It’s been a long time coming, but Mehdi was finally joined by the acclaimed Palestinian-American comedian Mo Amer for a very special LIVE taping of ‘We’re Not Kidding’ in Mo’s hometown of Houston, Texas. In this wide-ranging, hilarious, and, at times, emotional conversation, the two talk about Mo’s groundbreaking Netflix TV series ‘Mo’, his roots in the Houston comedy scene, and how the past three years of genocide in Gaza has impacted him and his community.
“How hard has the last three years been for you, as a Palestinian public figure?” Mehdi asks.
“I didn’t even think about it as a public figure. This has been my life the whole time,” Mo says. “The last three years have been heightened by 10,000%.”
Mo talks about his family’s background in Palestine and growing up in the melting pot of Houston – the primary inspirations for his Peabody Award-winning series ‘Mo’. Mehdi asks about the series’ truly exceptional second season, which explored ICE detention centers, Israeli cultural appropriation, and even depicts life for persecuted Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“You see Israeli soldiers just brutalizing Palestinians. And I wonder, how did you get that past Netflix?” Mehdi asks. “This is my own personal experience. This is what I told them,” Mo says. “And this is the nicest version I could possibly make.”
Mo also gives Mehdi his unfiltered opinion about another famous Palestinian who has stayed silent on the genocide: DJ Khaled. “It just feels off and so disconnected. It feels like you’re just playing a version of yourself,” Mo says. “I can’t imagine myself constantly being this character. It’s just weird.”
The two also talk about:
Mo’s first American Halloween as a bewildered immigrant child
How Mo got into comedy
Being the first Arab-American to sell out Radio City Music Hall
Whether James Talarico will turn Texas blue
The best places to eat in Houston
And they play a Texas-themed version of ‘This or That’
They also take questions from the audience of 1,500 people in Houston about comedy as resistance, the best ways to support the Palestinian diaspora, and Muslim representation on the stand-up stage.
Free subscribers get a 5-minute preview of the video above while Zeteo’s paid subscribers can watch it in full. You can find previous episodes of ‘We’re Not Kidding’ wherever you get your podcasts.
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