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
And the writers to raise the level of the character. so, that is when 0mid djalili was pretty much acting as well as doing comedy. now, you are much more into comedy, you do a bit of acting but it is mostly comedy. you ve talked about the degree to which you think comedy suits you better because it is more honest, and i wonder what you mean by honesty in that sense? i think honesty is the most important one. it is the foundation of all virtues, and i think that certainly in comedy, authenticity is the most important thing. and that is what i. when i watch comedy, when i see a comedian being authentic, that is when i laugh the most. comedy is notjust about. for me, funny is never the end, you use funny to make a point, so now that i am in my mid 50s, i am using comedy to make a point so that is authentically me, and the more authentic you can be, the more powerful the comedy is. can you be authentic? can you be your genuine funny self in a culture today which some comedians say is so fu
Because i wasn t supposed to be funny, but that was the way i dealt with it. i navigated it by trying to raise it up to a two dimensional character. but going back to my question about maybe the way you have changed or evolved, would you take that sort of role today? no, iwouldn t, and i think if there was such a role but it would have had some meat to it, i would insist on writing it and working with the director and the writers to raise the level of the character. so, that is when omid djalili was pretty much acting as well as doing comedy. now, you are much more into comedy, you do a bit of acting but it is mostly comedy. you ve talked about the degree to which you think comedy suits you better because it is more honest, and i wonder what you mean by honesty in that sense? i think honesty is the most important one. it is the foundation of all virtues, and i think that certainly in comedy, authenticity is the most important thing. and that is what i. when i watch comedy, when i see a
So, that is when 0mid djalili was pretty much acting as well as doing comedy. now, you are much more into comedy, you do a bit of acting but it is mostly comedy. you ve talked about the degree to which you think comedy suits you better because it is more honest, and i wonder what you mean by honesty in that sense? i think honesty is the most important one. it is the foundation of all virtues, and i think that certainly in comedy, authenticity is the most important thing. and that is what i. when i watch comedy, when i see a comedian being authentic, that is when i laugh the most. comedy is notjust about. for me, funny is never the end, you use funny to make a point, so now that i am in my mid 50s, i am using comedy to make a point so that is authentically me, and the more authentic you can be, the more powerful the comedy is. can you be authentic? can you be your genuine funny self in a culture today which some comedians say is so full of sort of