Episode 104

Louise Palanker (00:05):

Welcome to Media Pathway. I'm Louise Palanker. And

Fritz Coleman (00:07):

I'm Fritz Coleman.

Louise Palanker (00:08):

We are the podcast that guides you towards shows and books and other Worthier podcasts such as that by Maz Jobrani comedian, actor, writer, producer, podcaster, whose podcast is called Back to School. He's coming right up to tell you all about it. But first, Fritz, what are you recommending to our loyal listeners this week? I remember

Fritz Coleman (00:27):

We're talking about two films about the same incident. It's The Rescue and 13 Lives, both Chronicle the dramatic 2018 Rescue of the 13 Tie Boys and they're soccer coach. When they were trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand, this whole soccer team decided to explore this cave, which they were familiar with. It was part of their lives after a soccer practice one day, but in a bad coincidence, the monsoon rains started early and quickly flooded out the cave trapping the boys inside the rescue is the documentary made by a National Geographic team streaming right now in Disney Plus showing the against all odds rescue of the boys and their coach. It was the efforts of the Royal Thai Navy Seals, the US Air Force Special Tactics Unit, two of the world's most expert cave divers from Great Britain, and an anesthesiologist from Australia, who is also a master cave diver.

(01:17):

The focus is mainly on the Brits and the Aussie Rick Stanton, a retired British firefighter who was considered one of the best cave divers in the world. John Lanin, a British IT consultant who was a world record holding, uh, cave diver. And Dr. Richard Harris, an Australian anesthesiologist and experienced cave diver. Dr. Harris is the one who reluctantly came up with a system to anesthetize the entire group in order to rescue them. It was the sight of it because of the narrow passages between the dangerous rocks, the Torrance of the water, and to avoid panic with the kids, what they had to do is to give the group shots of ketamine to render them unconscious so they could all be steered and manipulated through the dangerous three miles of cave. Dr. Harris was hesitant to even try because he thought it was impossible that they all wouldn't drowned, but it was their last and only hope, and it worked.

(02:11):

It took over 20 days. You'll find yourself in the edge of your seat and barely breathing, watching this whole event. It's unbelievable. There are a lot of shots underwater too. You'll feel the anxiety and the Claus phobia of the boys and the rescuers. That's the documentary. Now, the dramatized version of this story is called 13 Lives, also Streaming, directed by Ron Howard. Slightly more emotionally engaging because you connect with the stars in their heroic roles. Viga Mortenson plays Richard Stanton. Colin Farrow plays John Lanin and Joel Edgerton as Dr. Richard Harris. The dialogue makes you connect with the characters on every level because they're expressing their attitudes and their fears and their frustrations and their doubts. You should see 13 Lives First and then watch the documentary, the Rescue. What makes both films so special, the courage, the compassion, and the shared humanity and how the entire international community, I mean dozens of countries came together in this one moment to pull off a miracle. Both of these movies will reinstill your faith in humanity. I loved them both for the same reason,

Louise Palanker (03:13):

Right? I mean, I'm just always so sort of transfixed by the, the concept that, you know, we'll go to, we'll, we'll, we'll spare no expense to go to war against each other, but if there's a baby trapped in a well, we will put up a city, an international city, a metropolis, and spend months extracting that baby from a well. So, like what the human spirit is capable of is al is always kind of uplifting to me. The other interesting, um, point is that 13 seems to be a lucky number for Ron Howard because in Apollo 13 we already know what's gonna happen and we're still on the edge of our seat. And in 13 lives we know what's gonna happen. We're still on the edge of our seat. And he handles his films with so much tender care and love and, uh, you know, he, he, he depicts the spirituality and the culture. He was even, you know, careful to capture the correct dialect of where the kids live in northern Thailand. It's just a beautiful piece of work and I know that you think you know what happens, but you know, just watch the way that they pull it off because it, it really is masterful.

Fritz Coleman (04:16):

And I think Ron Howard probably spent 60 days underwater. A lot of the photography, the best photography, the GoPro photography was done submerged and it was really impressive. Both movies are fantastic. Yeah,

Louise Palanker (04:29):

Absolutely. So we're gonna stick with water, uh, on my pick, if that's okay. Um, uh, my pick is Virgin River, season four. I think it talked about See D's laughing cuz this is a chick show. Yes, absolutely. But I do watch it with my husband. So, uh, Virgin River takes place in a dreamy northern California town, and it is based on the Virgin River novels by Robin Carr. You will want to pack up and move there. So bring your passport because it's actually filmed in British Columbia. Virgin River is a stylized soap opera where the people are almost more beautiful than the scenery. It follows the journey in Melinda Monroe, whose heartbreaking backstory leads her to seek and find a new life in a remote town. But we are the sum of all our parts. And she learns that building new relationships will require her to face and embrace what has formed her Virgin River Stars, Alexandra Breckenridge, Martin Henderson, Annette Otto, and Tim Matheson among many others, portraying a rich tapestry of community members weaving a rich fabric of intriguing and heartwarming storylines.

Fritz Coleman (05:29):

Awesome. Well, I'll, I'll, uh, defer to the chicken me and I'll watch it.

Louise Palanker (05:34):

Yeah. Tim Mathison dreamy. Love him. Yeah,

Fritz Coleman (05:37):

Always like

Louise Palanker (05:37):

Him. So I think that, you know, season four, just a Virgin River just dropped on on Netflix. So if you haven't tapped into it yet, you've got some fun in front of you, um, I would love to welcome our guests. How do you feel about that, Fritz?

