to and so I would say my heritage is something that drives my comedy. I think Persian culture is sweet. Iranians in general are wonderful and I’m very proud very proud of my heritage. But when you watch the Olympic refugee team, out of 37 people, 14 of them are Iranians. It means that we have more Iranians in the refugee team than any other country. That means we are torn apart more than any war-torn country. There’s no war inside Iran.

    There’s a kind of social media civil war going on but that tells you something about our country. It tells you something about the oppression going on inside a country. Usually, when a people are oppressed the cultural sensitivity and the satire or tanz will become very heightened. I’m very proud of the Iranian comedians and very proud of the Iranian people because they’re really showing the best side of themselves by standing on the side of humanity, peace, and love.

  • Some of the things that you’re saying about the Iranians, are even new revealing to Iranians. One of your videos that has been shared a lot among Iranians is the one where you talk about how Iranians are passionate about everything, especially love. You say I cut my hand and write a letter with my blood.  I felt it so real when I compared it to other nations.
  • Yes, I think that’s something we don’t really understand. We have such a passion. Iranians will fight about anything. We will be very passionate about things because we love life and when you love life, you’re passionate about everything. Look! I was born and raised in England where people also are passionate about their football teams. People have passion about things and then there are riots and there’s counter riots in the street. People are writing about one thing. Then there’s a second group comes and writes against them. But I see Iranian passion and Middle Eastern passion on a completely different level. I think we’ve got a lot to be passionate about. About food or music and culture.

    I think that’s something that has driven me a lot. In a sense, I’m a kind of hybrid of two cultures. Both cultures are passionate but on different levels. I always felt that Iranians don’t really see how passionate we are and actually, it can be funny, and it can be inspiring as well. Passion is something that is a very underrated quality in life. Passion which means being enthusiastic, in fact, I tell my children the most important word we have in the Persian language which we don’t have in the English language is the word “zerang”. “Zarang” is a word that means having initiative. It means being quick thinking. It means being passionate enough to act in the moment and do something outside the box. To do something different I teach my children to look at that word they don’t speak Persian very well. They understand it. Zerang is a thing that comes out of our culture. So, you need to have passion. You need to care, and you must make the right decision making and often it’s outside the box. If I was stuck in traffic, then I would go over like pavement. I would drive across two pavements. I would break the law. My kids say, Dad, what are you doing?

    It should be the passion that makes me do something to be “zerang” and change the situation. I think that comes from our culture where we want things to be better and we have the passion for what we say in English the gumption which means that you know the ability and the drive to change things.

  • You’ve been known to address race and ethnicity in your jokes. From the old shows like “Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner’s Son”, and “The Arab and the Jew” to the short shows such as “Lucky Arab Sketch”. How do you approach these sensitive topics in a way that fosters understanding rather than division?
  • Short Fat Kebab Shop Owner’s Son was my first stand-up show and the concept behind that was I looked like a short fat kebab shop owner’s son, but inside me, there was a tall thin high cheekbone English. So, I had that inside me, but I looked a different way and I think that was something that drove the comic. That’s a funny concept. I became known as the short fat kebab shop owner’s son. There was a television show where I won a stand-up competition.  Oh my god, so many years ago I was on television, and I won. This was a show called the Big Big Talent Show. It was a show that was the precursor to Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent. It was the first kind of big talent show in the UK. It was on ITV and hosted by Jonathan Ross who was our most famous presenter. There was an overall winner and then there was the comedy winner. So, I won the comedy section, but no one knew my name. I was known as the short fat kebab shop owner’s son. I won this thing as the short fat kebab shop owner’s son.  Then I went to Edinburgh as Omid Djalili and nobody knew who I was.

    So, you would have thought someone who was on television and won an award with a comedy named Short Fat Kebab Shop Owner’s Son would use that name, but I went to Edinburgh, and I used my own name and nobody came to my show. It was such a stupid marketing decision but that was driven by my culture. I said that’s my name. I’m not going to change it.  My parents gave me my name and I’m going to use it. One of the first jokes was my name is Omid Abdulqasem Ibrahim Mamduh but call me Trevor. That was the first thing. it was about being proud of my own name Omid Djalili and joking about people who changed their names. I never felt that way. Those who changed their name were just too insecure about their culture, but I was a proud Iranian. I’m going to use the name and if you like me, you will learn the name. I said Omid means hope and Djalili means less. So, everyone thinks this is this guy is called “Hopeless”.

