A little hesitant to even try it and i got approached by some people to google and they said listen well do a show and well ask people to donate money and google will match it so find a charity that you like salute charity id like to solicit do it and i will tell you man it was a trip because you know its comedians were used to performing in front of a Live Audience in trying to read whats on their mind how they do it what are they thinking well right off the bat i said i dont need to worry i dont need to think about what youre thinking because you can comment and design chat on the side if you hate it or you love it theyre there commenting right there you can see their numbers going up and down when people leave the chat and it was a trip in and i did i stood up and i took a mike that doesnt work my daughter has a karaoke mike that we bought and when i just hold the mike to pretend and pretend like and it is amazing dude its amazing it really has been very cathartic for me to do stand up to a computer. Well folks all i can tell you is when youre in the game and i dont to stand up as much as i used to when i was doing it like 300 dates a year you start to jones florida after. Its just a muscle memory there oh its crazy i mean ice funny because one of the things i thought was that because people people that are on my social media and whatever theyll send me nice message just thank you so much are you making us laugh thank you for doing this and im like im not doing it for you im doing it for me i got it but i got to get in front of people because i can you just said but im used to be United States 5 to 10 times a week twerking everywhere cetera et cetera now what ill do is you know weve got this little nook that you see that im in this like a closet kind of thing that we bought a house were going to remodel it it was kind of sitting here so i just walked past my wife as you know in the kitchen or something im like im going to work and ill come up to my interviews or my instagram lives and its crazy man anything mr putin for me you know gets whatevers on my mind that day i could talk about its been a its been a cool exercise i got to tell you that im into. Well its certainly a strange trapped chapter man and when i think about the dr jerry garcia saying life long strange trip i think about your journey and what i was reading the bio i said boy you talk about. You talking about crossing over some sort of cosmic river to go from one when it hits the fan and iran and then you end up into ploughs a look at out of f. A. O. Schwartz as they thats about as wide a chasm as a kid could have that is trippy tell me about those times was well you know so late 78 protests are starting in iran and it was interesting as i was reflecting on it i realized a lot of iranians didnt think the revolution was going to happen they thought that the shah would quassia it like he had in the past so my father is on business in new york and he was a successful businessman and hes there in the schools closed down early on i think it was also very cold winter the winter of 78 so schools closed down this protest and so my dad tells my mom it was why dont you bring me and my older sister mary out because why do you bring them for 2 weeks let things cool down in iran you guys go back and we even left my baby brother back in iran at the time and we come to america to stay for 2 weeks and we end up staying for 42 years so you know we simply packed for 2 weeks stay to vent but i havent arrayed in fred and i always tell him i said listen when the shah was it he was a bad guy but at least you could talk to him because he wanted to go to beirut once a year get this freak with the european look its well and then the thing happened all of a sudden you had guys in charge really thought they might european hookers after theyd act and you couldnt find it. Yet did it when i made it you know after bridling for it is that he said you know what there are some skits. Absolutely i mean listen our lives were turned upside down and its interesting because i listen i sort of Political Science in college but if i could go back and study another major i would study psychology because i just like to think about you know as a comedian i think about why am i the way i am and one of the same things that ive learned to come to understand or my parents because my parents are similar to a lot of immigrant parents who left their country of turmoil whatever thats going on in those countries they came to america and they want their kids to be lawyers doctors engineers and what i wanted to be a comedian my parents would be like what are you talking about like that is not in our vocabulary and it was funny because my mom went from wanting me to be i was going to be a lawyer so i said pollys undergrad that i wanted to p. C. Program Political Science i was going to be a professor and already my mom was like no you cant be a professor theres no jobs for professors what are you talking about and then when i dropped out of the p. C. Program to pursue my passion of acting in comedy she goes listen you do not become a lawyer you did not become a professor she was at least become a mechanic not just from a lawyer or a mechanic theres so many things in between and she goes listen people need mechanics nobody needs a comedian and i realize shes coming from a revolution that where her life was flipped upside down so in her