Fritz Coleman (05:48):

I'm excited to talk to this guy. I've been a big fan for a long time. Are

Louise Palanker (05:52):

You on board? I'm on board. Okay. Ma Jab Branny is a comedian, actor, writer, and the host of his own podcast Back to school with Maz Jabban and it's on the All things Comedy Network. His new standup comedy special Pandemic Warrior is now available for streaming on peacock tv. Mazda's TV and film credits are Mtu and among them, he has appeared in Grey's Anatomy, curb Your Enthusiasm and Shameless, and he's guested on Colbert and with James Cordon. He is a founding member of the Axis of Evil comedy tour and has performed at the White House for the Obamas. His book, I'm Not a terrorist, but I've played one on TV is in LA Times bestseller. Please welcome Maz Jobrani.

Maz Jobrani (06:31):

Hey, how are you guys?

Louise Palanker (06:32):

Fantastic. Nice to have you with us. Um, let's first talk, because you know, you, we are in this sort of podcasting club together, right? Yeah. So your podcast is called Back to School and it was inspired by a desperate longing for you to remain more knowledgeable than your 10 year old child, correct?

Maz Jobrani (06:50):

Yeah. So anyone who's got kids knows they ask you questions, you, you don't have the answers for. So I thought rather than Googling it, I would just bring experts in and they could answer the questions. There you go. <laugh>. Yeah. So we had, uh, people from, as a matter of fact, we had a lady who'd written a book who was a, uh, world renowned cave diver. Uh, wow. She was on, um, we had a guy who helped land the rover on Mars. We've had former FBI agents on, we've had, um, all kinds of people. And it's interesting and, uh, it ultimately became an excuse to talk to really interesting people. And you realize, you know, living in Los Angeles and being in the world of entertainment, we're a little isolated from the rest of the world. We think everything revolves around award season or something <laugh>. Um, but it's nice to know there's people out there doing amazing things in the world and, uh, learn from them.

Louise Palanker (07:40):

Wow, that's really cool. So you just call up and you're like, Hey, it's famous comedian Monster Branny. Um, would you like to explain cave diving on my podcast?

Maz Jobrani (07:50):

Something like that. It's quite often somebody who's got a book or they're out there doing something and they want to talk about it. And, and you realize also, by the way, when you ask people about what they do or they know, they love talking about that. So it all, it originally started with us reaching out to just professors around Los Angeles. Cause we were doing it in person before the pandemic. And then once the pandemic hit, we went into Zoom only. And currently we're on a hiatus, uh, trying to figure out what the next step is cuz now I'm back on touring. So there's, I gotta start, I gotta start cloning myself like Sadam Hussein to see if I can make it all work.

Louise Palanker (08:26):

So it was a great pandemic project for you and you got your kids involved?

Maz Jobrani (08:30):

Yeah, the kids. So the, the way the, the, it was actually we started before the pandemic. And the way the show would start is I would always go to my son or daughter the night before. I'd say, oh, we have on the show tomorrow, um, an economist who we had like Robert Rek one time. Was it, is it an economist? He was former Secretary of Labor, I believe, under the mm-hmm. <affirmative> Clinton administration. And I would show a video or some clip so that the kids could kind of just digest what this guy does. And I said, okay, if you had a question for this person, what would it be? Or, I had a former fbi, um, uh, counter counter-terrorism, fbi, uh, guy, uh, by the name of Frank Fig Luon, and I Oh yeah,

Fritz Coleman (09:10):

MSNBC talking head. Yeah, we love him.

Maz Jobrani (09:12):

He's great, he's great. And so he came on and I, and I showed my son, I go, this guy's former fbi. And, and I said, what's the question? And my son now is 14 at the time, I think he was 12 or 13. And his question was, have you ever shot anybody <laugh>? That's the question he would ask. Right. So you, you show them, you show them these people, you show a clip or two, and then the question comes out,

Louise Palanker (09:31):

Well, has Frank Fuzzi ever shot anyone?

Maz Jobrani (09:34):

Frank actually, interestingly enough said no. And the reason was he said in the fbi they were trained on how to, uh, um, uh, bring the temperature down in a confrontation. He said we'd been taught to, uh, um, not shoot. And he was saying if a lot of police forces around the country would get the same training that they got, the deescalation training that they got, we would end up with a lot less shootings, uh, than we have. So that was an interesting place to start from with him. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (10:08):

You know, you're really empowering your own kids with this podcast. It's great. You'll include them in the questioning and everything. What a, what a cool idea.

Maz Jobrani (10:16):

Yeah, it's, it is cool. And it's cool to see what kids will think of when you show them something. You know, someone who's, let's say, I don't know, there's, there's been all kinds. I had a guy, um, named Mike Aponte who was the, uh, he's part of the, um, MIT blackjack card counting team <laugh>, uh, wow. And that was, that was interesting to me cuz I've always been interested in blackjack and, and they made that movie 21 and I was really interested in like, you know, how does this work? And again, you show it to you, show it to your kid, and your kid might say something like, what's the most money you've ever won in one sitting or something. So you all right, let's start there and then go into the specifics of it. So it's all, there's a lot of interesting people out there.

Fritz Coleman (10:53):

When I watched your special from the Kennedy Center, it occurred to me that you have probably done more for international relations than the whole US State Department. I mean, I mean, you had people in that audience, not only of Iranian descent, but you had Lebanese, you had Armenian, you had a guy propose on stage to a woman who was Kurdish. People from all over the Middle East, all just being together and all laughing at our common experiences. I I, I think you offer a great public service, Maz. It was, uh, it was fun to watch that. It was really fun. Well,

Maz Jobrani (11:30):

I appreciate, I appreciate that first. You know, I think ultimately it's funny because as comedians, you know, people ask me, I I've been asked before, what's your, what's your goal as a comedian? I said, well, my number one goal is to be funny, to get a laugh. And then I said, if, uh, some extra message comes out through that, then that's a bonus in my opinion. And, um, I, I feel like I always thrive front of a, um, a more diverse audience. I hate it when it's, uh, uh, uh, one, one background only, whatever, whether it's all white American or Asian American, or Iranian American, whatever it is. Um, so I like to have that mixed audience. And I think when we get in the room, we laugh with each other. You look around, I always said like, you know, because I I was born in Iran, grew up in America, and since I came to America, Iranians were one of the only groups who, we fled a revolution in Iran where the government became an oppressive government.