    That was one of the first jokes I made because I was making fun of the fact that people from our culture come into another culture, and we actually have to change our identities to exist; to actually function and I was highlighting that as something wrong. If we are from a different culture, why should we change? You don’t see English people going to Iran and saying hello my name is Abdul Qasim.  I think that that’s that was an important thing to do so it was all driven by my love of my culture and how. When we look at race, it is a very complex issue. When we, Middle Easterns, go to the West, usually but not all the time we have to diminish ourselves to be able to function. I think that was something I was raised with. Something that I saw was an absurdity that I needed to highlight with humour.

  • You played many Arab characters in movies. Did it bother you to be considered an Arab like many Iranians? Or you accepted the truth that for Westerners we all look the same?
  • Inside Iran, people have some kind of boundaries between themselves and other neighboring countries, but I think in the context, we all look the same. I think that it was a conscious choice when I was on television with Whoopi Goldberg; I started putting on an Arab voice. I consciously chose a Middle Eastern accent because I thought there was more drive and more dynamism in it. The Arabic accent was faster and more energetic. In a sense, I switched it, then I showed I’m very English.

    Omid Djalili

    I was using an act, and it was specifically chosen as a Middle Eastern act because that is what the British audience knew. So, we made that decision with Whoopi Goldberg after 9/11. They wanted me in the show, and we were asked about the accent. I said, “Well, I want to do it with an Iranian accent.” But they asked, “Can you do the Arab accent?” and I was like saying, “Well, we’re not an Arab country.” I had to explain that to them. Whoopi said, “I know that, but I think right now we’re going to do it for the American audience, which is about a million people watching. To help them connect with the Middle East, why don’t you do this with an Arab accent, which is more dynamic?”

    I think that’s what it was, but it was also representing the whole region. As you know, now I spend a lot of time in interviews explaining that Iranian culture is very different.

  • You’ve touched on the British royal family in your work. What challenges or considerations come with making jokes about such prominent figures?
  • I think the whole Royal Family has been very nice to me. They like me a lot, and I think it’s because I was raised in the area of Kensington, which is where you had the Iranian Consulate, where my father used to work. It’s also right next to Kensington Palace, where Prince Charles lived with Diana at the time. He lived there for many years, and I used to see him in the street. I used to see him drive. The Royal Family was always very close to me in the sense that I saw them physically many times, and it wasn’t such a big thing. When I did the Royal Variety performance, there was one joke that made him die because it was so edgy. You know, the Royal Family has a very edgy sense of humour. I’ll reveal the joke that I did in the show in Kuala Lumpur. It was such an edgy joke that I didn’t realize the whole family was laughing, saying, “This guy is unbelievable.” They saw me there, and since then, they’ve been inviting me to do their shows. I saw in one brochure that I was a Prince’s Trust ambassador. He made me an ambassador for his charity, and I said I didn’t know that. They said, “You should be happy and really proud. People pay fifty thousand pounds just to be an ambassador. You should be lucky.”

    Prince Charles

    There are a lot of things that happened I wasn’t even aware of. Then, for his birthday, Prince Charles personally invited me. He said, “I really want you to come for my birthday. It’s called We Are Most Amused and Amazed,” and that’s something you’ll see on YouTube. It has had millions of views, especially the Brexit jokes, which I wasn’t supposed to do, but I did anyway. He really liked it. In a sense, I was just being very authentic and very true to myself. I think they like that, and when you’re true to yourself, you don’t really have any fear. So, whenever I performed for the Royal Family, I amazingly had a complete lack of fear because I just thought if they liked it, they liked it. If they don’t like it, what’s going to happen? They’ll never invite me again. I was very detached from that. Other comedians would get quite stiff and tense, and the jokes wouldn’t go very well, but I wasn’t. I was the only person in history that made fun of Prince Charles. I made fun of him with roasty jokes, and he loved it because no one had done that before. I think because I’m Iranian, they see me as being slightly outside of Britain. A British person probably wouldn’t dare. In a sense, I was very lucky to have that freedom and also very lucky that he liked the jokes. Whenever I did a joke in a show, they cut to him laughing. I think it was good for them too to show that they can laugh at themselves. I think that was something that really helped the brand of the Royal Family—that they don’t take themselves too seriously.

