Mo Amer’s Journey from Refugee to Stand-Up Star

HARI SREENIVASAN: Christiane, thanks. Mo Amer, welcome. And I got to ask, is this part of like a sponsorship deal that you’re in the back of a Bentley or something? Why, why are you in this car?

MO AMER, COMEDIAN, “MOHAMMED IN TEXAS”: It’s a Mercedes, okay. Put some respect on Mercedes. Okay. If I want anything, I want something from Mercedes, to be honest with you. No, it’s, you know, it’s a unique situation. I’m currently filming my series for Netflix. It’s loosely based on my life. And we’re currently outside of my middle school, doing the flashback sequences were, were really pertinent and super important to set up the entire series.

SREENIVASAN: At least it’s a mercedes. So this is in addition to your standup special, that’s also your second stand-up special and also dropped on Netflix. I mean, you’re a guy who goes out on the road and talks to people and feels the crowd. So how do you find the material that you think kind of plays to all kinds of different audiences?

AMER: Right. I mean, it’s important. Again, it comes back to just like understanding human beings and just really, being in touch with people on the ground. You know, I don’t really need the internet. I just, I travel so much and I, and I speak to so many different people from all different walks of life. I think that’s, that’s the, that’s, the recipe — is always being in touch with your roots, with the people that I grew up with and then just really expanding your mind and meeting people from various backgrounds. And that’s what really did it for me. You know, always and my mentor, Danny Martinez told me early on to be universal. And that doesn’t mean you’re not thought provoking. It doesn’t mean you don’t hit on really difficult topics, but just really taking the time out to, to make it digestible for everyone. And that’s, that’s always the goal.

SREENIVASAN: You know in this standup, you kind of come back to this feeling and you express it kind of like as a grunt, you know. Tell us, ‘cause that’s kind of something that people connect with when they’re like, oh yeah, I kind of feel exactly like what he just sounded like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMER: Is the pandemic over? Was it real? But what, is it over? No for real, I’m asking. Is it though? I’m always like laughing and about to cry at any moment inside. I’m like [chuckles and grunts]. Was it real? Is it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMER: I don’t know what you’re talking [grunts]. Yeah. It’s again, trying to capture what everybody feels inside, including myself. You know, I got divorced in the middle of the pandemic. I had a, I had a TV show that I was developing and trying to put everything together there and it was so, so hard to do. So it was, it was, it was just something I kind of stumbled into because when I came into the first show, after three and a half months of the pandemic, I was just a hundred miles an hour. I was neurotic. I was anxious. I was afraid to be around people. I mean, they got me, you know, like they completely got in my head and I was all over the place. And then for a moment, I just, after the rambling, I just went like that and the entire audience just died laughing. I was like, oh, this is what everybody’s feeling. And then I just leaned into it. And just, I just thought it’d be really funny throughout the set any moment that I would get a good feel like any kind of ease, remember 2020 can hear you relax, you know, one of those things. So that was a, that was part of it and was not in a special, I remember some guy said, how much worse can it get? And I was just like, shut up, man. It can get worse. Just be thankful that it’s just this and sure enough, it just kept getting worse.