(12:25):

And then we came to America, and then members from that government were some supporters of that government took Americans hostage, and then we became Public Enemy number one. So we started getting, you know, kicked in the head from the moment we arrived. And so that negative image that was out there, I've always said, when you come to my comedy show, or if you've seen one of my comedy specials, when there's a shot of the audience, I think part of it is showing the audience laughing. Like, when we did the Access of Evil Comedy tour back in 2007, um, we got emails from people saying, I never knew your people laughed. And it hit me that you, we never saw people from the Middle East laughing on American film or television. Uh, that was not an evil laugh. It was always, you know, the, the villains.

(13:10):

So I think that it does help break some stereotypes, does help bring people together. I've heard Jamie Masada say it in the past about how comedy is something that brings people together. He's, you know, the owner of the Laugh Factories. You know, I've, I've heard Mitzi Shore, uh, owner of the Comedy Store who put me and the guys from the Access of Evil together in the year 2000. She said that she had an epiphany that there was gonna be a need for a positive voice for Muslims and Middle Easterners in the near future. So that's when she put us together and, and called it the Arabian Knights back then. That's, that's how we started. So <laugh>. Yeah, I, I think, I think, you know, I think comedy can be healing in many ways. And, and even if you're hearing something that maybe you might not agree with a hundred percent politically or opinion wise, if you're open enough to be in a room laughing with other people and you look around and go, oh wow, we're sharing this common feeling, uh, I think, I think it can be a healing thing.

Louise Palanker (14:05):

I do remember being with you in front of The Laugh Factory after nine 11. We, we painted a flag on the, on the wall of the gas station across the street. And I, I do remember a bunch of comedians just saying, I don't think anything's ever gonna be funny again. And you, and you talk about that in your book, and there was that, that week or those four days where people were thinking, I gotta take this joke out. Or, you know, you know, just looking at their set and going, none of is anything ever gonna be funny again. But then that night, well, you know, there was a candlelight vigil and I I, that night at the Laugh Factory, I'm not sure if you were on the bill, maybe you were, but like the laughter was explosive because I realized well, people haven't laughed in four days and we're not supposed to go like that <laugh>.

Maz Jobrani (14:55):

Yeah. You know, I, I was not on the bill. I didn't perform until, I think like the following Saturday or, or so I had a, I'd been booked to do an event in, uh, Irvine at someone's house. It was a private event. Yeah, yeah. You wrote, and I, and I tried to get out of it and then the owner said, listen, my wife, it's Turkish, it'll be fine. Uh, we're gonna be open-minded, et cetera. And, and it was interesting cause I kind of reworded my act to not start by saying, you know, doing something self-deprecating about being Iranian, even though Iran didn't have anything to do with September 11th. As a matter of fact, there was, um, cante vigils held in the streets of Iran in support of the victims of September 11th. Um, but that just didn't get as much press as, as one would've hoped.

(15:37):

And, um, I I, I did, I I I did the first set set I did, I really was, I was almost apologetic about my background, cuz I did, I did like generic jokes and then got into my background and I tried to make it clear right away that, hey, I'm not with the enemy at all. I mean, that's how it felt. Cuz as you guys recall, there were shooting Indian Sikhs. And, um, and if you were any kind of brown, Muslim, middle easterner, you could be with the terrorists, which clearly we weren't. Um, and so, yeah, it was an interesting time. And you're right, I I did feel it was kind of like, um, when the, the day the music died, it was the day the the laughter died. I, I, I really thought, we can't be funny again. But you're right as well in saying, I remember hearing, cause I wasn't at the, I wasn't at the factory or the store that weekend, um, but I remember hearing that people were laughing harder than ever.

(16:32):

I think one was, it was probably a therapeutic thing. But two, also what happens when we go through something that is, um, uh, a tragedy or something that is difficult is that we all share in the experience. And we've all seen that now with the pandemic. Like during the pandemic, when I would do Zoom shows or I would do drive-in shows, anytime I mentioned something about what was going on in the pandemic, we had all seen it in the news. We were all watching the same thing. So similarly, when you look at September 11th, all of a sudden people knew, uh, places like Kandahar and Fallujah and, you know, all these names they'd never heard of before. Uh, and so that made it so that we were, we, we all had the low, we had the same common denominator when we're talking about things and we were able to laugh together. So I think that caused laughter to be harder. Laughs uh, coming off of that, uh, tragedy.

Fritz Coleman (17:30):

Go back to the beginning. Uh, talk about your parents coming to America in 1978 at the start of the Iranian Revolution. Really not the typical immigrant story cuz your father had a little money when he came to this country and you moved to Marin in Northern California. So you came and existed in some comfort, which is not the classic immigrant story. Talk about your family coming over here.

Maz Jobrani (17:50):

Yeah, so, you know, if you look back at 1978, there was protests in the streets of Iran and they just got more and more. And in the past, the Shaw of Iran, who was basically a king, he'd been modernizing Iran, he'd been, um, someone who'd been strengthening Iran. He had a good relationship with the West. As a matter of fact, Jimmy Carter famously stopped in Iran, uh, I believe it was 1977 or maybe early 78. And he said that Iran was, I'm gonna misquote a little bit. I think he said it was like a bastion of stability in a, um, in an area of, of volatility. Uh, well, he was wrong with his prediction cuz the volatility was coming. So as the months go by, my father's on business in the us he owned an electric company in Iran. He was on business in New York.