    I did go too far a couple of times, and they made it very clear. He asked me over once and said: “I never said that. You can’t say I said things I didn’t say. It was very funny, but I ask you not to put words in my mouth, and that’s where there has to be a boundary. You can’t just go around saying Prince Charles said this because it’s not right.” That was fair enough, and I learned my lesson there, but in general, to show that they have a sense of humour, and that they can laugh at themselves, was a very good thing for them too. I was just very lucky that they liked the jokes.

    In 2022, when it was the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, I was the one chosen to make fun of British culture throughout the whole show. There was a big show for her Jubilee, and I was chosen as the herald. The herald is a character who connects British society with the Royal Family, but he’s allowed to say things to make fun of them and British society. So, in the end, they used me specifically for that particular thing—someone to make fun of them and make fun of the culture, make fun of the monarchy, and make fun of British culture. So, in a sense, that worked out very well for everyone.

  • I think one of the famous jokes that you made was this: “I had Royal Variety shows twice, and both times Prince Charles was there. To me, that’s not a variety. Another Royal event, who is here? Get a life! You don’t have to watch Iranians. That’s why you pay MI6. Leave me alone!”
  • Yes, I made it up that he was obsessed with me. It was just a way of joking. He should have just used MI6, the secret service, to follow me, which I’m sure they do anyway.
  • Given the often controversial nature of some of your material, how do you handle criticism from both audiences and the media?
  • I have so many friends in show business who are going through such difficult times. You know, actors, comedians who, if you say the wrong thing, they try and cancel you. They try and do what’s called a smear campaign. If they don’t like something you’ve done, they’ll try and diminish your personality.

    Actually, the most important part of being a comedian is to have a thick skin, to have a skin like a rhinoceros. The way I deal with it, if somebody loves you and says what you like, you say thank you very much, but you don’t take it too seriously. If people hate you, you also say thank you very much and don’t be too affected by it. I think in life, in general, people will like and not like what you do. But if you’re gracious and just say thank you to both, that worked for me. I think that kind of balanced view is very important to survive, because if I took things seriously, I would have stopped years ago. It’s important, in general, to not let it affect you, even the praise, because some people can praise you too much, and it can go to your head. So, you don’t take that too seriously as well. Both praise and criticism have to be taken, as we say in English, with a slight pinch of salt.

  • How do you adapt your comedy for international audiences, particularly in regions where humour might be interpreted differently?
  • Well, what I do at the beginning of every show, is I set something up, which I think is one of the cleverest things I’ve done in international comedy. I think other comedians should come and watch me. If you’re an international comedian, come and watch what I do at the beginning of the show and learn. This is a very good question because I do something at the beginning to help an international audience. So that’s a little secret. But in general, I don’t change much. I don’t change the speed at which I’m talking. I don’t change the language of what I’m saying. The only thing I will change if I need to, is the references. Sometimes you can have a reference that is very British, and nobody will understand. If I come to Malaysia, what I’ll normally do is replacing it with a Malaysian reference or replace it with something that everybody on the planet understands. So that’s something you’ve got to be aware of and constantly update.

    That’s why when they say every show is different because even in a town in England, I can’t just go to Edinburgh in Scotland and do exactly the same show I do in London. There are some adjustments you have to make. You constantly have to update and reevaluate. Sometimes some big jokes you’ve got that get a big laugh in one country, you do it somewhere else, and it gets absolutely nothing. And the worst thing for a comedian is when people are not laughing. You have to stay on top of it and be really, really careful about your references. But in general, you’re still getting the same Omid Djalili experience.

