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
It was. and you go to a london school, and you were a bit of an outsider, and ijust wonder whether that difficulty of being seen as an outsider lead you to use humour as some sort of defence mechanism? is that where it all began? i think so, yeah. i was very aware that even though i went to a multicultural school, both at primary and secondary school, i did feel that i was the wrong colour, i had the wrong name. so, when i realised i was very unattractive to girls, when i was in those very difficult adolescent ages, 13,14, humour became very important to me. i started doing sketches at school to try and become validated. we often say comedians, you know, we are very hurt individuals, we are doing this to heal the wounds of our childhood and we need the laughter of strangers to validate us. but that is true. did you pretend to be sicilian for a while? idid, yes. i told people my name
Losing your hair but you look great, you look like gijane. let s go back a little bit to your beginnings. raised by iranian parents who had moved to london who then couldn t go back to iran, so you are a real genuine londoner but actually i think your first language was farsi when you were a real small kid. it was. and you go to a london school, and you were a bit of an outsider, and ijust wonder whether that difficulty of being seen as an outsider lead you to use humour as some sort of defence mechanism? is that where it all began? i think so, yeah. i was very aware that even though i went to a multicultural school, both at primary and secondary school, i did feel that i was the wrong colour, i had the wrong name. so, when i realised i was very unattractive to girls, when i was in those very difficult adolescent ages, 13,14, humour became very important to me. i started doing sketches at school to try and become validated. we often say comedians, you know, we are very hurt individuals
Wonder whether that difficulty of being seen as an outsider lead you to use humour as some sort of defence mechanism? is that where it all began? i think so, yeah. i was very aware that even though i went to a multicultural school, both at primary and secondary school, i did feel that i was the wrong colour, i had the wrong name. so, when i realised i was very unattractive to girls, when i was in those very difficult adolescent ages, 13,14, humour became very important to me. i started doing sketches at school to try and become validated. we often say comedians, you know, we are very hurt individuals, we are doing this to heal the wounds of our childhood and we need the laughter of strangers to validate us. but that is true. did you pretend to be sicilian for a while? idid, yes. i told people my name was chico and i was from palermo in sicily. the iranian revolution had