0:00

This episode of Family Trips is brought to

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you by Nissan. Nissan SUVs have the capabilities

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to take your adventure to the next level.

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Learn more at nissanusa.com. Here

0:10

we go. Hi,

0:13

Pashy. Hi, Suvi. I'm

0:15

very excited. I'm going to get

0:17

you out east. It's a rarity. I know. It's a

0:19

rarity to get you to come back home to the

0:22

coast you grew up on.

0:24

It's not that rare, but it's special.

0:27

It's special. You know what? It's special. One

0:29

of the problems is you're a snob, right?

0:31

Like you're a West Coast snob now? Yeah,

0:35

I'm always waving that W. And

0:37

up in the air. You are. Yeah. It

0:39

was coosed. But

0:42

this is very exciting. You're coming out because

0:44

you and I are going to appear at

0:46

On Air Fest. It's a

0:49

podcast festival. And you and I, I think

0:51

our listeners know, have ourselves a podcast. We

0:53

do, but this is going to be our

0:55

first podcast fest. Yeah, this is our first

0:57

fest. And I think it speaks, and I

0:59

want to thank the listeners. You got to

1:01

have a fair amount of listeners before they

1:03

invite you to the fest. So thank you,

1:06

Family Trips listeners. It's going to be at

1:08

the Wyeth Hotel in Brooklyn on March 1st.

1:11

And you guys could go to onairfest.com

1:13

if you want to see us in person. Yeah, it

1:16

should be really fun. It's going to be just

1:18

a conversation with us. And I don't know, I

1:20

can't answer the questions yet because I don't know

1:22

what they are. Right. I hopefully a

1:24

bunch of gotcha questions. I will say one of the

1:27

nice things about seeing us in person is unlike

1:29

the podcast, you know which one of us is

1:31

talking. Yeah. I can't recommend that enough. Right. Unless

1:33

you close your eyes. Don't close your eyes. Here's

1:36

what I'm worried about when I'm talking about

1:38

the snobbiness of you coming east. I'm

1:41

assuming we'll get you to come to

1:43

the slopes with the boys. Oh

1:45

yeah, yeah, yeah. So you'll come skiing with

1:48

the kids. And

1:50

look, it's not a mountain up to

1:52

your standards. But I

1:54

have skied it once last

1:57

year and I loved it. It was so

1:59

fun. Like it's fun for me

2:01

to ski with your little dudes. Yeah.

2:04

And they've taken a real leap, let me just

2:06

say. Yeah. And I also, you

2:08

know, I think I've said this before, but

2:11

your eldest, Ash, insists that

2:13

he goes really fast and

2:15

I just need to be able to keep

2:18

skiing faster than him. He will pass me

2:20

someday. Right. But it ain't

2:22

today. He's seven. So

2:24

I had a really wonderful thing, which

2:26

is Axel's class finishes a half hour

2:28

before Ash's and Axel wanted to

2:31

go skiing with me, which is great. So

2:33

I geared up an expectation to this and

2:35

just going up on the ski lift with him, so much

2:38

fun. We did a couple of runs and

2:40

then we picked up Ash and Ash also

2:42

wanted to do a run with us. So

2:45

now I got both boys so excited to get

2:48

three of us on a ski lift.

2:50

Ash, insistent, he goes on his own lift.

2:53

He does it. He tells me he doesn't want to

2:55

go with us. He knows how to get the bar

2:57

down. I'm like, fine. Me and Axel

2:59

get on. Ash gets on the next one. Pashy

3:02

watching him get the bar down was the

3:04

most terrifying thing I've ever seen. Swear to

3:06

God thought he was gonna fall off and

3:08

just trying to think of how I'd explain

3:11

to Alexei. Well, he said he wanted to

3:13

go alone. Meanwhile, drops one

3:15

of his poles. Everything

3:18

about it was so stressful,

3:21

touch and go. And again, it's why

3:23

I like being

3:26

inside. So

3:30

just promise when you're there, I think hopefully he'll

3:32

be excited enough to be on a lift with

3:34

his uncle, but we're just don't let him go

3:36

solo. Yeah, no, no. I

3:39

feel like there are signs that also say

3:41

don't do that, but you're a big TV

3:43

star. The other problem,

3:45

not a problem, but way home. And

3:49

again, I get the boys to skiing.

3:51

Yeah. And you know

3:54

that I'm married to truly the greatest

3:56

mom I could possibly be married

3:59

to. I get them there, it

4:01

was pouring rain, I got them in their boots,

4:03

their gloves, their hats, they have so much shit

4:05

to put on, I was really proud of myself,

4:08

skiing, and then on the way home, stop

4:11

for hot cocoa. Now

4:13

this is something I've added to the

4:15

day, this was a unilateral decision by

4:17

me to get them cocoa, and

4:19

I say just don't

4:22

spill it all over yourself. I'm

4:24

trying to teach them, and I know I shouldn't

4:26

do this, I'm trying to teach them to hide

4:28

their crimes. Oh yeah, hey. And

4:30

they'd be like, we're gonna get cocoa, just

4:32

don't look like you

4:35

had cocoa. Which is tough

4:37

for a kid. It's tough for a kid. We

4:39

got home, I opened the

4:41

back door, Axel, it looked

4:43

like he murdered a person made

4:45

of chocolate. It looked

4:48

like he stabbed a person made of

4:50

chocolate a thousand times, just all

4:52

over his pants, his shirt, his face,

4:55

his hair. Disaster.

4:59

Oh man. But that almost feels

5:01

like that kid's natural state. Yeah,

5:03

he's gonna be covered in something. He

5:06

is an agent of chaos. Yeah. He's

5:09

a wildling. He's a wildling. His

5:12

teacher said, oh I

5:14

said how did Axel do this week? He said,

5:16

you know Axel loves to ski, and he also

5:18

loves mischief. And we like him

5:21

more when he's focusing on skiing instead of mischief.

5:23

Which I will say, that is a very kind

5:25

piece of feedback to give to a parent when

5:27

what you're really saying is half the time

5:30

your kid's a dickhead. Yeah, do you know

5:32

what this alpine mischief is? Well, it's a great

5:34

question. I said to him, what

5:36

sort of mischief are we talking about? And as

5:39

I said that, Axel said,

5:41

here was your pole, and threw the

5:43

teacher's pole into the woods. Also,

5:51

Axel did a very funny thing. Axel

5:53

is very funny. We're going

5:55

up on the lift, and a dad was

5:57

skiing with his son, and said, good job.

6:00

Leon and Axel said hey and the kid

6:02

looked up an actual waved Adam and I

6:04

said oh is Leon in your class He

6:07

does know I have never met Leon. I

6:09

just heard his name so literally heard the

6:11

dad paul i'm Leon and then just confuse

6:13

the shit out of the kids s E

6:16

R Which Also, when you're skiing, looking up

6:18

at a left takes you away from what

6:20

you should be focusing on. Yeah, even when

6:22

acid almost fallen off the left Acts was

6:25

screaming at him to try to talk to

6:27

him on the live on my stop touching

6:29

her ass. As does not need

6:31

to be distracted right now. Didn't ass

6:34

in a previous week like spill how

6:36

talk at all over himself. Yeah as

6:38

our last week or bus actual game

6:40

marred time about it, he acts of

6:42

the game a hard time. I was

6:44

so Axel didn't spill it acts right.

6:47

Got it all over himself. Axel feels

6:49

like close group. A it axles

6:51

we got home I said or if we

6:53

you have to dump out whatever you have

6:55

left the tampering co go into the house.

6:58

You sisters, They're. No

7:00

one's gonna want her to see that you guys

7:02

had hot chocolate so Axel said i still have

7:04

half a couple after they said or it when

7:07

you get out of a car down but on

7:09

the ground. I. Opened the

7:11

door and he literally to

7:14

is rooted, advocates, essence. Of.

7:21

Out of at it like out of anger. Know this

7:23

is when a fix. This is the solution. He was

7:25

trying to dump it on the ground but I was

7:27

just standing right there. But I said why couldn't you

7:29

just wait. And his assistant

7:31

as. A cell funny

7:34

because he's very literal but then also eighty

7:36

five percent of the time he ignores the

7:38

little ones who sang. so yeah well I

7:40

can't wait to see him with record of

7:42

it out there for on every about him.

7:44

Hey why we had this is one of

7:47

my favorites that you're about to listen to.

7:49

The and again a I love

7:51

them all but Memo Amor has

7:53

as unique as story as anyone

7:55

or we've talked to on the

7:57

spot. Absolutely yeah. Like.

8:00

Journey from Miami where he started

8:02

to raise awareness. Got now and

8:04

not enough. he's got stand up

8:06

specials on Netflix. He's got his

8:08

show mo on Netflix. Season two

8:10

about come out but where he

8:12

started to where he is is

8:14

that is kind of crazy. You

8:16

know a lotta times a year

8:18

we talk about family trips as.

8:21

Optional things people do. A lot

8:23

of most family trips were due

8:25

to geo circumstances and yup he

8:27

has a great appreciation for his

8:29

parents and how they are a

8:31

to tear him in his his

8:33

siblings. So it's a it's a

8:36

great story. He's. A great

8:38

chat and go to.