SREENIVASAN: I want to play a clip of you talking a little bit about, the stock market and what’s been happening and kind of this distraction era that we live in. Let’s take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMER: What Kyle, the stock market’s going to fail. Holy, Kyle heat up the printer, heat up the printer, make $3 trillion appear and let’s funnel it into the Ponzi scheme That is the stock market — because the stock market is a direct reflection of American hearts everywhere. If the arrows going down, that means hearts and souls of Americans everywhere is also going down. But look, it’s working. It’s going up America to happy again. It’s going up. It’s skyrocketing. Wait, wait, wait. How the is it skyrocketing? We’re all at home. How is it? How, how is this thing going? I thought it was all based off of revenue streams in quarterly earnings and nobody’s working. I get Amazon hundred. Hey, everybody’s at home ordering this. This should be skyrocketing her. [BLEEP] you Jeff Bezos. And thank you Jeff Bezos all the same time. Like what, how is this still going up? Rod thought this is all based off of money coming in. Everybody’s at home. Look, man. Shut the up again. Just looking at the arrow. God can’t you just shut your mouth and just be happy that the arrow’s going up no. I can’t bro. We need money. Look. Here’s $1,200. Hush money. Shut the fuck up. Thank you. That’ll last me a week. I appreciate that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMER: I love that bit so much. Yeah, no, it’s just that’s you know, one thing about the pandemic, what it did was like freeing everybody almost, you know, if, at least for me. These things I’ve been thinking for quite some time and what the pandemic did is made the deception more visible. The idea of (12:33): This is crazy stuff to say. It almost feels like it’s pretty wild, but the fact of the matter is like people just started searching, like why what’s going on? What? Asking more questions and you see it all surface and you can’t really hide things when, when everybody’s at home and now focus and watching the news 24/7, and there’s so many different information playing around and you see the disparity. You see like the, the, like the, almost an effort in to try to split people apart from each other. And that’s why I said in the special as well. Like I’m a, Mohammad’s living in Texas get along with redneck Scouts all day.

SREENIVASAN: Most people don’t know that you are a refugee to the United States. You came from Kuwait, you’re a Palestinian American. And, you credit, you know, kind of who you are today, a lot to where you grew up and that’s Houston and that plays a kind of an important role throughout this standup.

AMER: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, Houston is a city that raised me, embraced me, embraced my whole family. I love it so much. And the intention of filming a television show in Houston was always number one, you know, 23 years of professional stand-up, but I’ve always wanted to and desired to showcase Houston because of how much love it has shown me. And it continues to show me also, it’s kind of outrageous at the fourth largest city in America. It has never, has never been portrayed on American television, which is so crazy instead of like, I think Robocop was like a glimpse of it and Robocop, but it was never like, this is Houston and it didn’t really show how diverse Houston is the most diverse city in America. The neighborhood I’m standing in right now, Alief where I grew up, literally behind me is the apartment complex. We moved to when I first came to the states and where we’re filming the TV show now, which is so surreal to think about — like makes me emotional. I can’t believe we’re doing this right and I’m doing an interview. Anyway, it’s pretty awesome.

SREENIVASAN: You know, I don’t know if most Americans have firsthand experience with a refugee. Give us if it’s possible, how some perspective on how hard it is to restart from zero after coming here.

AMER: Man, you know I think a lot of Americans do know how to start, you know, have started again from zero. But to be, you know, particularly like Palestinian to have a home that you can’t really return to with full freedom is incredibly painful. And to, to just like drop everything and go and start a new life and a completely new world essentially. It’s definitely a massive struggle and requires you to dig deeper than ever. And what I would say is that Houston is a big savior for me because it’s such a unique place that was easily to assimilate to. And I’m very thankful for that. I think things would be different if I ended up in Omaha. So, so a very great, I have a lot of gratitude for that. It’s just painful and it’s, and it requires, you know, if it’s not dealt with properly, if you don’t have faith, and what I mean by dealt with properly, like really digging deep into yourself and asking questions and healing yourself throughout the way — it can, it can really disrupt your entire life in a, in a significant way. And I’m a privileged refugee. It’s very important to say that. We came on a plane. We, you know, we had visas, we landed in Houston. Like I’m an extremely privileged refugee. On paper. I am, but there’s people living in tents, don’t know where their parents are, lost their most of their family. So I am very low on the refugee spectrum with people who have lost their entire, like not only homes have been decimated, but their lineage is gone and they have to start over. So I can’t even imagine what that’s like, but, so I I’m, I consider myself very grateful that the circumstances are what they are for me, what they were for me. And look, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t be sitting in the back of a Mercedes, you know, filming a television series about my life, if it wasn’t for those experiences. So I would not change a single thing.

SREENIVASAN: So I want to ask as an Arab American stand-up comic, how was your life, your work impacted in the era or the time right after 9/11?

