"Immigrant Parents Don't Want Their Children To Be Comedians"

Funnyman Maz Jobrani first made his name as part of The Axis Of Evil Comedy Tour before venturing solo into the stand-up comedy realms. He also possesses an extensive acting resume, is a published author and recently wrote, produced and starred in his debut feature film (the well-received Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero) — a pretty incredible effort for someone of humble Iranian-American immigrant stock.

"My first challenge coming from an immigrant background is that immigrant parents don't want their children to be comedians — they want their children to be lawyers and doctors and engineers," Jobrani laughs. "There was many years of back and forth with my family until I finally realised that I've got to live my life for myself and not for my parents.

"I ended up taking a stand-up comedy class, and one of the first things they told us was 'you've got to get onstage as much as you can and write as much as you can'."

"But once I got into it was actually a beautiful thing because I was in my mid-20s — I started late for a comedian — and I realised that you live one life so you've gotta do what you love doing. So I enrolled in some improv acting classes and I ended up taking a stand-up comedy class, and one of the first things they told us was 'you've got to get onstage as much as you can and write as much as you can'. So I took that to heart and I'd just show up wherever, and I'd make sure that the circumstances were stacked against me and I'd just get on stage and make myself get through it."

That's a rather inspiring worldview for someone ostensibly just trying to make people laugh.

"I wrote a book called I'm Not A Terrorist But I've Played One On TV and I really tried to drive that point home, I said, 'You only live once, follow your dreams,'" he continues. "I always say that you're inspired by greatness and you're inspired by mediocrity. I remember when I was in college before I decided to pursue this professionally I saw two comedians in a stand-up comedy competition and they were really bad, and I thought, 'You know what? Next time there's a competition I'm gonna do it!' So I was inspired by mediocrity and just went for it. Life's too short, man. We always say, 'I'm going to do something tomorrow, I'm going to do it tomorrow', then you wake up and you're ten years older and you never got to doing it. So just do it."

A lot of Jobrani's routines deal with subverting stereotypes, does he feel that popular culture can help affect change?

"Yeah I definitely think so," he reflects. "I grew up in America so I grew up watching a lot of the American comedians, and I think that my first goal as a comedian is just to be funny, but if there's some sort of message underneath that comes with it then I think that's kinda icing on the top. So if you look at somebody like Richard Pryor and what he did for black people in America, or you look at Cheech & Chong and what they've done for Latinos, I think it really helps to bring the foreign culture into the mainstream."