8:40

On our first or com if you want to

8:43

see us in Brooklyn and listen to Jeff Tweedy,

8:45

he's got a few things to say. the of

8:47

my Santa's little familiar but always beautiful. Ah

9:12

A d we you

9:14

we go. Now

9:17

are you. Man. Very size

9:19

as Josh I'm I'm just on my

9:21

phone I can't see it. I got

9:23

technical difficulties is escaping mogi would as

9:26

this goes way back in time to

9:28

send the saddle think I'm on Skype

9:30

I think I'm just and zoom audio

9:32

but maybe there are there mimicking the

9:34

the sky bike on. Every time

9:36

you talk we say green phone. anyway. most

9:38

since we've been lucky enough to me and

9:40

you haven't met my brother, I would just

9:43

tell you he looks exactly like me. by

9:45

fifteen percent hands. I'm out of it, Sounds

9:47

just like you. Yeah, he does sound just

9:49

like me. This actually the easiest because you'll

9:51

be able to tell who's talking because it's

9:53

either of my face or a green phone

9:55

icon. You know if he starts has just

9:57

are speaking it almost sounds like your subconscious

9:59

distorted. He

10:04

switched it up. Yeah, Ah we. I

10:06

wish I was a little bit taller.

10:09

And. I wish you know and I now

10:11

wish I could sleep better vs wishes

10:13

or video made comparing our meals. The

10:15

great isn't great sleeper phenomenal sleeper are

10:18

you have you always been a great

10:20

sleeper? I am when I do sleep

10:22

you know whenever it's time for bet

10:24

when every time the I am a

10:26

sleeper for sure I'm up like I'll

10:28

work or I'll hit it twenty hours

10:30

but when it's time it's over in

10:32

I'll see you see on the flipside

10:34

you sake be they will smack you

10:36

know know am still sleeping and still

10:38

doing nothing. As if I'm an

10:41

exceptional sleeper. I've always been an

10:43

exceptional sleeper. Same thing, especially my

10:45

ass and I'll years would work

10:47

twenty. It. Out twenty thirty hours

10:49

straight and then just conk out. And

10:52

I am married to a woman who was

10:54

a terrible sleeper and I think it might

10:56

be the hardest thing about our relationship. As

10:59

if I as so much as rollover. I've.

11:02

Ruined her entire evening. Whereas.

11:04

Seated she could make eggs at the foot of

11:06

the bad night when wake up. To. So

11:08

funny because my ex wife is

11:11

like this and and I just

11:13

got remarried recently and I said

11:15

to myself. That's. Than of what

11:17

they are you sleep in a d sleep

11:20

well as much as you restart my we

11:22

said the much I do that I'm just

11:24

saying he has a smile on his own

11:26

sits I have to say like i I

11:28

yeah we we both sleep exceptionally well so

11:31

amount of walk around the entire what him

11:33

and made her alarm was blaring in the

11:35

house I didn't know she had set the

11:37

alarm and the houses got sick of know

11:39

but way grub. I just had a baby

11:42

he said be weeks and weeks because I

11:44

was just like oh my god of booze

11:46

probably. Open season at are not still warm

11:48

and I ran in there and sees. Sound.

11:51

Asleep my baby. So seekers are both

11:53

essentials sleepers so the them the baby,

11:55

pass it on with the babies and

11:58

and I'm just about to watch. The

12:00

restroom and on the hardware for the just

12:02

went see and she woke up like I

12:04

be able. the your psycho would have asked

12:06

his habits. you know the entire house. There's

12:08

fire trucks outside where where he just slept

12:10

through all that but the squeeze norm of

12:13

war is what got you. I don't know

12:15

what it is but I'm the same way.

12:17

It could be like something I feel threatened

12:19

or somebody is around our wake up. It's

12:21

very interesting and are you eight hours? Do

12:23

you think you typically get eight hours a

12:25

night Or can you go Like long as

12:28

our parents right now our parents have turned.

12:30

Into people who can sleep like ten

12:32

eleven hours a night which is weird

12:34

but there are people who can do

12:36

that were you at now? I can

12:38

do tonal of hours or if I

12:40

do ten eleven hours the means I

12:42

stayed up deliberately for really want like

12:44

I'm in preproduction for my shower a

12:46

now some trying to get as much

12:48

rest as possible gearing up for the

12:50

actual production of at all. So and

12:52

those are like you know, a great

12:54

easy days like twelve to fourteen hours

12:56

a year, a such a short day

12:58

and also I'm just stuck. On a

13:00

building up to that is sleeping early,

13:02

waking up super early going to work

13:04

out, and I'm doing this experiment myself.

13:07

Tennessee how much how much weight and

13:09

chiseled I can get before March Fourth

13:11

I got Cst workouts are our March

13:13

Fourth right now I'm I'm worried almost

13:15

thirty work out. same ever gonna do

13:17

another fifty which I don't know how

13:19

are going to do that and I

13:21

wake up on Mondays crying. Usually that

13:24

I have to restart the whole week

13:26

to the six days a week work

13:28

out six days a week and. This

13:30

week. we're flipping to eight workouts this

13:32

week and so I'm just you know,

13:34

when? Saturday thousand like. So excited that

13:37

I made it through it. And then

13:39

Sunday. Is the only off day

13:41

and and mario I could not going to do

13:43

this again. Why? I've

13:45

ever had like that this my work era

13:47

or is this a whole new thing? Know

13:50

had have had some boxing years like. In

13:52

my early twenties and I just love martial

13:55

arts and I did that in my teens

13:57

and then I just. Love. Box

13:59

A. I'm a huge Obama early as

14:01

users brazen for me and and for

14:03

so many people as you know, but

14:05

I I just loved technique and I

14:07

love boxing so I did that. Fucking.

14:10

Good for five years. I like straight

14:12

and I was just a monster for

14:15

a long time and in the career

14:17

took off south tour and most of

14:19

the time and you're lazy. fall back

14:21

into really bad traps and you know

14:23

stuff can sneak up on you. And

14:25

and is Sharon how did for me

14:28

in Iowa and to assist assist or

14:30

a bummer and so the longer you

14:32

wait the sadness continues to build up

14:34

like what I let myself do this

14:36

and actually my friend Toby and we

14:38

way who Grammy now. Ours is

14:40

my costarring the show. He calls me

14:43

up all the time is like mode

14:45

to be a fat genius. You know

14:47

you can't beat it. His: it's funny.

14:50

he's my best friend. Diseases rice is

14:52

always motivating me. Site: he just can't

14:54

be. You can't be a genius loser

14:56

like you can't let. Every morning wakes

14:59

me up and sweating and he's just

15:01

so viel. He's. Just an athlete

15:03

and like and I my you're right, you're

15:05

right. So I started going to the side

15:08

gym call kengo which is. A.

15:10

Whole nother situation. Solomon I love

15:12

and sound like a gym where

15:15

there's no nonsense. I one summer

15:17

I train with a boxing instructor

15:19

and I realized it wasn't for

15:21

me when he. He. Kept

15:24

calling my jabs angel

15:26

kisses. Ah. Oh

15:33

well in front of other people I said

15:35

that I got angel kiss right Omaha curb

15:37

the ground between. It wasn't even like right

15:39

on the nose right here you sort of

15:41

him. He was one of the traitors there

15:44

and I was sparring a time and he

15:46

was like the last sparring session a him

15:48

he like rain here and I had a

15:50

mole time. I was like really can my

15:52

doesn't don't break in the right here yellow

15:55

angel kiss right there Any was such a

15:57

weird Lucky's oh my eyes. When.

15:59

Blurry my the watery are you know where

16:01

he was uses beat the snot out of

16:03

me that I felt. Like. I was

16:05

potato head I can detach my nose.

16:07

moved to the right left. I was

16:09

just the most painful thing. I'm account

16:12

media. the film I do is dumb.

16:14

So dumb like his. I was on

16:16

stage and some reason a mega hit

16:18

my nose or something and it just

16:20

felt like. I died as a

16:22

good the last time as I think was

16:24

like quit of the gown. Need this? Let's

16:27

try to go when the golden Gloves to

16:29

become a pro boxer. I'm a i'm a

16:31

comedian miss when I do. okay I learned

16:33

enough. Thank you Nama Stay whatever you say

16:35

when you exit the gym. Amount so intense

16:37

as well as five it was over for

16:40

me. As love for me

16:42

I did Taekwondo for a little while

16:44

and there was always a sparring day

16:46

and my master master park with like

16:48

let's by spar with me today and

16:50

as I got a great and and

16:52

taekwondo you were like a mask that

16:54

sort of as a cage over your

16:56

face and then there's padding that sort

16:58

of circles your face and unit that

17:00

cage and my say saw many times

17:02

that I had a bruise like an

17:04

oval bruise going from my forehead done

17:06

both my cheeks and tell my chin

17:08

and die yeah he really he really

17:10

to me. Up. But. A lot

17:12

of respects lot of respect near

17:14

him. attack window teacher. I slap

17:16

me with his foot once I

17:18

sat there and it was so

17:20

it's control behind his. I pick

17:22

a like okay is a five

17:24

foot four maybe. In

17:27

the lab Me my own like you know

17:29

is so smillie a cease and desist would

17:31

those Taekwondo teachers You'll think that your your

17:33

guards up a new you're doing the best

17:35

you can get your hands up and your

17:37

elbows in and then they'll find that spot

17:40

where you're not protected and now hit you

17:42

in it just to be like you're not

17:44

as well protect his you think you are

17:46

and it's It's a good to good wake

17:48

up call know i he hit me in

17:50

slow motion one time as a fake sorters

17:53

doing that cause takes in and okay block

17:55

by block black box as where. Do you

17:57

like this? This slow block walk? Black black, The

18:00

right for our how Did I miss that? The

18:03

guy just whisked completely. You're going an ultra

18:05

slow motion. The take away from this conversation

18:07

so far as if you're ever with a

18:10

comedian who tells you they're trained in boxing

18:12

or martial arts and you get attacked, He

18:14

is still fucked. Is the A: He's a

18:16

suspect that they cannot protect you. You're

18:19

getting ready for season two Amount?