(18:36):

And protests got more and more to the point where they were shutting down schools. There was curfews. And my father felt that it would be dangerous for him to come back at the time because even though my father was not, uh, in, in the Shaw's regime, he had friends who were, um, uh, mayors and police chiefs and generals. So he had friends that were high up. And at that time, uh, I believe the protests were going after anybody who had been successful under the Shaw. So my father felt like he might be threatened. And so, um, he sent for my mom, he said, why don't you bring me and my sister, my older sister, Maryam, he said, why don't you bring them to, uh, the US for a couple weeks, uh, during their, you know, winter break till things cool down. You guys can go back.

(19:24):

And I always like to say, when we came out, things didn't cool down. They actually got worse and worse. So I always say we packed for two weeks and we stayed for 43 years now <laugh>. Um, and to the point where we even left my baby brother back there when we left, he was, uh, about a year old. We thought we'd be back soon and we had to get him out later. And then we ended up, like you said, we ended up, uh, settling in Northern California where I grew up. Um, pretty, pretty good lifestyle for the most part growing up. Um, uh, but then eventually my father ended up losing a lot of his money in bad real estate investments. And towards the end of his life, he basically had lost it all and he'd moved back to Iran and, uh, and he passed away in 2009. So that's, that's kind of the story.

Fritz Coleman (20:10):

And there's an interesting coda to that story that you just told. Your father went back there to try to recoup his losses. You wanted to go back and visit him. But in the Iranian, uh, way of thinking, if you were, uh, the resident of, in one country, you could still be the resident of Iran. And if you were still the resident of Iran, when you went back there, you had to perform military service. So you had to tap dance around being able to go back and visit your dad, but not getting stuck in the military service to the country of Iran.

Maz Jobrani (20:41):

Yeah. So a lot of countries have that, uh, mandatory military service. I think Israel has it. I, I know has it. I I I think many. There's a lot of other countries that have, like, when you turn 18, you gotta do one year of service. So, um, that held me back from going back to Iran for a long time. And then in 19 the, uh, end of 1998, my father had been there for a few years and at that point they made it possible where you would pay some sort of fi uh, fee not fine, where, I don't know, couple thousand dollars. And that would allow you to come and go a few times without having to serve military duty. And, and I think that was the government of Iran realizing, oh, we have a lot of young people that are in the diaspora. They're outside of Iran and we should encourage them to come back.

(21:29):

Uh, and so they made that available. So I got to go back for two weeks, see my father, see some relatives. It was really interesting because I hadn't been back in about 20 years at that point. And when I went back, it was amazing how quickly my smell and taste of certain foods took me right back to being a kid. It's amazing how much memory you have from that. I remember going into my aunt's house and just being like, oh my God, I remember this from when I was four or five years old. And the people of Iran could not have been nicer. Uh, they were, they were so courteous. Um, and at the same time it was a little depressing because I was there for two weeks and I saw that this current government has really done a bad job in managing the country.

(22:13):

The city of Tehran was over polluted, overpopulated, um, there wasn't a lot of opportunity for a lot of young people. You know, that's the thing I always say. When Americans complain and they go, oh, we have, we don't have this, we don't have that. I go, you should really go see some of these other countries and realize how much opportunity you do have in America. Um, and there's a reason why a lot of people flee some of these countries because they want to come to America or come to the West for opportunities. So I ran into, into a lot of, uh, relatives, uh, who were young, who would say, please help me come to America. I want to just start a new life. And in the back of my mind I'm thinking, first of all, I don't even know how I would go about doing that.

(22:49):

But secondly, if you came to America, you don't even speak the language. You might not have an advanced degree. I can't imagine what your life's gonna be like there either. So it was kind of sad in that way. And then I haven't gone back since because as a comedian I've done jokes or I've made references to the leadership. And I've heard way too many times people that are either in academia or in the press or in the public eye somehow who go back to visit an ailing parent. And then the government, um, accuses them of being a spy and then keeps them. So I'd rather not, uh, take that chance.

Fritz Coleman (23:26):

Is there satire or is there comedy? Do people laugh over there? Is there funny entertainment in Iran?

Maz Jobrani (23:31):

So, you know, Fritz, it's interesting cuz uh, I have a lot of Iranian fans around the world and sometimes they'll say, why don't you do shows in Persian? Now I speak Persian fluently, but the truth is, first of all, I grew up with English, so I'm a lot more comfortable speaking English. Secondly, there's a difference in the sense of humor. So standup comedy, we all know you go on stage, you talk about your life, you have, you know, uh, my, my, my wife and I got an argument, my kids did something or other or, or, um, you know, you talk about your life, the per the Persian style of comedy is more like joke telling. It's about like, you know, uh, a guy goes into a restaurant and runs into some guy. I mean, it's, it's, and we have jokes galore. Like for the longest time growing up, when I would go to a Persian party, there was always one guy who was really good at Persian jokes and he knew the newest from like, he'd just gotten a, they'd just arrived from Iran to Los Angeles.

(24:25):

You'd be like, let me tell you the newest one. You just go into it. And more recently though, I'd say in the past, like maybe 10, 15 years, there has been a movement of standup comedy in Iran. And it's interesting because some of them are really funny, but they're limited as to what they can say. Again, going back to the freedoms we have in this country, I always say we are allowed to make fun of our leaders in this country. Like, that's one of the problems I had when, you know, Donald Trump wouldn't go to the, um, correspondents dinner. I said, he's acting closer to a Middle Eastern dictator than to a democratic leader. Because a democratic leader goes and sits at the correspondent dinner and gets roasted, but the leaders over there don't want them talked about themselves, talked about. So a lot of the comedians who do comedy need to stay away from certain subjects. But there's there, there's actual comedy shows. People send me clips from like some Iranian comedians, they send it to me on Instagram and the these guys are very popular out there. Um, and I think part of that is just the internet and people seeing comedy online and saying, oh, we can do this. You know. So, um, it's, I I I think the internet in that way has been a great equalizer.