mind she goes what in her my sis thinking theres going to be a revolution in america and when that revolution comes you can move to argentina and fix cars and yeah you know that was the mentality so its exactly were talking about its like you know one guy leaves and i go comes and the lives are turned upside down and you know here we are. Well when you talk about that i always think of leno was a brilliant i mean listen i know jay when he was doing the tonight show there often times i thought this guys brilliant enough to know where the mean point is the sweet spot for commerce an arc you know when people would say would you do is one c. J. s monologue and so savvy that i cant even begin to tell you hes not out there to be ibsen hes out there to kill and he knows how to do it but when you when when leno has always taken sort of a mechanic approach to it its soon as he gets off work hes in those overalls out of burbank it is a car collection and it goes under the hood with a joke just like youll go under the hood with the roll down there is that its pretty fascinating i see some similarities between your mum wasnt too far off between comedy elicit candidates because i will tinker with a joke because i will take a good joke. Dennis listen man it also is the work ethic that comes and its funny you brought up the mechanic analogy because i was at the comedy store one time when paul mooney was hanging out and he cornered me and he started telling me about this he had these some classic car and he was telling me you goes you know my car broke down and called a mechanic who goes this mechanic and he spent hours he was trying to go in with and get in there and he goes he fills a car only and he will sew it hes young comedians you know he got to put in the time you got to put the time and i was like youre totally right man we you know if you put in the time is act when you just said man people talk to me all the time you go how do you write your jokes what do you do i go i get onstage 5 to 10 times a week and i just keep refining and refining and refining eventually i look up and i got an hour and im going to put that on on a special and then i got to move into the next hour or so really is a work at love the feeling love that feeling there was a great comedian a new york sorry folks we talk shop a little air but like i said i dont havent comics because we have that shared experience there was a great comedian named ronnie shakes in new york press the soul he left the surly but used to have a great joke where he said every time i go to Yankee Stadium its bat night or ball night hes i wish theyd go off the grid a little and have an all a truly odd night like popes hat night which is a funny read out of the bat these are you know a guy steps in up to the plate he looks up aziz diggin in and theres 60000 people in Yankee Stadium and they all have popes hats on and he steps up the box and looks of and he says wow i hope its pope sat night and i used to go to. Like why was the joke not it must be pope sat night is or i tried it and hes in his ok but i thought man theres a treasure trove here im just not buying the language and he changed that over to the existential take which is so funny where the guy goes i hope its a pope said no that always sums up the thinker and the jokes to be not so beautiful. Isnt it the best thing man i tell you it is funny because people have asked me to do this if you ever written a joke that you couldnt do but then use went to someone to go hey this is a joke you might be able to do and i said that happens a lot were all do stuff that in a riff on a like it you know the factory or the comedy store and on loose side because im not again i dont feel like im being judged im just riffing off something and for some reason like i you know sometimes ill cause my act but im just im not a blue actor overall but so now i see her looks nice get some guys on a blue on these loose nights ill come up with something thats a little bluer than i normally would go and instantly im like can i give that to because what you just said you like i cant tinker my way out of this joke this whole premise of Something Else i got to go somewhere but i love him and i mean we just said i could talk shop like this all day long because its its listen you know what were lucky to have found what we love to do and i tell that to people all the time to someone who was pushed by my parents to go in an opposite direction and coming from a culture this is traditional and i have so many friends of mine who go oh man i became a doctor or whatever because my parents wanted me to do that so when were lucky to find we love doing its you know and whatever that thing is you know you could live and breathe it all the time so its you know im totally with my man fellow comedian maz jobrani and as i said hes got a special op you can watch on netflix called immigrant and also a podcast well talk about the podcast after the break back to school with maz jobrani im interested in that approach its bailable on apple podcasts and spotify tell me that i know its a patriarchal culture over there i assume it is to the degree that i know it which might be betting the movie not without my daughter or Something Like that but im im looking at the culture im thinking your old man must have been switched on in a way that because some guys would just forbid it when you went to home he might want