18:21

yep down currently in preproduction reign

18:23

of I'd say this is a

18:25

fantastic autobiographical so you're also great

18:27

in Rami which is saying are

18:29

also great autobiographical Sell em What

18:31

I loved by Bozos in What

18:33

I'm very excited talk to about

18:35

today. Very. Different backgrounds

18:38

than Josh and I and

18:40

your story is incredible. You.

18:42

Were born in Kuwait. And.

18:45

Your nine years old when you moved to Houston

18:47

is our Rights group. Yeah, yeah. And

18:50

so early life before you get to

18:52

Houston and your family lives in Kuwait

18:54

where he taken family trips and and

18:56

what were those lights? Yes,

18:59

Funny though, because is? A

19:02

vacation that always reference because like

19:04

the last time. Any.

19:06

Semblance of like. Effect.

19:08

Real family vacation. and when you have

19:10

to like leave something such as heavy

19:13

as the Gulf War and just family

19:15

troops are like the last thing you

19:17

know who he's as we should we

19:20

do this summer survives. You're not more

19:22

embarrassing. The we

19:24

had we had of this particular

19:26

vacation we give foreshadowed my entire

19:29

futures. Really, really something that I

19:31

just discovered a few years ago

19:33

how impactful it was Went to

19:35

Egypt. it was my

19:37

mother father and my brother

19:39

and myself we went to

19:42

cairo amazing experience going there

19:44

but it was the first

19:46

time i saw live performance

19:48

is well my father took

19:50

us to a great play

19:52

called would say the say

19:54

that which is led by

19:56

this just icon of a

19:58

comedian comedic actor Adelie Amem,

20:00

which I was like seven years old at

20:02

the time. I didn't even understand how

20:05

impactful it was to me, but I was laughing so hard.

20:07

My mother's looking at me like, how do you even understand

20:09

any of this? I was like, no,

20:11

I get it. I just understood the physicality

20:14

and the emotion behind it. And I

20:16

just thought it was

20:18

like wildly entertaining. And I

20:20

just, something there definitely struck

20:23

me in that situation. And

20:25

then from there we went to like Mango Island and

20:27

there was like a whole, what

20:29

is Mango Island? There's an entire island

20:32

that's just dedicated to mangoes?

20:34

Like I wanna live here.

20:36

Please leave me under this tree. Leave

20:39

me family. It's been a good run. I

20:41

love you, yes, but you must leave me here because

20:44

mango is the greatest fruit in my opinion of

20:46

all time. Was Mango Island truly a

20:48

full island just dedicated to mangoes? Was

20:50

it? It was all mango trees. The

20:53

entire thing was just like

20:55

a small, it's probably

20:57

like super tiny, but I was seven. So

20:59

it was glorious. It was

21:02

stumbling along the pyramids. It was just like,

21:04

oh yeah, pyramids are nice. Leave me here

21:06

at Mango Island. Like that's all I really

21:08

cared about. And my father

21:10

may rest if he passed away in 95, but

21:13

my father always wore suits like every

21:15

day. It doesn't matter. The beach, it's

21:18

a suit. He's rolling up his

21:21

slacks and he's walking in the ocean.

21:23

He never left the house without

21:25

a suit and tie. At the very least, a

21:27

tall button up with a jacket. Didn't matter what

21:29

time of day it was and what time of

21:32

year it was. If we're going to

21:34

a baseball game, it's always that. And seeing all my

21:36

father in a suit and tie on a horse, horseback

21:39

a lot there through

21:41

the pyramids, it's just so funny.

21:43

All the pictures of him is in a

21:45

suit and tie. This is a vacation, but

21:48

no, you always have to be presentable. And

21:50

that's just the way he rolled. And there

21:53

was this picture that I, man,

21:56

it's just ingrained in me. I'm

21:58

holding this VHS camera. You

22:00

know the old VHS cameras you hold over your

22:03

shoulder and you just have to

22:05

peek through the film and you got to stay real

22:07

stable to get anything good out of it. I'm holding

22:09

it in my left hand and my mom and

22:11

my brother are next to me and there's

22:13

a man standing behind me has his hands

22:15

on me like this. He's taking a

22:17

picture. I have no clue who this person is. It

22:20

turns out to be his name is

22:22

Yousaf Idris who is like an iconic

22:25

playwright, screenwriter, like

22:28

one of the most prolific guys

22:31

ever in the region. Like

22:33

he's that guy and I'm holding this

22:35

camera and I have my mom and

22:37

my brother next to me who are

22:39

the leads of my show today and

22:41

I have this video camera left hand

22:43

side with this iconic playwright and screenwriter

22:45

holding hands on my shoulders and

22:47

I'm wearing a shirt that no

22:49

one monitored. Okay. We

22:52

were swimming so much on this family vacation

22:54

that I ran

22:56

out of clothes and I think my mom

22:58

just went down to some crappy

23:01

tourist shop and just like reached in

23:03

one of those baskets like three shirts

23:05

for 10 bucks kind of thing and

23:07

she just reached in and grabbed these shirts. I'm

23:10

wearing a US military recruitment

23:12

shirt that says

23:15

join the forces, kill.

23:19

Like what in the world is

23:21

this shirt? And

23:24

two years later, the war happened.

23:27

And then four years later, I started doing

23:29

standup comedy as a little 13 year old

23:31

and you know,

23:33

25 years after that, I have my

23:35

own series where my mom, my brother and lead.

23:38

Now this video camera I thought, you know,

23:40

was gone forever. So I was touring in

23:42

the Middle East. I look at my manager.

23:44

I'm it's like whenever I

23:46

tour the Middle East, it's not just

23:49

touring the Middle East. I'm doing arenas.

23:51

It's like just imagining this small kid

23:53

that left Kuwait for Houston and then

23:55

comes back all these years later and

23:57

they're like building theaters for me to

23:59

perform. And it's just really surreal.

24:01

So it's deeply emotional. So I'm

24:04

really reflective every time I go

24:06

back And I'm looking my phone and looking at

24:08

that picture and I still didn't even realize what kind of

24:10

shirt I was wearing until then I was like, I was

24:12

like stop. Oh man. It was like look what the hell

24:15

I'm wearing Nobody monitored this shirt.

24:17

This is so absurd and I look at

24:19

the video camera and I go man. I

24:22

Wish I knew what happened to his video cameras

24:24

been like 30 years at this point. It's probably

24:27

gone Just two days. All right two

24:29

days later. I'm gonna mine Jordan. I'm

24:31

in my aunt's house Just

24:34

ate a really dense dish and we're

24:36

just like everybody's falling asleep Like literally

24:38

everyone is just passing out and I

24:40

hear my aunt Almost

24:42

like in slow motion like world feral

24:44

and old school or go to real

24:46

care before you know I She

24:54

leaves like 75 is real heavy She

24:56

comes back and she has the video

24:58

camera that I was referencing two days

25:00

prior in her hand And I

25:03

couldn't believe it and then

25:05

my cousin walks in with all these

25:07

plastic bags full of VHS tapes And

25:10

I was like, no way Sure

25:12

enough the cameras are mint condition that night back

25:15

at the hotel I'm like, I'm gonna so curious

25:17

to see if it works or plug it in

25:20

Start sticking VHS tapes in there You know, I got

25:22

to look in the viewfinder to see what the hell

25:24

you're watching The first video

25:26

is Michael Jackson concert like well, it's the 80s.

25:28

Michael Jackson was very popular put it back in

25:31

Oh another Michael's ex concert really love Michael

25:33

Jackson. Next one is a family

25:35

There's some kind of party going on I recognize

25:37

some of the people but I don't recognize the

25:39

house and I'm just desperate to see my dad

25:42

because I've never I don't have any video footage

25:44

of my father at that point and Five

25:48

minutes later he walks into the screens like

25:50

the life of the parties taking portraits of

25:52

everyone. He was the most unbelievable

25:56

Thing and I ended up on earth thing like

25:59

oh my god, I think it was like 15 VHS

26:01

tapes and some of that footage

26:03

was from that family vacation into

26:06

Egypt. It was unbelievable. I

26:09

couldn't believe it. It's in mint

26:11

condition. This baby right here.

26:13

Wow. Look at that. Wow.

26:16

Look at this baby. It's for

26:18

sale. We'll be on eBay next week after this

26:21

documentary next year. That's real good. Isn't that crazy?

26:23

You mentioned your dad wearing a suit and so in

26:26

my head I thought, oh, he must be a serious

26:28

cat, but then you also said he was the life

26:30

of the party. He is. Were you

26:32

close? Was he a fun guy to be

26:34

around? Super fun guy, like really, really entertaining.