Louise Palanker (25:37):

Well, do you, you, you talk in, in your book about finding bootlegs of your standup around the world. Do you think there's any bootlegs in Iran and do you think that a running kids or you know, people know about you and have found their way to you?

Maz Jobrani (25:51):

Yeah, that's an interesting thing actually. Number one, I do know there's bootlegs for sure, because somebody actually reached out to me when my book was written. It was, uh, Simon and Schuster and um, and they, uh, they, you know, I was like, let's release it in the US and elsewhere. Cause I said, I have fans all over the place. One of the, i I always say, if you wanna be a touring comedian that tours around the world, it's great to come from a country that either had a revolution or a civil war or something that caused people to fleet <laugh>. Because then you have people all over the world. So I'll do tours in Australia, I'll do tours in Europe. I'm actually getting ready to go do a tour in Europe. I'll do short tours in the Middle East. I'm all over the place. So when my book came out, uh, somebody contacted me online and they said, Hey, I've seen your book.

(26:33):

They, they got in touch from Iran. I've seen your book and I'd like to translate it. And I said, oh, that's interesting. Let me contact Simon Schuster. And I, I said, Hey, can we do this? And because of the sanctions on Iran, Simon Schuster was like, no, we can't give them the right to bootle it. So I went back, I was like, well, they can't give, I'm sorry to, to translate it and maybe get some profits. And so I said, listen, I'm, I'm sorry they that they're not letting you do it. And the lady was like, well, do you mind if I just translate it? I was like, I mean, I, I can't do anything on my end, so go for it. So people have sent me pictures from bookstores in Iran with my book translated into Persian. Whoa. Um, the bootleg DVD you're talking about was when the access of Evil DVD came out when people were still buying DVDs.

(27:16):

And we went to Jordan Ahman Jordan, and there was this guy who had a shop in downtown Ahman where he had every movie and TV show you could ever imagine. He had like, like canceled TV shows were in his, in his attic above the <laugh>, above the store. And we walked in and he had our access to evil DVD on sale. And I was excited. I go, how much? And he is like, $1. I'm like, really? You could do better <laugh>. Um, and uh, and then, and then now because again of social media, Instagram, um, I have a lot of followers from Iran. So again, they'll contact me a lot of times and they'll say, Hey, why don't you do more posts than Persian? And I go, well, the truth is, again, a, I'm more comfortable in English. B I have fans that are from all over the place.

(27:59):

So if I just do Persian, I'm going to isolate my other fans and see I'm a touring comedian who wants to, you know, I I want people to know, you know, the one of the unfortunate things that happens is people put you in a box. They go, oh, he's the Persian comedian. And I go, no, I'm a comedian who happens to be Persian. Cuz if you see my act, you'll see I do a lot of material about my kids, about my parents, about getting older, about being bald, about politics. There's a lot of stuff that you don't have to be Persian to get. And so I try to emphasize that, uh, even though I have a lot of followers that are Iranian, and I try to tell them, I go, guys, I, I, you know, I appreciate the love and the support, but I'm not gonna turn around and try and be funny and Persian. Because again, there's also, by the way, there's rhythms. Like, like we have sarcasm in, in English and in an American comedy, we, we have, we're you can be sarcastic. Whereas sometimes when you're sarcastic in the Persian language, the, a lot of people that are like, that are watching you might be a little more serious. And they might be like, oh, um, you know, whatever you, you really, uh, whatever, you, you really left your kids in the desert and drove home. You're like, no, I didn't do that. You know, whatever.

Fritz Coleman (29:11):

Well, the overarching theme of all your shows is that we're all the same. Our families are basically the same. They're all nuts. I love the stories that you talk about when your parents would show up at your events at school and really make themselves known because they were loud and dressed loudly. And those kill me. They're so funny. Yeah. Well, but, but, but again, the theme is that all families are the same in every culture, which is what draws you into your shows.

Maz Jobrani (29:40):

Well, absolutely know. I, I realized, so when I first started doing standup, I took Judy Carter's standup comedy class, and Diane Nichols was my, was my teacher. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And in that class they taught you a lot of like, right. Well, you know, right. Well, you know, so there was a lot of like being Iranian is, you know, hard because of this or that, or, or my Iranian parents this or that. And I would talk about my Iranian background thinking, oh, this is very specific. But then you realize the more specific you go, the more we have in common. And so I remember I used to do this joke about my grandmother and how she used to keep all of her cash in her bra <laugh>. And the joke was that, um, we thought she was a dup till one day we went to buy a house <laugh>. And she pulled and she pulled the down payment out of her bra and we're like, oh my gosh, she's an A cup.

(30:21):

And then we look closer and we're like, oh no, she's Grandpa <laugh>. Um, and so, so that was, that was a joke, silly joke. And I remember doing it at the Laugh Factory one night and there was these two girls who were Latina and they were falling out of their chair laughing. And I realize, oh my God, their grandmother does the same thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then I've told that to people who go, yeah, my southern mom does that and my, you know, Jewish mo grandmother did. So I, you know, yes, I might say my Iranian this or that. But then I started saying my immigrant parents. And then I would say parents of that generation, because that's the other thing we have in common. Like there's modern parenting versus parenting that we grew up with, which is very different. So it's amazing how much we have in common. I really like, I think some of my best shows are when I get to perform in front of parents who have kids around the same age as myself mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I'll just be talking about my life. And there's nothing that's specific to the ethnicity, but the parents are basically, they're in therapy because they're laughing. Yeah. It's a support group with me.

