jens stoltenberg was speaking as leaders of nato countries prepare to meet at a summit in madrid on tuesday. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. what i find funny, you might find offensive. comedy challenges taste and convention and it can rouse strong reaction, as we saw at this year s 0scars when a joke earned comedian chris rock a slap in the face from the actor will smith. my guest today has spent more than 25 years finding laughs in sometimes unlikely places. 0mid djalili was born in london to iranian parents. he has thrived as a cross culture comedic chameleon, but is it possible to be funny without being mean? 0mid djalili, welcome to hardtalk. stephen sackur, my friend, my fellow presenter in the business of show, man who is so unbelievably good looking and thin that he walks into snooker hall, they start chalking his head. i am so happy to be here, this is one of my favourite shows. well, if you carry on like that, this won t be a
in sometimes unlikely places, omid djalili was born in london to iranian parents. he has thrived as a cross culture comedic chameleon, but is it possible to be funny without being mean? omid djalili, welcome to hardtalk. stephen sackur, my friend, my fellow presenter in the business of show, man who is so unbelievably good looking and thin that he walks into snooker hall, they start chalking his head. i am so happy to be here, this is one of my favourite shows. well, if you carry on like that, this won t be an interview, it will be a monologue! let me ask you this, you have been doing comedy for almost 30 years, do you find the same stuff funny today as you did back then? what a tricky question! what a way to start. that is such a tricky question. look, at the end of the day, it is a big subject now because we saw the oscars and we saw will smith smack chris rock. can i just tell you, just to speak personally, i saw the video the day after, and i bleary eyed woke up on monday
so, you were pushing this idea that you could be put into a pigeonhole, i think you have later said the ethnic scumbag. yes, that was one of my firstjokes. i am an arab scumbag specialist but in the bond film, i did play the second azerbaijani oil pipe attendant, which is a major departure for me in my career! but here you are, walking yourself into a pigeonhole. i love that, i love it when you get challenging! it wasn t that, it was back in the 90s when i started off, i felt it was the only way to get work because, you know, you see films where in another country, you ve got all these actors with high cheekbones and they were good looking, i realised i was a short, squat, iranian bloke. that is why i fought back with comedy by doing the show called i am a short fat kebab shop 0wner s son, because i look like a short fat kebab owner s son. as you can hearfrom my voice, there was a tall, thin, high cheekbones english ponce screaming to get out. this was me reacting. but how frustrating
immodestly, iranian, afghani, turkish, pakistani, i could even play a russian commandant or a bulgarian gymnast trainer, a slovak border guard. i can play french, german, american mafia boss, i m pretty good at regional british accents, too. so, you were pushing this idea that you could be put into a pigeonhole, i think you have later said the ethnic scumbag. yes, that was one of my firstjokes. i am an arab scumbag specialist but in the bond film, i did play the second azerbaijani oil pipe attendant, which is a major departure for me in my career! but here you are, walking yourself into a pigeonhole. i love that, i love it when you get challenging! it wasn t that, it was back in the 90s when i started off, i felt it was the only way to get work because, you know, you see films where in another country, you ve got all these actors with high cheekbones and they were good looking, i realised i was a short,
said the ethnic scumbag. yes, that was one of my firstjokes. i am an arab scumbag specialist but in the bond film, i did play the second azerbaijani oil pipe attendant, which is a major departure for me in my career! but here you are, walking yourself into a pigeonhole. i love that, i love it when you get challenging! it wasn t that, it was back in the 90s when i started off, i felt it was the only way to get work because, you know, you see films where in another country, you ve got all these actors with high cheekbones and they were good looking, i realised i was a short, squat, iranian bloke. that is why i fought back with comedy by doing the show called i am a short fat kebab shop 0wner s son, because i look like a short fat kebab owner s son. as you can hearfrom my voice, there was a tall, thin, high cheekbones english ponce screaming to get out. this was me reacting. but how frustrating for you. oh, so frustrating. i m being serious. you walked into an image which then it s taken