26:37

He loved poetry. He loved literature. He loved

26:39

the arts in general. He was

26:41

a telecommunications engineer, so he was always hip

26:44

to the latest technology, you

26:47

know, as far as cameras, lenses,

26:50

any kind of tech, televisions. He was

26:52

on it. And his office

26:54

at the house was just him

26:57

tinkering with different technology of that

27:00

day. Like he would

27:02

dissect it, open it up and understand it

27:04

inside and out. He was actually pivotal in

27:06

building the first radio station in Kuwait. His

27:09

entire team was the ones

27:11

that helped create wireless communication

27:13

between oil rigs. He's

27:16

a really, really brilliant dude. He's also very serious.

27:18

You know, at times the dad always has

27:21

that, yeah, he wants to raise

27:23

a man, you know, like that kind

27:25

of energy, but really, really sweet, super

27:27

fun, just an entertaining guy and

27:30

constantly the life of the party. And one

27:32

of those VHS tapes actually on earth was,

27:34

it was like 2 a.m., everybody's sitting around

27:37

and he had like two poets there and

27:39

they were reciting poetry in the house. And

27:41

I was up, like just excited to be

27:44

part of the fun and mom serving fruit. He

27:48

was a really lively guy and he was

27:50

all about traveling and took my mom everywhere,

27:52

you know, whenever he could. It was six of us.

27:55

So two of my brothers were studying here in the

27:57

States and my brother and

27:59

I and my sister. were in Kuwait still.

28:01

Wow. So this is before the Gulf

28:03

War you have two of

28:06

your siblings are studying the state. Was

28:08

Western culture at all a part of

28:10

your upbringing? Was that something you

28:12

were aware of before Houston? Listen,

28:14

the only thing I was aware of

28:17

was moonlighting. Okay, because my sisters were

28:19

obsessed with moonlighting. Yeah, music was a

28:27

big part of it. You know, yeah, absolutely.

28:29

I mean, Western culture was, was absolutely

28:31

spreading well there. And it was all these lights and

28:33

all these different shows that would come in to Kuwait.

28:36

But at that point, I was so young and I

28:38

was outside kid, I was constantly

28:40

outside with my friends playing

28:42

sports, I would just leave like

28:44

my mom would tell me I was so worried you

28:47

would be I was like five years old, I would

28:49

just leave and come back like after dinner. I didn't

28:51

know where you were. And it

28:53

was it's super safe in Kuwait. It's not

28:55

like the same concerns you ever is so

28:57

safe. And it's very, very

28:59

different experience when I first played it

29:01

here. Where

29:04

am I? It was

29:06

really, really a massive contrast for me. And

29:09

like, nobody told me what Halloween was like,

29:11

when I showed up to the States, it

29:13

was like two days before Halloween happened. And

29:16

I've never seen anything like this. And then

29:18

Halloween happened. I was like, Oh my god,

29:20

what is just freaking

29:22

out. And I've, you know, it

29:24

was one of those. Yeah, it feels like

29:26

we should put a warning out about Halloween

29:29

to people that are moving over here. Well,

29:31

I landed like two days before it and

29:33

then Halloween happened like, Whoa, what is this

29:35

America's dark, man? Like this is the year

29:38

nine. So everything is so much bigger. Right?

29:40

Everything is so grand. When you see it,

29:42

it's like skeletons everywhere. The eyes

29:45

are hanging out. There's like blood coming off

29:47

their face. I just came for more. Don't

29:49

do this. I'm triggered. Very triggered. It wasn't

29:51

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USA, Inc. Some restrictions

33:10

may apply. I

33:15

mean, obviously you're leaving for the worst possible

33:17

reason, but also you're at an age where

33:20

it's also probably scary to make a move

33:22

like that, even if it was for a

33:24

less awful reason. What was

33:26

in your head? How had it been described to the

33:28

kids, like what was about to happen with this move

33:30

to Houston? Well, here's the thing

33:32

about Arabs. We don't communicate to our children. You

33:34

know, we don't tell them anything. You just be

33:37

like, hey, everything's going to be fine. And

33:39

they hold everything in. Our parents protect us

33:41

from everything and they just put it right

33:43

in there. And then it comes out about

33:46

20 years later when they tell you everything. But

33:49

it was, that's usually

33:51

how it works in our culture. No,

33:54

it was very clear that the plan was to come here to Houston. We're

34:00

starting to lie for obvious reasons and

34:02

butter was go through. My mind is

34:04

honestly like I didn't want. My mom

34:06

actually went back to Kuwait and dealt

34:08

with much much worse circumstances that I

34:10

did so she's such a soldier in

34:12

that way like a couldn't believe you

34:14

know what she actually went through and

34:16

dad put herself through to make sure

34:18

that her kids were safe was see

34:20

such a hero of mine for that

34:22

and when I guess is used him

34:24

he knows a lot has changed so

34:26

i just it's a everyone was close

34:28

to each other my. Family's are all

34:31

next to each other Mongols three houses

34:33

down My answer My cousins of their

34:35

my you know to just unearthing he

34:37

starting something completely new and it's really

34:39

a testament to use in Houston is

34:41

such a special and unique place. It

34:43

doesn't get the credit he deserves and

34:46

that's why I wanted to sell my

34:48

series year. So badly because

34:50

it's such a diverse place and immediately makes

34:52

you feel at home and the friends that

34:54

I've made when I first arrived to useless

34:56

to my friends to this day we're We're

34:58

very very close as see them as much

35:00

as possible and and as the kind of

35:03

community does he the most fourth largest city

35:05

they call it a H Town Racers feels

35:07

like a small town in a village in

35:09

some way so that really helped a lot

35:11

of it and the rest of it was

35:13

like the social care of you know understanding

35:16

what's cool with my cool. Getting in the

35:18

fourth grade it is walking. Where I

35:20

went to a private browsing the

35:22

school wait while I was learning

35:24

multiple languages and almost i like

35:26

pre algebraic formula isn't a good

35:28

here and a curriculum exists. they're

35:31

still doing. Just. Addition

35:33

here early. I couldn't imagine us

35:35

and who's throw me off and

35:37

is t side dragged me to

35:39

the bathroom because bloody Mary's going

35:41

to appear in the mirror if

35:43

they say I'm a writer named

35:45

my boy doing America enough. why

35:48

these cited some honestly tannic

35:51

being an american almost invincible

35:53

as those it was is

35:55

really really tough boiled potatoes

35:57

first couple years really really

35:59

tough just trying to acclimate to

36:01

what was going on with the kids here in

36:03

the schools. I was just really worried about their

36:05

futures. I was more worried about them than I

36:07

was myself. Oh man, I was

36:10

like, guys, guys, guys, let's bring them back together. Let's

36:12

just bring them back together. Yeah, you're messed up. Yeah,

36:15

you're really messed up here. You had a British accent

36:17

too, didn't you, Moe, when you came over? I

36:20

had a hint of a British accent because I

36:22

learned British English, so it was all like, you

36:24

know, pardon, you know, I would say things like

36:26

that. Yeah, pardon me,

36:28

pardon, pardon me. Yeah, so not

36:31

only were you doing algebra, but

36:33

yeah, you're also sounding more erudite

36:36

than I imagined the kids would be. Let

36:38

me tell you something. Nothing gets you smacked

36:40

faster in fourth grade in Houston than saying

36:42

pardon me. That will get

36:44

you a good smack, let me

36:46

tell you. And the one

36:49

thing that made me cool immediately is I could

36:51

throw a football like nobody's business. And when it was

36:53

like that, I was like, oh, the

36:55

foreign kid is really, really talented. Was

36:58

that just something that came to you naturally? You

37:00

weren't throwing a football around in Kuwait, were you?

37:02

No, I was throwing, it was funny because we

37:05

would play football with a soccer ball sometimes

37:07

just as a, like, yeah, let's try this. And

37:10

my brother would show me this, like, oh, and so

37:12

when he would leave and go back to college, me

37:14

and the guys were like, oh, this is what they

37:16

do watch, you know, and we would just throw an

37:18

actual soccer ball as a football. But we

37:21

weren't really playing that way. I think my brother brought me

37:23

one at some point, but it was just, I was a

37:25

natural at it right out of the gate. I could just

37:27

zip that thing, man. I could just throw it. I

37:29

was throwing like 50, 60 yards in like eighth

37:32

grade. They'll look the other way at a lot of weird

37:34

stuff in Texas if you can throw a football. I

37:36

mean, you know what I mean? They've ignored

37:38

worse than pardon me in a British accent

37:40

if it keeps you from throwing a football.

37:42

Exactly, exactly. Oh, it changed immediately. When I

37:44

was good at sports, it was like, oh,

37:46

okay. He's one of us, y'all. Come on in,

37:48

man. Come on. It was

37:51

like that my gym teachers would always like, clearly they

37:53

were looking for a quarterback in like seventh grade. He

37:55

was like, we're going to put a cone out there.

37:58

All right. All right. get in line,

38:00

let's see who can throw the football close to the

38:02

count. And it comes about 50 yards away. They throw

38:04

it three yards off, four yards off, six yards off.

38:06

I mean, that's this six yards off and you do

38:09

50 yards and you do it 44 yards. You get

38:11

it? All right.

38:13

Come on. Everybody just throwing shitty balls. And

38:15

then I threw the hell out of it.

38:18

It was like two yards off the cone. He was

38:20

like, hey, boy, throw that. Everybody got there. And we

38:22

talked to you for a second. But like all of

38:24

a sudden became a meeting. You thought about playing football,

38:26

you know? I was like, yeah,

38:28

sure, I'll do that. Yeah, I can do

38:30

that. So did you

38:33

play? Did you play in high school? Yeah, no,

38:35

I didn't play in high school. I played in

38:37

middle school. I had aspirations to.