Louise Palanker (31:26):

Yeah. It's a's a support parents, parents that don't trust government or, or banks. And you know, and you talk about how your parents are constantly ready for the re the next revolution. Uh, you know, because from their point of view, they had to run with everything. And, you know, how, how would you say that your kid's childhood is different from your childhood?

Maz Jobrani (31:47):

Well, gosh, you know, I will say I got a lot of love from my, my father loved us a lot. Uh, my mother loved us, but also, you know, was the disciplinarian. So she would hit us like, it's no big deal. And, and it didn't feel like child abuse. It felt like, oh, this is what happens. You know, sometimes your ear would get pulled, sometimes you'd get a little smack. Um, but, you know, we feared her. Um, but the difference, a lot of the difference was like our, our parents and, and I don't blame them at all. They just weren't necessarily active with us. There wasn't a lot of like, oh, you have a soccer game, let me come set up my chair and watch your game. And the truth is, it's, I, it's actually kind of funny because since my kids were young, um, I've tried to be there, be present at their soccer matches, at their, uh, tennis matches.

(32:34):

Matter of fact, one piece of advice I used to, I used to give to, uh, parents with young kids. I say, take up tennis with your kids. Cuz that's one sport you can keep playing with them even as they get older. Like once they start playing soccer or volleyball or basketball, they're gonna be playing with teams. But tennis, you go out there together and just hit the ball. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, which was great advice until now. My shoulder, I've hurt my shoulder so I can't play. Um, but, but I <laugh>, the funny thing was, I remember my dad, again, my dad was a, my dad reminds me of Vito Corleone. Like he was the guy who people would go to when they needed help. He was very generous. Um, and he just took care of stuff. Um, and so he came to one of my socket games, I think when I was in high school.

(33:18):

I just remember he was kind of on the sideline talking to the coach cuz the coach had me playing defense. And my dad was like, uh, my son, he'd play offense. And, and I caught him and I was like, what's he doing? <laugh>. And it was so embarrassing that my dad was like, lobbying for me to play offense, <laugh>. And I remember saying, God, uh, that's just how embarrassing how, um, you know, how outta touches this guy. Until years later when my son was playing soccer and he was a good athlete. He is out there, he is running around. And then one day I'm in the car and I, you know, finishing a phone call and then I go to watch his practice and he's in goal playing goalkeeper. And at that age, there wasn't a lot of action and goal. So he was just kind of standing there.

(34:02):

And as he's standing there, I just caught my, I I I, I felt myself getting more and more upset with like, well, he's good. He should be in the field. What's he doing over, he's not getting an exercise and <laugh> and this isn't. And and then I realized I was being selfish. I was like, this is not, this isn't, this isn't interesting to me because I wanna see my son taking shots. I don't want him to see, see him standing there. So when he came out I was like, why are you playing goalkeepers? Like, I thought I tried. I was like, yeah, but you're good in the field. And then I, and then I commented, I was, I'm, I'm being my dad. Like, I realized my dad wanted me to play forward cuz he wanted to see his son at least take a shot as opposed to play defense. So, um, you, you become your parents I guess.

Fritz Coleman (34:40):

Oh, absolutely. So funny, you, you made a really interesting comment in your book that touched me, that said, for a good part of your life, you never felt Iranian enough and you never felt American enough. Talk about that.

Maz Jobrani (34:56):

Yeah. You know, I think that that's a common feeling that a lot of multicultural kids probably have. Yeah. Um, because we come to America, we go to school, we learn the American culture. I was a huge baseball fan, he was football fan, got into comedy cuz of Eddie Murphy. I used to watch Saturday Night Live, all that stuff. And none of that stuff really, uh, translated to my parents, you know, they were still holding onto their culture, rightfully so, cuz they came here when they were in their, uh, mid thirties to early forties. And, um, and so then we would go, so then, so with my own parents, I never, like, we would go to these parties, we'd go to, uh, uh, they would take us along to a Persian party and I always felt kind of cringe. I I was cringing all the time cuz I just felt like, oh, these people are all fresh off the boat.

(35:48):

I'm so much more, I'm so much more hip than they are <laugh> and they're all listening to this old Persian music and they're holding onto these customs that are just, I just wasn't embracing it. And then vice versa, I'd go to school or I'd go to a friend's house and they would be, they would, they would either talk to their parents in a certain way. Like, like I had a friend of mine who one time talked back to his mom and I was like, whoa, he's about to get, he's about to get beaten. But he didn't, like the moms just walked away. And I was like, what just happened? And that was me going like, gosh, the American culture is very different. Like the, the kid can talk back to his mom or, or some of the American kids that would, I don't know, be members of a tennis club or they'd be doing something and I'd be like, oh, I don't feel, I don't feel like I, I'm, I'm American enough to be with them and I'm not in Iranian enough to be with these guys.

(36:38):

And so I just kind of was in the middle. And it wasn't until I went to college where I met other Iranians who'd grown up in the American culture, um, who then we all kind of bonded and, and we would just, you know, we would go in and out of speaking Persian and English or we would make a reference, we'd all get it. And I was like, oh my God, I found my people. And now on stage, a lot of times when I'm talking to people, I love finding people who have an immigrant background because I feel, again, there's so much I I I relate to them in, in many ways. Um, so yeah, that was, that was kind of that feeling that I always had that I never felt like I, I ever belonged in either culture.