to curb you the other way but it sounds like at some point the love comes through he just lets you do your thing and. Overreading under what was it like when you said that. You know youre absolutely right its i think what it is is like we came i think a lot of iranians are pretty secular like my family was very secular went religious but its patriarchal regardless you you you need to are you give respect to your elders you listen to your parents and all that stuff so my father and mom i think they both listen a whats best for you they want security you know theyre my security is being a doctor security is being over all that stuff and and my father would try to kind of support us a little bit with like them because i started doing plays in school and they will come see the play and it was funny because the other thing theyre our culture has very formal so like whereas i group them are in county so some of the parents which show up you know casual you know in khaki pants and blue but that sure the guys a c. E. O. Of a bank but hes dressed kind of like you know he might be working and j. Crew or something that my family didnt leave the house without the 3 my dad and the 3 piece suit my mother got it because this is a play their company and you know its in the hole. But there has been it was still of it was yeah this is out of as i really look over and see your old man and corduroys that body its player. Oh no oh thats not a persian thing no corduroys it get a thread out the word. That good for it. Oh it was show up and like the director the director would come up after the show and say hey your sons got potential to do this and my dad im very nice and then to get the car to be like that woman is crazy dont listen to are you going to be a doctor you know what. They thought your old man d was with ca was so tired out brother you know exactly to my last job and well talk to him after the break about podcasts back to school with maz jobrani and as i said hes got a special on netflix right now he also performs with an axis of evil comedy troupe and im on i want to talk about that too because i find its such a solo exercise id be intrigued to see what its like working with a group maz jobrani on Dennis Miller plus one right after this. Rage and destruction fear and despair as the United States found it so in such a state of turmoil growing income inequality systemic racism or at least politics take your pick what is the difference between a protest and riot. Here if to say to us to speak oh i. Beg folks welcome back to Dennis Miller plus one joined today by the shop pole maven that is maz jobrani look in the can all turned his little over there and has a special on netflix you can watch i think its around 2 or 3 years old right laws. Yeah came out 2017 it was called immigrant we shot it at the Kennedy Center and you know was it was a career highlight man you know how it is you do your specials and you just try to make the next special more special so i had a chance to do specials i shot one in sweden i shot a couple in l. A. But this was d. C. And i love d. C. And you you and i you know i think were both of the same mind when it comes to where you know were were like we like politics and so i wanted to be there in the heart of it and i love d. C. In that sense because you can do any joke you do if you make a reference to political reference they get it you dont have to go out of your way to explain what youre trying to talk about so it was it was definitely a highlight of my career and im happy it brother while hope you have me back when you get your Kennedy Center honors down there youll be all be back there getting your or your might try you know or. Your lips to gods ears like i had a last. Look but cast tell me about a back to school with maz jobrani whats the premise here brother. So that came about because having kids my love when youre old my 9 year old they would always ask the questions that i did happy answers for i had to keep going with it to google you know what was going on and so finally i thought you know what let me bring in experts from different walks of life and let me learn from them and the way we launch every episode is i tell my kids i say this person is coming in for example this next person coming in is someone who works at the jet Propulsion Laboratory for nasa and i go what questions do you have of this guy and so theyll ask the question we start the we start each episode with a question from the kids and then we go on to learn and of course its on all Things Comedy Network so we try to also make it fun and funny but its a learning experience is me get a chance to go back to school and we started this is about a year ago and the irony of it is like now all school is aligned its all zoom so we were ahead of the curve we started a year ago so people can tune in and learn about all kinds of stuff thats going on weve had people that were you know entrepreneurs all the way to the guy who helped plan the mars rover on mars so weve run the gamut of yes we have a sort of a lady who was a cave diver she would go under glaciers and dive for life forms i mean its all kinds a dentist theres so many interesting people out there and when you kind of open your eyes and go let me bring in this eclectic group its amazing to just keep popping up from different places so ive had a lot of had a lot of fun people on their. Listen ive always thought