38:39

But everything changed, shifted for me dramatically

38:41

in ninth grade with my father

38:43

passing. I just didn't care anymore. You know,

38:45

I didn't care about school. I

38:48

didn't care about anything. I was skipping school. I

38:50

was living like Ferris Bueller's Day off regularly. Like

38:53

I was I was just a really

38:55

adventurous kid. And then my teacher, my

38:57

English teacher, is the one who I would tell everybody, like, I'm

38:59

going to be a comedian anyway. I hate

39:01

this place. Like, I just hated everything, which is natural

39:03

for a 14 year old to go through so

39:06

much turmoil in such a short period

39:08

of time. And she reigned it in

39:10

for me and she said, look, if

39:12

you stop skipping, I'll allow

39:14

you to stand up every Friday in class. I

39:17

was like, I'm game. I was like, that sounds like

39:19

a great deal. And I was

39:21

like, can I freestyle something today? Because the

39:23

first line actually said, how would your father

39:25

feel if you don't graduate? I started crying.

39:27

I was like, it's a cold shot, Mrs.

39:30

Reed. It was really hurts. And

39:32

and she said, yeah, you can do something

39:35

today. I was like, as long

39:37

as you can incorporate something from Shakespeare, because that's

39:39

what we're studying. I was like, OK, yeah. So

39:41

I went up in front of the class with

39:43

the book in my hand and started freestyling with

39:45

Beth and kids were laughing. I

39:47

was hooked, man. It was over. I was

39:49

like, can I come in tomorrow and do my own

39:51

set? She was like, yeah. So I wrote a whole

39:53

set. Came in the next day, did the set. And

39:56

then she let me do it every week. And

39:59

then by week three. She took me repeat.

40:01

Arts department choose like was and this

40:03

kids like walk it is doing like

40:05

he's though I think eight different accents

40:07

and it's really funny of the content

40:09

that I've never heard of before like

40:11

I think he belongs in here. Amis

40:13

cries victim and I looked at maybe

40:15

I do be in Atlanta. And.

40:18

That's it from there I just saw

40:20

that really rely my focus and gave

40:22

me something look forward to him and

40:24

I started getting like leads and musical

40:26

theater and am not saying I'm psyched

40:28

doing that and played so to listen

40:30

to fighting have him away the forum

40:33

which is easily transform allies I love

40:35

Zero Mostel was introduced alec it is.

40:37

I just started learning so much graduate

40:39

with honors because of her. That's amazing

40:41

Change my life. I failed ninth grade

40:43

because I just didn't go to school

40:45

and and I caught up so fast.

40:48

Because of so excited about see

40:50

Hundred and mob Love Chris Farley

40:52

so that's one thing I would

40:54

do is I would were lower

40:56

jackets and I would go roast

40:58

kids as Chris Farley in lower

41:00

jag and with an hour. So

41:02

good at it that my Spanish

41:04

teacher see to defend got me

41:06

out of other classes are busy

41:08

got to skip with permission. And

41:10

I have like four shows that day. Is

41:13

roasting other Spanish classes this? yeah jews

41:15

are you have to do a it's

41:17

a right to say I was like

41:19

the So Good she has. If you

41:21

can incorporate Spanish or give you extra

41:24

credit of like okay I figured out

41:26

in I'll just totally winging it and

41:28

I borrowed jacket from theater arts department

41:30

and up ripping it. By. Accident

41:32

said it's a really killed at that

41:34

moment Is it really? It really was

41:36

spontaneous and dogs as roasting his out.

41:39

Just how sad this reputation that was.

41:41

Do stand up and class regularly and

41:43

I would be you know with permission

41:45

lab skip other classes to come do

41:47

standup organisms doing multiple shows. Decent Obviously

41:49

a teacher think this is a good

41:51

idea. How. Did your family

41:53

respond to what obviously was aghast

41:56

and with obviously working with the

41:58

other students with this. something that

42:00

your mom was supportive of? Oh, immediately.

42:02

And she drove me to the clubs

42:04

when I was known she didn't. No,

42:06

she absolutely didn't understand it. Standup comedy

42:08

is an indigenous art form in America.

42:10

I think there's two more. I think

42:12

it's jazz and hip hop and standup,

42:14

right? So jazz has spread

42:17

throughout the planet many, many years ago. Hip

42:19

hop didn't really get there quite yet. And that

42:22

was something I was introduced to. And so standup.

42:25

So those two things became a big

42:27

part of my life. My mom didn't really understand

42:29

it. And then I come from a highly educated

42:31

family, education's first. And so she didn't

42:33

see the correlation. Like you had to be smart to

42:35

be a great standup. Can't just be a great standup

42:37

and be just an idiot. You really very,

42:39

very hard to do it. And she never really understood

42:42

the art form itself and where it could take

42:44

you. And so no, she was

42:46

completely against it. Didn't understand

42:48

it. She would constantly try to

42:50

get me not to because I would get in my Toyota

42:52

camera and I would drive like 10 hours just to get

42:54

into a club. Then they were paying me like

42:56

75 bucks to do a feature spot.

42:59

So I can come back and headline for like 300. You

43:01

know what I mean? So it was one of those types

43:03

of situations. She was like, how much are you making? I'm

43:05

like, oh, I'm making 500 bucks. And

43:08

she'd be like, I'll give you 500 bucks

43:10

not to go. I was

43:13

like, I'm really just making a hundred bucks. I'm lying already.

43:15

And she was like, well, I want to see the money

43:17

when you come back. I was like, oh shit. I

43:19

was 17. You know? I

43:21

would drive back. I was

43:24

sneaking into a casino in New Orleans

43:26

and no, and it was

43:28

Lake Charles, excuse me, right

43:31

there on the border of Texas on the way back from

43:33

Arkansas. I would stop there. I would

43:35

sneak in there. And what I would do is

43:37

I would wear nurses scrubs, but I'd

43:39

wear only the top and like put

43:41

on an athletic bottom. So it looks like it just got off

43:43

of work. So nobody would ID

43:45

me. And I would go in and I would

43:48

sit, play poker and I would just wait for

43:50

the greatest hand possible. And I would go all

43:52

in, double, do it again, wait

43:54

another hour or two, go all in. Meanwhile,

43:56

I'm like driving overnight to get to that

43:59

final number. I was like, okay, good.

44:01

I have like 450 bucks. I just

44:03

say I bought lunch and gas and just

44:05

make up excuses. I would go home and

44:07

be like, see? She's like, I don't care.

44:10

I don't care. It's not good enough. Then

44:13

that actually drove me to a whole other

44:15

level. It made me so

44:17

focused where other guys that were

44:19

starting were about

44:21

the fantasy, not really about the work.

44:25

So it really put me in a different mindset.

44:27

So I'm really, really grateful for that. I think

44:29

when my mom saw me at Radio City Music

44:32

Hall with Dave, it was a Chappelle show and

44:35

I think it was Lauren Hill was there that

44:37

night. She was performing. She saw me

44:39

working that night. That's when I really hit her.

44:42

I hit different levels with her and

44:44

then the special taping, of course. But

44:46

just to put it in perspective, my

44:48

mom watches news and game shows. That's

44:50

it. It's all she does. There was

44:53

a picture, I think we're in

44:55

Abu Dhabi of Formula One. It was

44:57

like Chappelle, Haddish,

45:00

Rock, Chris Tucker. I

45:02

mean, he was like full of legends, Will Smith. And

45:05

then Steve Harvey. She looked at that picture.

45:07

She goes, oh, Steve Harvey.

45:11

My son really made it. My son really made

45:13

it. But now, yeah,

45:16

just like it was like about a year ago,

45:18

we're in the car and she was

45:20

like, remember all those nights you would come home at two, three

45:23

o'clock in the morning? I was so worried

45:25

you're up to no good, but you had this whole

45:27

vision for yourself that I couldn't see.

45:29

And you would laugh at me. I didn't understand. And

45:32

you had this clear vision for yourself. I was so

45:34

proud of you. I was so proud that you didn't

45:36

listen to me. I'm so proud that you stuck with

45:38

it. I

45:40

was like the greatest moment.

45:44

It was really, really sweet. I mean, I have to

45:46

imagine the very fact that you had the sort of

45:48

family where poets would come over to the

45:51

house. It's different, obviously, but

45:53

the idea of writing and performing, it did seem

45:55

like that was valued. I have to imagine your

45:57

dad would just be so incredibly proud at what.

46:00

you've accomplished. Oh, might I be blown away?

46:02

He wouldn't even believe it. He couldn't even,

46:04

he would be like, maybe

46:07

he would have. He was such an intuitive and

46:09

inventive guy. Maybe he would have, but he's

46:12

a special guy. He's a real special guy. Hey, we're

46:14

going to take a quick break and hear from some

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of our sponsors. Family Trips

46:18

is sponsored by BetterHelp. Hey, Pashy. Yes,

46:21

Sufi. You know, my favorite thing about

46:23

this podcast is we

46:25

get to talk and I like talking to

46:27

you. And without this podcast,

46:30

I feel we would talk less. And

46:32

I think a lot of people in

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the world need someone to talk to

46:37

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46:39

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46:41

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46:43

of thing their friends and family want to

46:45

hear, which is why therapy is

46:47

such a helpful tool. Absolutely. You know,

46:49

I think both of us would admit

46:52

to being hotheads in

46:54

our younger days and it's still in there,

46:57

but I feel like both of us have probably

46:59

gotten a handle on it somewhat

47:01

through the help of

47:03

therapy and some introspection

47:06

and maybe coming to the realization

47:08

that you could catch more flies with honey.