Louise Palanker (37:16):

Yeah, I understand that. And it's probably like the, the whole immigrant experience. Like, you know, I'm, I'm only, um, third generation American. I'm sure my dad felt the same exact way and I ne you know, we never discussed it, but like his parents were from another country, so, you know. Yeah. And also

Maz Jobrani (37:36):

Also, sorry to cut you off, but it's like also like when you hear like now the, you know, right wing, you know, nationalist will be like, I'm American, I'm American, you know, that whole thing. And I go, well, I'm American too. I just, I'm just not that, um, blinded by it. I'm never, I try never to be blinded by patriotism. If I'm critical of America, it doesn't mean I don't like America. Doesn't mean I don't want to be here. It just means that I am not, uh, I don't consider my country to be perfect. I don't consider, uh, anywhere to be perfect. You know, I've traveled the world. I think that, I think one of the most important things that we could do as a, as a country is to have more people traveling and, and seeing the world and realizing that oh wow, there's people all over the world living in different ways and it's okay to be critical of America. Um, and as a matter of fact, if you love this country, you will be critical of it and not say that it's totally infallible. Um, so I think that's being American and I don't think, you know, being American is just screaming it from the top of a mountaintop and, and, and finding that it's, you know, the, uh, an infallible place.

Louise Palanker (38:41):

So you, you do address politics and your act. And, and do you find that in today's divisive climate that you worry about how some folks might respond to your points of view?

Maz Jobrani (38:52):

It's hard for me not to be political just because, first of all, I studied political science in college, but I was always interested in it. And then once you start reading history and realizing, uh, America's involvement in certain things, like America was involved in 1953 with overthrowing a, uh, leader that was, uh, parliamentary leader in Iran who wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil and give Iran its own oil. And then the British, um, got with the Americans and they had a CIA led coup that overthrew the guy Mohamed Moad, that then brought in the Shaw. Mm. So you see America's involvement in many places. You go, oh wow. Um, that's not common knowledge. That's one of the problems I have when people go, oh, critical race theory is bad. I go, well, no, it's just history. It's like we should know our history. We should know the dirty hands that our country had.

(39:40):

Yeah. That doesn't make the modern white person a bad person. It just means that our country did certain things. And I'm sure white, white people in America as well as back black people as well as Iranians, there's been good and bad from every cult from every background in America. So of course the more we know the better. And so when it comes to the politics, you know, I was, I, after September 11th, I was pretty vocal in my standup. And I remember back then I would be making fun of the Bush administration. And when we went to war with Iraq, they had sold this line. The line was, um, you, uh, you need to support our troops. Don't criticize the war. Cuz if you criticize the war, you're criticizing the troops. Which was not true at all. And so I remember doing a couple jokes about Bush and company and there was somebody in the audience going, you can't make fun of our commander-in-chief during a time of war.

(40:30):

And I was like, that's the whole point of being American. Like we said, we're going to Iraq to bring democracy to Iraq and now you're telling me I can't exercise my democratic right to make fun of the President. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, so that was then, and then under Trump it got really heated. It was interesting cuz under Trump, there was actually a lot of Iranians who turned on me who were like, cuz within the Iranian community, there just weren't that many Iranian comedians, like Iranian American comedians. There was me, there's Max Samini now, uh, uh, Amir Kay, Tehran, there's a handful of us, but I was one of the first ones who started. And so the community really supported me. But when I started making fun of Trump, I think Trump did a good job of dividing people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, one of the things that he said was that he was going to somehow get rid of the regime in Iran, the, the MOS in Iran.

(41:20):

And a lot of Iranians in America dislike the regime in Iran because rightfully so. They're very oppressive. And we would like a democracy in Iran. Um, we would like freedoms for the people of, but the difference is that we, that, that I feel that it's gotta come through diplomacy and it's gotta come from within Iran. Whereas a lot of people who are on the right think, oh no, America should just invade the way they did with Iraq and somehow get rid of the molas and bring freedom to Iran. Which I always say, well, that's just gonna cause you know, hundreds of thousands of, you know, innocent Iranians to die. So anyway, Trump as like many issues, he would talk a big game and say, oh, I'm gonna have a better deal with the Iranians and I'm gonna get rid of them all. So he said he made a lot of promises, it was just weren't coming through.

(42:06):

Sure. But true. But a lot of Iranians embraced him. And so there were times when I would be doing standup in my show and some, somebody who's of my own tribe would be yelling at me and I would get into an argument with them. And I quickly learned, I'm not gonna argue because people got, so people really lost their minds. Like they weren't willing to even, uh, give me the benefit of doubt to say, okay, you're a comedian, this is your point of view. I'm at your show, let the show finish <laugh>, and then if I'm really that passionate, I'll send you an email. Yeah. <laugh>. But they weren't even willing to do that. So I learned the best way to deal with some of those people was to just Tai Chi the moment. <laugh>. Okay. So there's actually a clip on YouTube, I think if you search, uh, maj Brony, Trump heckler, um, it was a white lady, uh, at Flappers, and it was towards the end of my set.

(42:55):

She'd been laughing the whole way. And then I started my Trump jokes. And in all honesty, it wasn't even that. Um, it was pretty innocuous Trump jokes. I mean, it was, it was kind of like factual stuff. I was talking about how much, how many, how, how much. She just won't stop tweeting at the time and how it's like the game Tetris, it just keeps coming <laugh>. Um, and then she got upset and she started, you know, I, as a woman, I'm offended and then I just Tai Chi the whole moment. I'm like, what a great country that you can be offended. I'm so happy for you. And, you know, and I said, listen, I only have two more Trump jokes. You don't have to stay. You can go if you like. And, um, and it was, it was fun for me to deal with it that way.

(43:34):

And, and more recently, I mean, it's, it's hard listen, people know where I stand in my politics. I'm get, I'm getting ready to tape my next comedy special, um, this coming Saturday at the Comedy Store. And there's a lot of material I do about, um, you know, being, I I believe that the pandemic was a real thing. I believe the elections were not stolen. They were real. I I, there's a lot of things that come out that if you listen, you know what side I stand on. And if you're really offended by it, then you're offended by it. And that's fine. I mean, I, I think the ultimate job of a comedian is to have an opinion. I I, I feel if you're pleasing everybody, then you're just a jukebox and you may as well just take requests.