it was a disservice to human beings to say theyre like snowflakes because snowflakes look acts of mass produced when you step up against human beings every time i try to get a stranglehold on the human condition you go legislated thats a curveball i just got there from that person who i thought i had figured it all out from their dust jacket then you rip the book open and you go i dont know anything about anything god except i should keep my eyes open in my ears open yeah you you know there was a famous saying i think its because a nation persian philosopher abu ali see now who said the more and im sure and im sure theres an american version in English Version as well i cant i got to a place where i learned that the more i know the less i know so im still really what i go by you know because i just im amazed at the types of things that people do and where they come from i mean its the story of these people theres a lady had a lady and shes got a charity called marys list where she helps immigrants that have come to america refugees and come to america she helps them find you know clothes and bedding and all that other stuff and she came from she says the 1st story she says is white lady in l. A. She goes the story started someone reached out to her and said hey ive got this refugee family i know you have some kids that are a little bit older do you by any chance have like a stroller or anything so she goes i could have visit the family and i see like what theyre living with and how they have nothing so she just started a list on facebook and she just asked her friends is anybody have any blankets anything we can give to this family to resettle and then she goes from there she creates this 5 a one c. Is called marys list its amazing and shes a lady with kids and what do you find the time to do this as she goes nothing my heart just let me and here we are so a lot of interesting stories when you open up to these people that are out there and thats thats what back to school has brought to me this is opening my eyes a lot. Sometimes you got to pull on that thread folks and that opens up the whole stargate you dont see it at the moment but all you gotta do is its like that thing about a butterfly flaps its wings in a cave in north its fair at all of a sudden youve got winds in your backyard the the ripple is the ripples like quite frankly the ripple is the line yet back to school with maz jobrani which is built on apple podcasts and spotify who else is in the axis of evil man how many people you got there ive been so far he went out with a troupe and i remember it was funny it was young are not young but unknown at that point sebastian meant to skulk out and vince was had some wild west comedy show i remember watching that and thinking who is that guy his rhythms are so beautiful he was killing me man a scope i couldnt remember the name oddly because it was so memorable and now hes the state of the argue no along with brian regan a few other guy i mean hes the man but how many guys go out with the axis of evil. Well you know its funny sebastian and i started the comedy store together so its amazing years from 3 years i mean i got stories of a one time down in i think it was newport or something we lived in l. A. Down in an hour drive in newport somebody was running a room to go listen you come down and you get 15 minutes and you get a salmon dinner and i was like sebastian you want to go its like lets get up with something were driving along and i kid man were driving along and are on the way there a car almost like he runs into us and we like we came close to death like i was almost at the car that sebastian minister how it would have died if boat but we made it we got our we got our salmon dinner we got to 15 minutes or more importantly but back then so this axis of evil comedy tour we actually havent toured since 2008 with that tour that was a tour that missy sure who was the owner of the comedy store she put us together in the year 2000 this is when like they were doing the kings of comedy and all that you know theyre all that. You know though those tours with the 4 comics so she put us together because she said you know missy was jewish but was watching the news and there was a latest intifada in 2000 between the palestinians and the israelis and she goes in 2000 she goes i think theres going to be a need for a positive voice of people from the middle east in the bury your future is before that 11 so she puts a should there with me i met i met every cater couple other people to accept sam tripoli she puts us together she calls it the arabian nights now if you have an iranian friend you know that if you ever go to iran and friend you say hate your arab theyre going to look at you like you just insulted their mother so we kept getting people coming to our show and the iranians would say this i really enjoy the show but were not arabs and i was like i know but miss you sure put it together i can change the name so few years later after bush had given the name axis of evil to those countries we decided to take that name lampooned it called axis of evil comedy tour and we toured with that for a little while and what was amazing about that tour we were one of the 1st group of american based comedians who went to the middle east in end of 2007 we went to the middle east we did 27 shows in 30 days all sold out it was crazy we were like we became rock