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You can catch more flies with honey. And

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49:57

know i am as he you know it's a weird to room

49:59

and and you from other pass away when you're

50:01

young, but would you guys take family

50:03

trips within the states? Were there places

50:05

you went? No,

50:08

I had. We really didn't do

50:10

that before that. I know this is all about

50:12

family trips. Unfortunately, it was only one before it

50:14

all happened. But no,

50:16

my memories of my dad was just when

50:19

he landed in the states, it's so

50:21

grueling for him. He was in the

50:23

50s. He had to start over. I

50:26

say from rags to riches

50:29

to rags again. So it was

50:31

a really, really difficult thing. But he opened

50:33

up a 99 cent store. He's

50:35

like, well, it's 99 cent store plus.

50:38

So he wore a suit every day to that. He

50:41

had his telephones that the

50:43

neighborhood wasn't really that great. He

50:46

knew that the neighborhood probably most people that

50:48

lived there didn't have access to all these

50:50

really cool folks for a good price.

50:54

Every day suited up the entire line of

50:56

most incredible innovative phones that people don't see

50:59

it in that area. And he

51:01

was telling them like, I can't get that whole,

51:03

he probably transformed that whole neighborhood. He was like,

51:05

this phone has a whole button that plays music.

51:07

They're like, you can play music? He

51:10

just sell it crazy. So

51:12

I would get in this station wagon, that seat

51:14

that no kid or any human

51:17

being really should sit on that last seat

51:19

where you're facing out and you're

51:22

looking at everybody. It's just awkwardly

51:24

just staring at everyone behind you. And

51:26

we would go to Harwin Drive here

51:28

in Houston, which is the import export

51:31

capital of Houston, basically. And

51:33

I would just go, we would go on trades. And that's how I

51:35

learned just business. I learned business from

51:37

him that way. And a lot

51:39

of those friends that he made when he

51:41

first landed estates with all his merchants became

51:44

my friends after he passed away. And they gave me

51:46

jobs when I was a teenager with them, just

51:48

to kind of help out with the fam. But

51:51

that's why I was skipping school. I was 14. I

51:53

was doing so well selling merchandise. And

51:56

that's what inspired it in the

51:58

show, because I was selling. take watches.

52:00

I'll admit to this, I think

52:02

there's a... That's your limitations, is

52:04

it fast? Do you think

52:06

anyone's ever going to come at you and be

52:09

like, hey, this is not real? Yeah, exactly.

52:11

Hey, Mo, I remember you. Maybe,

52:13

that maybe happened. But the funny thing is they would

52:15

show up because at the end of the week I

52:17

worked at this convenience store and I would sell so

52:19

much at this convenience store. At

52:21

the end of the week they're all wearing the same

52:23

stuff outside. They're like, hey, Mo,

52:26

where'd you get that? Oh, man. Oh, and

52:28

they would walk in. They're like, man, you

52:30

told me it was the last one. I was like,

52:32

well, it was the last one at that time. I

52:34

got a new merchandise and it happened. But for real,

52:36

for real, this is the only one that I have.

52:38

This is my bottle. It's two-tone. It's the only one

52:40

that I have and I promise I won't sell another

52:43

one. They're like, oh man, that's really cool. I was

52:45

like, yeah, you want it? They would come in upset.

52:47

They would leave with more merchandise. What do

52:49

you think you were selling a watch for? What do

52:52

you think? What were you getting per piece? I

52:54

was getting anywhere from $100 to $150 a piece. Yeah,

52:57

that's pretty good. I'd buy them for about $50. That's

53:00

pretty good. And I would get them on consignment initially.

53:02

No, it was a really good margin. It

53:05

sure is. The thing

53:07

is no one can get access to them, so

53:09

you can't get them. So if you got them,

53:11

then it's like, you know, you'd have to wear

53:13

them. If you're the right guy. And then there's

53:15

different levels of fake, which is hilarious, you know.

53:17

Oh, this one, you can hear the

53:20

ticking. This is a disaster. You can't

53:22

wear that. Like, it's supposed to be

53:24

kinetic energy and work and it

53:27

winds itself to states and can't be

53:30

wearing that. You know, like I would tell them this.

53:32

I would have the cheap version and I would have

53:35

the excellent version of like, see the difference. Listen

53:37

to that. Can't hear anything. They're like, yeah, you're

53:39

right. I'll sell you this for $50 if

53:42

you want, but you want to do it. It's $150. Right.

53:45

And the one you'd sell for $50 you probably got for

53:47

20. Yeah, sometimes

53:49

maybe 15. Probably. You

53:53

love Houston. Were you into Houston sports? Were

53:55

you like, were you trying to go to

53:57

like Astros games, Rockets games, Oilers games back

53:59

then? I only went to

54:01

one Oilers game. It was much harder to

54:03

go to those I went to go

54:05

see Dan Marino and Warren Moon play against each other

54:08

That was like a huge thing for me. My brother

54:10

dropped me off at the game I ran in it

54:12

was the most exciting thing ever saw

54:14

I got to check off that on

54:17

my bucket list loved baseball

54:19

went to Tons

54:21

of Astros Braves playoff games

54:23

Unfortunately those ended horribly but

54:25

went there got the experience

54:27

the Astrodome and now you

54:29

know I came a lot

54:31

of on the dream is One

54:34

of my you know people I looked up to

54:37

so much when I was a kid He was

54:39

so easily accessible as well for us I would

54:41

see him all the time at the mosque or

54:43

whatever you just show up We

54:45

couldn't believe that he would just be there and

54:48

then just quite literally two days ago

54:50

I sat with him at the

54:52

Rockets game and we were talking about

54:54

my show And you know, I

54:56

had to do a Q&A with him and my

54:58

dad before he passed away Actually, he

55:01

took me to meet Hakim at

55:03

a Nigerian mosque on Friday prayer And

55:06

I showed him the picture you remembered my father you remember

55:08

that day It's surreal and now

55:11

the Astros are like the guys I grew

55:13

up idolizing and looking up to

55:16

Astros are like my friends and they're coming out to

55:18

my show and I have all their baseballs

55:20

as you can see like I'm super Have

55:22

all their baseballs back here and and My

55:25

whole office is flooded with memorabilia and they

55:28

just gave me an Astros World Series ring

55:30

like it can't I'm so excited I know

55:32

you guys are from the East Coast and

55:34

it says for now against the Yankees. I

55:36

just want to remind you Oh, no, we're

55:38

red Sox fans. Very happy. I knew your

55:41

red Sox. Yeah, very happy. Yeah I will

55:43

say there's nothing better than being on a

55:45

first-name basis with someone you first loved as

55:47

an athlete In the same

55:49

you just can't believe it They seem like

55:52

a different species and then when you actually

55:54

meet them and especially in your case The

55:56

fact that you're making work that they want to go buy a

55:58

ticket for it to be able to flip the

56:01

script like that? What an awesome thing.

56:03

It's unbelievable. So Reggie Jackson,

56:05

Mr. October himself, he

56:08

now works with the Astros, invites me

56:10

to the Mr. October Foundation golf tournament

56:12

last year. And I'm about

56:14

to tee off. I'm like, you know, I used to play a

56:16

lot, but I just don't have time for it anymore. And

56:19

so I'm just on the just practice greens like this,

56:21

just looking around, look to the left, I see Marcus

56:23

Allen, I look to the right, it's like, Mike

56:26

Singletary, look behind me is A-Rod and Derek

56:29

Jeter. They're talking to Ken Griffey Jr.

56:31

walks up. I'm like, what

56:33

am I doing here? I just

56:37

couldn't believe it. And then my golf cart disappears.

56:39

I'm like, where the hell's my golf cart? It's

56:41

because my club's on it. Where's my golf cart?

56:43

Like Earl Tutol Jones took your golf cart, man.

56:45

And I'm like going to Earl Tutol Jones, like

56:47

where's too tall? Tutol Jones. I see him. I

56:49

was like, yeah, that's too tall for sure. He's

56:51

taller than everybody here. I just walk up to

56:53

him, I'm looking up to him, I was like,

56:56

what did you do with my golf cart, man?

56:58

I need my golf clubs. He was like, I

57:00

didn't take your golf clubs. Cece's

57:02

and Matthew got drunk and took a

57:04

golf club. That's what I heard. They

57:06

took your golf cart. So I'm like,

57:08

everybody find Cece. Where's Cece? It was

57:10

just so, boy, I couldn't

57:13

believe it. It was like inside of my old fantasy.

57:15

So surreal. You feel like all those people should only

57:17

be in the same place if it's a cartoon. Like

57:19

it doesn't seem like they should physically all be able

57:21

to be in the same place. I couldn't believe it.