AMER: Not at all. It was really easy being a Mohammed. Most of us are walking around here. No I’m just kidding. I mean, when I was in, like, it was fine, like right before 9/11, I could talk about anything, speak about anything that was on my mind. And then after 9/11, it became, it became a thing where I was like, oh, I have to do this now. Like, this is, this gave it even more meaning than ever before. For instance, this example, I had my room searched while I was on stage. I thought I was, I was having a great time. I was like killing the audiences. They were having a blast. And I sold out all my merchandise. I was like, oh my God, I made $800 in one night. Like, wow. And then I walk outside, there’s cop cars everywhere and surrounded by a couple of detectives. And I’m like, what the hell is going on? They started questioning me and asking me questions that nobody would really know unless you saw my paperwork or saw my passport or refugee travel document. And then the audience was like, leave him alone. He was funny. It was just really, really devastating and also hilarious at the same time. And, you know, the way I left it is that they gave me a trash bag full of my belongings, you know, from, from the, from my own hotel room. So they searched it illegally. They did everything illegally and none of it was by the book. And when I got back to the hotel, the security guard literally said, ‘well, you know, your name is Mohammad,’ like literally she said that. So I was upset, but I also knew that it was, it was really valuable for them to have an experience with me.

SREENIVASAN: You talk about how there are kind of forces, whether it’s the media or others that are actively trying to divide Americans today, whether it’s about the pandemic or about politics. What do you mean?

AMER: Well, what I mean is like, it’s very lucrative to have people at odds with each other. If you watch one channel to the next, if you turn on CNN to Fox, it’s significantly different. It’s not like just a little bit. It is wildly different from the other. Why is that? How come one person is saying this one? How could that even be allowed? It’s just mind blowing to me. And I don’t blame people in Oklahoma and Kansas and all these places for believing what they do. I don’t blame them for one second. And I think it’s like really shameful to, to look down on those people and, and all these different parts of America that I performed in. And to say that because what do they know? Like, this is what they’re being fed on a regular basis. It’s the opposite. Most of the time, these people are really simple, God loving, fearing human beings that are being fed a particular thing. So that’s all they know, you know. Are some of them bad? Yeah. But so is everybody else, you know, like this shit needs to stop.  I stopped watching many news outlets. I read, I consume my news through reading. Now I just, I just can, it’s about like becoming a, is becoming like a celebrity culture within even news culture. Like, no, I just want to hear facts and why is it spread that way? So I believe that it’s just because it’s really lucrative and it makes a lot of money. I mean, that’s just the bottom line.

SREENIVASAN: Mo I don’t know if you’ve seen recently, there were these clips of congressmen, Lauren Boberg and how she refers to Congresswoman Ilhan. Omar. Let’s take a look. I think that should work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBERG: So, the other night on the House floor was not my first Jihad Squad moment. So, I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers, and he and I were leaving the Capitol, we’re going back to my office. I get in the elevator, and I see a Capitol police officer running hurriedly to the elevator. I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching, and I’m like the door’s shutting, like, I can’t open it. Like, what’s happening. I look to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar. And I said, well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMER: I saw that. It was so disgusting. So disgusting. It’s funny ‘cause she’d probably say that with a gun on her hip at the same time, which is really hilarious, you know, most, and I, and I, and I also don’t think they even know what, what jihad even means. You know, it’s just, the ignorance is just through the roof and it’s absolutely despicable what she’s insinuating in that, in that particular speech. Also, the word jihad means to struggle. They’re been struggling. It is the jihad squad. Honestly, it is the struggle squad when she starts insinuating and throwing back and terrorist stuff, man, it’s just like such a crock of shit. And it’s so despicable and the fact that anybody could be in Congress with that kind of view, or even say that without any kind of, uh, any kind of, you know, being, you know, disciplined for something like that is absolutely wild to me. Like I just, I cannot believe that is so incredibly racist. Its insinuates something so horrific and I’m, I know what those women stand for. And I know that’s not it for sure.

SREENIVASAN: Mo Amer, the special is on Netflix now. Thanks so much for joining us.

AMER: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.