stars over the atlantic because nobody listened if you think about it back then there was nobody really voice saying anything for the people of the middle east who are western or who just were like frustrated with being always depicted as the terrorists and so when we came out and were doing jokes and where you know they were like waiting for us so when get in the middle east we went to dubai for the beginning of the tour and the promoter goes listen we have the press. This afternoon about my press Commodore Prescott will devastate take us to this Hotel Rooftop theres like 17 different magazines and outlets and theyre asking questions and im like no. With the beatles of the middle east all of a sudden he saw that it was a it was a quite an experience it been great that im getting goose bumps listen and good right in the middle of it and you find out the commonality not everybody wants to be treated every time like exhibit a theyre human beings they want to go out they want to eat they want to get lucky they want to laugh they want to have their sure but im very logically its the human condition. I hope we get back to that someday because it is balkanized i have to tell you a quick mitzi story i remember Jerry Seinfeld takes me up i just moved to l. A. Jerry takes me up to this store and jerry was not by and large a Comedy Store Comedy he used to work at the improv but i guess hes just been nice to me because we had worked together on the road he takes me up and takes me to missys booth in the back there and she says. Happening and i dont see you as a comedienne but you you write some clever stuff but if you are going to insist going on stage you should wear more sweaters. I dont know this. Well if i dont see jerry at a mets game on says sorry i dont have the sweater on but its its a spotty to be those people control the entire process and it sounds like she dug you but it could be so disheartening if youre standing there with good since she says wear more sweaters or buds got a monocle win and hes late in the a thing in my life solver. Well listen dennis you have your spider story i was one of the 1st comedians of middle eastern descent to become a regular at the store so when i became a regular she for people that dont know you know you perform in front of her place you said shes sitting in the back its a dark room you cant see her until youre walking offstage and you have to walk past her to exit and the whole time as youre walking past or youre hoping she grabs your arm because if you grabs your arm that means hes going to make you like the mafia if he doesnt grab your arm let you walk past or youre screwed leave for a year ago come back well im walkin past and then as she reaches out grabs my arm my mind starts going to go over my god this is it she pulls shes very funny i go thank you mitzi you know im going to make your regular i go thank you mitzi and then she goes you ever thought about wearing the hat and i go that because youre on the path and the gas i swear to god she wanted me to wear a turban if its. My turn said my brother who knew that she was in to have her dasher a simultaneously i did. Oh my god oh my god best job in the world my brother best job in the world and listen man you know as well as i do what you were saying earlier about you know now i mean i dont know if youve had a chance to do it out of the country but ive done shows in australia in the middle east in single poor in jakarta and you realise theres funny people everywhere man im a comedy is Truly International and it is its i mean it has taken me around the world its a blessing man its a blessing. Were talking to maz jobrani hes a good cat ive never met him before but like i said i always feel like im 2 steps down the road with somebody when i know they do stand up because i kind of know that drill you mix a little father had fatherhood of 2 in and i feel like i have a heavy overlay theres a great bend diagram intersection with the cat. Has a special that you can watch on netflix its called immigrant and as i said folks thats the thats the show right now netflix if you get on there the quality is high and he has a podcast he was jack do which sounds like an interesting creative bent on that back to school with maz jobrani its available on apple podcasts and spotify its nice to talk to you my friend you stay cool and ill see you down the road thank you dennis i appreciate you and be good best of the kids and well see you soon in person of. Aloha thats Dennis Miller plus 1. 1 else so its seems wrong. But all wrong just dont call. Me all the things yet to seep out these days. And in detroit it equals betrayal. When something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. According to several sources felice in the United States kills from 2 to 4 people every day my. Head hits and. What am i being arrested for a response from enough. Is just their little. Stab they developed just us against them. Along sure 2525 has. Never had to shoot someone. There is a corruption of the police while the culture is. Hello and welcome to cross talk were all things we consider on Peter Labelle rage and description fear and despair how has the United States found itself in such a state of turmoil growing income inequality systemic racism or poison politics take your pick what is the difference between a protest and riot and is it accurate to say the us is becoming a failed state