  • What do you think about the evolution of comedy? How has it happened over the years, especially in terms of topics? For example, I remember in Persian culture, most of the jokes were racial and regional and based on accents. Nowadays, it has changed into more political and societal jokes. How has that change occurred internationally?

  • Yeah, well, certainly, that’s across the borders, and I’m glad that Iran has caught up with it. Regional jokes used to be very big in the ’70s and ’80s. We don’t do them anymore because when you connect a certain joke with a certain area, like Rashti or Turkish jokes in Iran, it’s a dangerous thing that divides people. They did the same thing politically in Britain with the Irish. Ireland, with the IRA, was kind of at war with the UK, so the UK, as a conscious thing, made Irish jokes. So, the Irish became like Rashtis. So, they made lots of jokes like, “How do you burn an Irishman’s ear? You telephone him when he’s ironing.” You know, so he’s ironing, and they go, “Hello.” So, jokes like that, are still funny jokes, but they also diminish the Irish. And that was a conscious thing; it was a political thing to make Irish people seem stupid. I think that has changed now, and it’s across the borders. In England, we don’t do those kinds of jokes anymore. People are very quick to say, “Hey, you are making fun of that culture.” Even if you do an accent, people question it now. I do lots of accents because people realize I’m not making fun of that culture, but even doing accents is seen as politically incorrect. In that sense, cancel culture is very big.

    The way comedy has changed, which has kind of been pushed by comedians like Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock—especially Dave Chappelle, who will talk seriously for like five minutes, maybe even longer. He will talk, but because we know there’s going to be something funny, we listen. Sometimes he has to give the information first, so you know where he’s coming from, and then you can laugh. And sometimes the laughs are deeper. That’s how comedy has evolved. Certainly, with written material, you just kind of have to talk seriously a bit more. I mean, in the old days, you would go to a comedy club, and if you didn’t make people laugh in seven seconds, they would get you off. You had 30 seconds to be funny, and there had to be a joke every 10 seconds to keep the audience going. But not so much now. Now, if you’ve made people laugh historically, they will give you some time to expound your thoughts and ideas. That’s how it’s evolved because of cancel culture, because nobody wants to be cancelled. And also, the younger generations want it too. They don’t know you, so you must constantly show them that you’re someone to be trusted, and that you say all the right things. I think social media has changed that. So that’s how things have evolved, but in many ways, it’s a good thing.

  • I’ve noticed that in your shows, you never pick on someone just to make fun of them in front of the audience. There’s often a lack of substance in those kinds of jokes, so it’s great that you steer clear of them.
  • Yeah, that’s become a very big thing on social media now because comedians don’t like to give their material away. So, what they often do is film themselves and put out the stuff on social media, which is improvised, something that happened on the night. Which, if you hadn’t filmed it, it would be lost and gone. And that’s a way of promoting yourself. These are bits that don’t matter. It was just something that happened that night, and that’s great.

    I’ve never been that kind of comedian to go and pick on people, only because if I pay a lot of money to go and see a big comedian if I go and see Dave Chappelle, and he’s just talking to the front row, I would think, “Well, what’s that?” It might be good for him because he’ll put it on social media with something that happened, and that’s great. But for me, as a paid audience member, I just like people who’ve written material and come and have something to say. I’ve always had too much to say. From the very beginning of my career, I’ve had things to say. People listen, and they’re interested. I’ve never had to say, “Look at that jumper. Was that a fashion statement?” And, “You madam, do you want to marry him?”

    I’ve never felt the need for that because people have always listened, and I’ve used my platform to say things that I thought were very important. And thankfully, people have listened. I’ve just become that kind of comedian. When you come, don’t expect me to talk to the front row because I’m not interested, and the rest of the audience is not that interested. But if I did, it would be very interesting for social media. Who knows? If we’re filming it, I might come to Malaysia and just start picking on people in the front row, having never done that. But that’ll be just for social media. But I also believe if you’re a proper comedian, you will sit down, you will write, and you will express your viewpoint to make a contribution to the discourse.