57:24

And then they asked me to do like at the

57:26

opening dinner, I'm like the only guy like

57:28

bidding and all this stuff. I'm like the kid. I'm like,

57:30

can you sign this for me? Like it was his kid's

57:32

first time. I thought he was like, I

57:34

thought he was like, you know, he's like, I'm

57:36

like, no, no, I really need this though. I

57:38

need you to, I bid on everything. I bid

57:40

on everything. I literally bid on everything. I put

57:42

my name over my wife's like, what are you

57:44

doing? He's like, I just, this is, I don't

57:47

care. I want this. I want it. I just

57:49

couldn't resist. It was like, it was a kid

57:51

and our group of players, they

57:57

put all the non-athletes together. So

57:59

it was myself, Bun

58:01

B, 50 Cent, Travis

58:03

Scott, myself, who

58:06

else? Oh, Scarface. And then Warren Moon would just pop

58:08

in and then all of a sudden Tyrell Owens would

58:10

just pop out of the woods. I'm like, I don't

58:12

know what planet this is, but I love it. This

58:14

is literally the greatest day of my life. Good

58:17

outcome for a young sports fan. You

58:20

mentioned doing arenas when you go back and

58:22

do shows in the Middle East, which must

58:24

be amazing. How did they first become hip

58:27

to your stand-up? Man, so I started

58:29

going there in 2007. I started

58:31

doing shows in Egypt. I think

58:34

it was the first Arab

58:36

American community to ever perform there, doing stand-up

58:38

comedy. There's 2006 actually. And then I went

58:41

back in seven and eight and that became a

58:43

thing. Once you start performing in

58:45

a particular area in that

58:47

region, it just catches on. Word

58:50

of mouth really starts to spread. And

58:52

I created a foundation for that, but I didn't have

58:54

a passport yet. So it was

58:56

still stateless and I didn't have

58:59

an American passport. So I would have to wait

59:01

or sometimes I would fly to the country. I

59:04

would fool the ticketing

59:06

agent, mislead. Let's just

59:08

say mislead the ticketing agent in

59:11

America. So when I get there,

59:13

they'd be like, how did you get here? Like,

59:15

listen, I'm already here. I have

59:18

a show. I'm leaving tomorrow. It's not a big

59:20

deal. It's like, no, no, no. It's a very

59:23

big deal. I got a nice watch for you.

59:25

I could give you a deal. It

59:29

was wild. It would have to just sit

59:31

there. I remember sitting there for 17 hours waiting for them.

59:34

Let me know. I'm like, listen, guys, it's almost 3 p.m.

59:36

My show starts at eight. I remember

59:38

I think I said this to one

59:40

of them. Look, what you resist shall

59:42

persist. I'm already here. You

59:45

don't want to pay for my flight back. I

59:47

have a flight tomorrow. I have a flight tomorrow.

59:49

I'm out of here. They would let me in.

59:51

It was that and then it just grew from

59:53

there. Of course, after I dropped my first special,

59:55

the Vagabond, that became all thing. Then

59:57

my series, I dropped and

1:00:00

special. After the series,

1:00:02

it took it to a whole other level

1:00:04

in general, just globally for me, not only

1:00:06

the States, but just globally. Yeah,

1:00:09

it's a surreal experience. I don't even know how

1:00:11

to put it into words. Really, that

1:00:14

picture, like I said, in Cairo,

1:00:16

felt like it was telling the future.

1:00:19

That whole picture said it all. There was

1:00:21

the military aspect of it, my mother, brother,

1:00:23

the writer, the hands on my

1:00:25

shoulder, the fact that I was holding a

1:00:28

video camera, that picture just tells

1:00:30

you everything. The fact that I saw Adelie Mam

1:00:32

was the first experience of

1:00:34

live performance, stage performance. It

1:00:37

was just there. And now I'm going back

1:00:39

and they're building venues. I don't even

1:00:41

know. I'm just constantly crying backstage. I'm

1:00:44

like, I don't know what to do with all this.

1:00:47

I remember FaceTiming Chappelle, like, I got to snap

1:00:49

out of this. I got to go on stage.

1:00:51

I was so emotional. I got to even know

1:00:53

how to filter it. Like, how is this even

1:00:55

real? It's pretty spectacular. Yeah.

1:00:57

I mean, I imagine like, I

1:01:00

mean, if that emotion ever comes out, I'm sure

1:01:02

the audience is right there with you. Like it's,

1:01:04

yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Dave told me you're about

1:01:07

to have an amazing set. If you're that, like,

1:01:09

feeling all that, it's going to be an amazing

1:01:11

set. Sure enough, I went on stage. It was

1:01:13

just one of the best sets I've

1:01:16

had. Like, it was just a thing

1:01:18

comes out of you. And I'm so

1:01:21

grateful to have that. It's really beautiful thing. That's

1:01:23

awesome. I would imagine with with Ramy, with

1:01:25

Mo, with your stand up, you have this

1:01:27

experience that's shared by this giant audience that

1:01:30

probably hasn't seen their stories on TV in

1:01:32

the same way, or must hear so much

1:01:34

appreciation from people how lovely it is to

1:01:36

see a story that reflects

1:01:38

the life they've lived. Considering what's going

1:01:41

on in the world, it's a privileged

1:01:43

life, you know, although that it was

1:01:45

extremely difficult, I consider myself truly a

1:01:47

privileged refugee, somebody who had the

1:01:49

ability, my parents were able to had

1:01:51

so much forward thought and bring us

1:01:54

into a place where, where we can

1:01:56

be set up for success and set up

1:01:58

that foundation for us. Very

1:02:00

grateful for that. At the same time, yes.

1:02:03

I realized early on I was the

1:02:05

only Mohammed in the South doing stand-ups.

1:02:07

So I started walking to clubs. I

1:02:10

didn't even know. You've got to remember, I've only been

1:02:12

in the States eight years at that point when I

1:02:14

walked in a comedy club. People were like, you sound

1:02:17

like Kennison. I'm like, who's Kennison? I don't know who

1:02:19

Kennison is. They're like, you don't know who Kennison is?

1:02:22

No, I basically just got here. I don't know what

1:02:24

you're talking about. They're like, yeah, you

1:02:26

sound like Andy Murphy. I'm like, the actor,

1:02:29

he does comedy? They're like, yes,

1:02:31

he does comedy, bro. You sound

1:02:33

like, what are you doing? They're like,

1:02:35

yeah, you sound like this guy. They would just tell me I sound

1:02:37

like these people, but I don't know who the hell they're talking about.

1:02:39

I'm like, what do you mean? And then the

1:02:43

next day, he was a really, really

1:02:45

nice guy. He gave me all these

1:02:47

VHS tapes of all these specials. He

1:02:50

was like, go do your homework. I was like, okay, thank

1:02:52

you for that. Because we didn't have

1:02:54

cable. We just went back and I popped

1:02:56

them in and it just opened

1:02:59

me up to a whole new world. And then

1:03:01

my mentor, Danny Martinez, just schooled me on all

1:03:03

of them. And he mentored a lot of great

1:03:05

comedians that went on to have very successful careers.

1:03:08

I think T-Shawn Shannon wrote for us enough, like

1:03:10

10 years ago. Oh, yeah, I know T-Shawn. You

1:03:12

know T-Shawn? Yeah, we overlapped in my earlier. She

1:03:14

was great. Did you? Yeah, yeah. He mentored him.

1:03:16

He walked into his club. He had

1:03:19

Ralphie May. He mentored Ralphie. Nobody

1:03:21

would put him on stage. He put Ralphie on,

1:03:23

mentored him. And he's the one that took me

1:03:26

under his wings when I was 17. He was

1:03:28

like, listen, kid, if you listen to what I have

1:03:30

to say, you're going to be very successful, but it's going

1:03:32

to take you 20 years for that overnight success. But if

1:03:34

you're not going to listen to me, then don't waste my

1:03:36

time. And

1:03:38

I was like, I'm in. And

1:03:41

sure enough, like, he was right on point. He

1:03:43

visualized my entire career and he was

1:03:46

completely on point. Josh

1:03:48

always hates when I tell SNL stories, but I'm

1:03:50

going to tell a quick T-Shawn story, which

1:03:53

stuck with me for a long time. So

1:03:55

it was my first year on the show and

1:03:57

I would just sit at my computer and I just looked like.

1:04:00

stress personified, right? Just so nervous.

1:04:02

And I remember one day, you

1:04:05

could hear people through the wall, and one room

1:04:07

over, there were like four people working on a

1:04:09

sketch. They were laughing so hard while they were

1:04:12

working on the sketch. And that way that makes

1:04:14

you feel terrible about people doing the fight. And

1:04:17

Tichon walked by, saw me, poked his

1:04:19

head, and he goes, you know what, let me

1:04:21

give you a little secret about showbiz. The

1:04:23

ones you yuck it up the most about

1:04:25

while you're writing are gonna eat shit tomorrow.

1:04:31

I swear that's what I was thinking. I was

1:04:33

thinking the same exact thing every

1:04:35

time somebody gets super confident about it.

1:04:37

I'm like, they're gonna bomb. Yeah. He

1:04:40

also used to say, another thing he

1:04:42

said is, always be nervous about the

1:04:44

host who's not nervous on Saturday. If

1:04:47

you go up to the host who's never done SNL and is

1:04:49

about to do 90 minutes of live, and

1:04:51

you say, how you feeling? If they say great, it's

1:04:53

about to be a real nightmare of a

1:04:55

show. You should be nervous. There

1:04:58

are certain things you should be nervous about. Yeah,

1:05:01

no, absolutely. And this actually helped

1:05:03

me in my framing

1:05:05

of, versus nervous and butterflies. That's

1:05:08

just, this thing gets like, you

1:05:11

know, muddied a little bit. And

1:05:14

sometimes guys when they get nervous, they

1:05:16

lose perspective. And

1:05:18

if you just shift the framing and go,

1:05:20

no, it's just because I care so much.

1:05:23

It's the only reason why I'm nervous or

1:05:25

have any kind of butterflies. It's

1:05:28

this excitement and this like desire

1:05:30

to do so well. So

1:05:33

just focus on doing well and

1:05:35

remember what you need to do and

1:05:38

give yourself those pointers. And it's amazing what

1:05:40

happens to the nerves. They just start to

1:05:42

dissipate. And that's, I can't wait,

1:05:44

man. I hope to have that opportunity to host

1:05:46

SNL one day and be like

1:05:48

a real full circle moment. I can't wait.

1:05:50

You'd be fantastic at it. And this has

1:05:52

been so lovely, Mo, to speak to you

1:05:55

about your incredible story. It really is something.

1:05:57

Credit to your family, credit to your parents.

1:06:00

Thank you. Thank you for having me Josh. Good

1:06:02

to see your face. Yeah. Yeah About

1:06:05

halfway through I was able to jump on you

1:06:07

know You too

1:06:09

man Josh is now gonna ask you a few

1:06:11

quick questions I got some quick

1:06:13

questions for you some these are some

1:06:15

quick hitters Let's do it. You can

1:06:18

only pick one of these your ideal

1:06:20

vacation. Is it relaxing adventurous or educational?

1:06:22

Oh shit. That's a good one

1:06:26

Relaxing I'm gonna go relax. Okay. There you go.

1:06:28

There you go No shame in that because you

1:06:31

could relax and read a book so it can

1:06:33

be educational at the same time, right? You can

1:06:35

just make an educational if you want to yeah

1:06:37

Yeah, I don't need to go on a little

1:06:39

adventurous who the hell wants that I want to

1:06:42

climb and be exhausted when I'm there Let's go

1:06:44

hiking for six days. You can keep that. Okay,

1:06:46

you can keep that I want to go relax

1:06:48

Yeah, you could also read an adventurous book as

1:06:50

you lay on the beach Listen a audiobook right

1:06:53

before you slip off the cliff on an adventure What

1:06:58

is your favorite means of

1:07:00

transportation train plane automobile boat

1:07:02

bike walking my

1:07:04

favorite not practical Motorcycle.

1:07:07

All right. Great. Love

1:07:09

motorcycles. Do you have a bike?

1:07:12

Do you have multiple bikes? I do

1:07:15

I did multiple bikes all yeah specific

1:07:17

type of engineering from different, you

1:07:19

know I have a Triumph British

1:07:22

made classic carb.

1:07:24

Yeah, exactly BMW

1:07:26

and then I have

1:07:28

an original Indian Scout which

1:07:31

is the first twin engine and Then

1:07:33

I have the first bike is the Honda that

1:07:36

I donated to my show that we used for

1:07:38

the series and that's in my

1:07:40

garage They're all in there with a seven-week-old. How

1:07:42

many days until your wife says sell those motorcycles?

1:07:45

She's really really supportive. Honestly, I'm the one that's

1:07:48

like I don't want to they're kind of kind

1:07:50

of like more display pieces now than anything else Okay,

1:07:53

there's one and I don't I'm not a city writer

1:07:55

that does not does it's not appealing to me at

1:07:57

all I'm more of like, oh, we're

1:07:59

gonna go hang out in Ohio with Chappelle's or

1:08:01

we're gonna take a road trip somewhere, it's

1:08:04

country like put it on a trailer,

1:08:06

do country rides. Like I had nothing

1:08:08

about it. It's like oh yeah I

1:08:10

just can't wait to zip through traffic.

1:08:12

Horrible riding experience. Like I don't want

1:08:15

that at all. I want open road,

1:08:17

beautiful country to see around you know

1:08:19

my surroundings. I'm not that

1:08:21

guy. I'm not that guy. I

1:08:23

gotta get out there man. You

1:08:26

know like I'm good. If

1:08:28

you could take a vacation with any

1:08:30

family other than your own family, they

1:08:32

could be fictional, they could be real, they could be

1:08:34

alive or dead, what family would you love to take

1:08:37

a family vacation with? The

1:08:40

Simpsons. I think I want to go. That's

1:08:42

great. We've not gotten that. That would be

1:08:44

fun. I would definitely

1:08:50

take a family vacation with them. If you

1:08:53

had to be stranded on a desert island

1:08:55

with one member of your family, who would

1:08:57

it be? I think my nephew, my nephew

1:08:59

Mo. I think he's very he's very resourceful,

1:09:02

strong, quiet, you know.

1:09:04

He's very quiet, he's very

1:09:06

chill. That's what I want. I want somebody yapping

1:09:08

all day. You know what I mean? Very smart.

1:09:10

I think resourceful plus quiet. He's also a pilot

1:09:12

so if we do find a plane somewhere we

1:09:14

can get the hell out of there. You know

1:09:16

what I mean? It's

1:09:19

great. I need those skillset. And

1:09:21

you consider Houston your hometown now?

1:09:23

Absolutely yeah. Great. And

1:09:25

would you recommend Houston as a

1:09:28

vacation destination? Yes. If

1:09:30

your vacation needs to be around

1:09:33

the most amazing food you've ever

1:09:35

had in America, you would come

1:09:37

to Houston for sure. Houston

1:09:40

is wildly underrated. I think it

1:09:43

truly has the best food anywhere in

1:09:45

the United States. You

1:09:48

can get anything you want. For

1:09:50

some reason, Chinese food is not so great. But

1:09:53

Vietnamese, Korean, kill it, everything else great.

1:09:55

Okay. Gotcha. And then Seth, you want

1:09:57

to take it away here? been

1:10:00

to the Grand Canyon? I have,

1:10:02

yes. And is it worth it? No,

1:10:04

it's not worth it. Did

1:10:10

you have a lot of buildup? There's a lot

1:10:12

of lead up? Were you excited for it and

1:10:14

then let down or were you? Just I went

1:10:16

to the biggest dry well of all time. Like

1:10:18

what happened? Like it's not really

1:10:21

great. I just hated

1:10:23

it. I'm so happy. This is what I

1:10:25

came for. I wish we just flew over it. It

1:10:28

was actually better to fly over it when they

1:10:30

were like, oh, there's a gentleman on the right

1:10:32

hand side. There's a Grand Canyon. I was like,

1:10:34

yeah, great. Oh yeah, that's cool. Wave

1:10:37

bang. Time to check off the

1:10:39

lid. All right. Oh, Mo, I was really

1:10:41

enjoying this, but that's the real cherry on

1:10:43

top. How quickly you gave a no to

1:10:45

the Grand Canyon. No, easily answer Grand Canyon.

1:10:47

Waste of life. Yeah, no, it did not

1:10:49

seem like it was causing a lot of

1:10:51

consternation. Waste of life. Waste of life. Yeah,

1:10:53

those hours that it took me to get

1:10:55

there and come out, never get back. And

1:10:57

again, Mo sat in an Egyptian airport for

1:10:59

17 hours. And

1:11:01

he didn't want to... It wasn't worth it to go to

1:11:03

the Grand Canyon. That was worse. That was much worse. I'd

1:11:06

rather be stateless again. I'd rather be

1:11:08

stateless with no passport

1:11:11

in the middle of the desert, cooking

1:11:14

bread on old coal. Like I would

1:11:16

rather do that. I'd rather do

1:11:18

that than go back to the Grand... Actually,

1:11:20

they're both similar experiences. That would be the

1:11:22

same thing. Go to the Grand Canyon and

1:11:25

being homeless. It's just nothing about it. Oh,

1:11:27

yeah, let me take a walk on this

1:11:29

clear sidewalk that I could just, you

1:11:32

know, be so close to death. I don't want

1:11:34

that. Who wants this? You

1:11:36

can't believe how many suckers want it, Mo.

1:11:38

You know, maybe if it was like my

1:11:41

last days on planet and I was I

1:11:43

was intending to jump off of the parachute

1:11:45

off of it because I'm getting more risque

1:11:47

because I don't have much time anyway. You

1:11:49

know what I mean? Like maybe maybe that's

1:11:51

what I would do. Yeah, it's like an

1:11:53

adventurous hospice. Yeah. You know

1:11:55

that. Yeah. Yes. Speak to me

1:11:58

on another adventure. I'm more of those. 100%

1:12:00

those guys don't have much time. Skydive

1:12:02

now. Let them live it up. I might die on

1:12:04

the way down. Great way to go. Yep, great way

1:12:06

to go. Yeah Thank you,

1:12:08

Mo for your time. It has been an absolute

1:12:10

delight hanging out with you today. Thank you, Mo

1:12:13

Thank you so much for every likewise. Thank you

1:12:15

guys and congrats on the new one. Congrats on

1:12:17

the baby. Thank you so much He'll

1:12:19

do the podcast next time. I got you. Be

1:12:21

well much love Halloween

1:12:33

Nobody knows it

1:12:37

They try making you scream

1:12:43

It's when you're the

1:12:45

man They

1:12:48

call the bloody man

1:12:52

That shit was scary What's

1:12:57

wrong with me? With

1:13:11

you He'll

1:13:15

put you on your back He'll

1:13:20

put you on your back They'll

1:13:25

knock you on your back