  • I think your English shows are at a higher level than the Persian ones. Is it easier for you to perform in English?
  • What you’ve just said there is slightly criticizing, but I’m saying thank you, because, at the end of the day, from what I understand, you’re saying that when I do stuff in Persian, it’s not as funny as the stuff I do in English. And why is that? So, thank you. You see, again, that’s criticism, and I’m saying thank you.

    I think that was an experiment I wanted to do during lockdown. I thought, let’s try and reach out. I’ll try and reach out to millions of people. The opportunity came to do it on Sina Valiollah Show, Chan Shanbi Ba Sina, and then with my own show, Emshab Ba Omid (Tonight with Omid), which was on BBC Persian. I was supposed to do a whole series, but then BBC Persian was taken off the air going into Iran, so, it didn’t feel worth doing it.

    Why is it different? Because it’s not the culture I was raised in, and I understand British culture a little bit more than Persian culture. A Persian comedian in Iran is going to be way funnier than someone like me coming in, doing stuff in the Persian language. But you know, it was a very good experiment for me. It was something that people still appreciated. It was the most-watched show, and when I asked what the viewership was, they told me, “You can say a minimum of twelve million, but it’s actually more like twenty-five million.” Twelve Million was the highest-watched comedy show on the planet in 2022, and you can see it on YouTube now. You can see I’m struggling a little bit. I was raised in a Persian family, but then when my parents died, I never really spoke much Persian. It doesn’t come easily, but I really tried very hard to focus and figure out where the moments are where you can get a laugh. It’s very scientific. Comedy is a very scientific thing, but you must be entrenched in the culture.

    So yes, what you’ve said is absolutely true. I’m much funnier in English than in Persian. My show in Malaysia, it’s going to be in English, but there will be some Persian thrown in as well now and again.

  • The last question would be, when you look back on your career, what do you hope your legacy in the community will be? Are there any particular issues or messages you want to be remembered for?
  •  I think in general, in my life, when I die, on my headstone, I just want people to read two words: “He tried.” And I really tried. I think that’s the thing. It was something I saw where there was a need for it. There was a need for an Iranian comedian. I was trained as an actor, so I’m not really as natural a comedian as, for example, maybe Maz Jobrani, who always wanted to be a comedian. I never wanted to be a comedian. I fell into it by accident. I enjoy doing it, but I’m not as natural as people who just want to be comedians.

    I saw the need for it at a point in my career where I felt it was important. Actually, being the first, in a sense, like Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor was the first black comedian and one of the funniest comedians of all time. What he did at the beginning was connect black culture with middle America. That was very difficult. And then, when he became well-known, he was authentically himself, and that’s when we saw the real Richard Pryor. What I’ve done as the first kind of Iranian and the first Middle Eastern comedian is I’ve tried to connect with Middle Britain and Middle America. In my older years now, I’m trying to do something more authentic.

    When you come to the show in Malaysia, you’ll catch the most authentic me, which is the best me on stage because comedy voices need to be developed. That’s where you’ll see the OG—the original gangster—taking time to do it. So, I think the legacy is that I hope that as the first person, the legacy is all the other people doing it now. I’m really proud to see there are so many great comedians who saw me as the first person and thought, “Wow, maybe I can do that.” In England, we have some great people like Romesh Ranganathan and Guz Khan, a lot of really good ethnic minority comedians. The legacy is the strength of the other comedians who came after me.

    I’m sure Richard Pryor is so happy. He’s dead now, but he must have been so happy to see Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and so many black comedians take on his legacy. I think, in a sense, that’s two answers there. One is I’ve tried my best, and the other is the legacy is a whole load of people. Whoopi Goldberg told me, “You have to keep doing comedy because you are the first, and when you are the first, the strength of what you do will affect the people who come after you.” I’m very pleased to see that there are a lot of people who are really good coming through.

    That’s what it is. To be the first person to try to break down that barrier has been a very significant thing in my life, which is why I carried on doing it. I’m very thankful to Whoopi Goldberg, who encouraged me to do it, and I think that’s the legacy. But great question, Syd. Thank you.
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