Fritz Coleman (44:12):

Wow. Yes. Well said. On a typical audience, what percentage of them are Iranian?

Maz Jobrani (44:20):

It all depends where you go. For example, Irvine is a, you know, I, I was jokingly I say it's like Tehran, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So when I do Irvine, they show up and I'll do like six or seven shows on a weekend. And the crowd might be 50% Iranian, 50% other. Hmm. Uh, you go to Denver, you might end up with 20% Iranian, 80% other, um, you go to, you know, my favorite crowds are anywhere that's Cosmopolitan International. So when I shot that special at the Kennedy Center in dc as you were saying earlier, I, I yell into the audience and there's Pakistanis and Chinese and Ukrainian and, uh, just white Americans. I mean, what I loved about dc what I love about DC is that they're all politically, uh, um, uh, astute inclined. Yeah, yeah. Astute. And they know what you're talking about. And it's just a hot audience.

(45:11):

I love doing DC Uh, another one of my specials I filmed, um, I filmed it, it was called, uh, I Come In Peace that was filmed in Stockholm because Stockholm is also a very international city. And again, I I I'm looking out in the audience and I'm seeing people from different backgrounds. I remember recently I was in Stockholm doing a show and I was talking to somebody in the audience. What, uh, what's your background? What's your ethnic background? I'm a gypsy. Oh, wow. Cool. From where? Romania. Whoa. You know, so sometimes people are from places I've never been. Yeah. And it, it's, it's interesting to me, you know, sometimes it's interesting to me how people find me. I did a show in New Jersey, um, you know, a lot of times in New Jersey I get like, a lot of Arabs show up, but then there was these two Japanese girls who were doing the, they came to the meet and greet after the show and they barely spoke English.

(45:58):

And I was like, how did you guys find me <laugh> and how did you understand the show? And they were like, we just, you know, we're here. We're having fun. I was like, all right. So it all depends where I am. I mean, listen, when I do shows in the Middle East, there's no Iranians, because if I'm doing shows in Jordan, it's all Jordanians. If it's Lebanon, it's all Lebanese. Yeah. Dubai has a lot of Iranians. Right. So it depends again, where you go. Um, I did shows in Singapore, you know, I did, I did a show in Jakarta. This was interesting. They had a, the Ja, the ind, the Jakarta Comedy Festival in Indonesia. Whoa. In front of like, let me, you know, a thousand people. And I had no idea what to expect. So I'm like, how do these people know of me? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

(46:38):

And I guess it was from YouTube, I guess. Um, and so I'm sitting there waiting to go up and they go, we got a local guy opening before you. And I'm sitting there going with Jakarta, Indonesia, Muslim country. I'm editing stuff in my head going, you know, what can I say, what can I not say, stay away from anything risque or sexual? And the guy before me is like one of their hottest comics in Jakarta. He's on stage just working blue <laugh> and they're dying of laughter. And I'm like, oh my God, can I say this? Will they, how am I gonna follow this guy? And I go on stage and I, and I'm doing my act and you know, it's going pretty well. And at some point I'm trying to relate cuz they're all Indonesians. So I, you know, I've done some jokes about being in Indonesia now I'm like, let me go international. I was like, are there any Americans here? And there was like two Americans, you know, that clapped their hands. I go, are there any Iranians here? Two Iranians. And everybody else was a against Indonesian. Oh, wow. So, yeah. So it depends on where I am.

Louise Palanker (47:34):

Yeah. I mean I guess I think people relate to you because you know, you are multicultural and like, didn't we all come from Iran at some point? We all came from Iran and we all somehow migrated somewhere else. Right? So maybe that's, you're just that guy that everybody can relate to.

Maz Jobrani (47:51):

Well there's that and there's also like, listen, I have a lot of kid materials, so I don't care if you're talking about your kids in LA or in Doha. Your kids are the same, at the same age. They're gonna be acting the same, the parents are gonna get it. If I'm talking about my parents similar, we all feel the same about our parents. I mean obviously different. There's, there's some differences, but in the, for the most part, that's the kind of stuff that, that people latch onto. And I'd like to talk to the audience a lot of times. Like now when I'm, when I'm doing my act, like for example, um, I do a bit about, uh, getting older, turning 50 and how I got my fourth covid shot and I still got omicron. And then my next question is, anybody else here get omicron And I don't care if you're young or old, somebody will raise their hands and I'll be like, oh, when did you get it?

(48:34):

Now we're talking. Yeah. And, and so like there's been times when I've been talking to somebody who's young and I said, uh, you know, did you get the symptoms for Omicron, which was a head cold, lower back pain? And the person will be like, nah, I didn't really feel much. And I'm like, oh my God, to be young. And then the riff becomes, yeah, making fun of the young guy. And then there's somebody who'll be like, I had one girl in the eye. It was actually kind of funny, this one girl, she said, uh, I said, you had the symptoms head cold, lower back pain. She goes, uh, I had, uh, I got clinically bad breath. Ooh. And I go, what is that? And it became like a, became a two minute riff on clinically bad breath. And her friends were like, dying of laughter cuz I'm, I'm kind of making fun of her, but, but she's laughing too cause I'm going, I've never heard of that.

(49:17):

Like how is that even, so all of that to say there's some crowd work that will also, um, uh, um, bring the crowd to you. Yeah. You know, I, I learned a little bit of that watching. I think it was Richard Pryor did a special in uh, new Orleans and the first five minutes was about his week in New Orleans. And it wasn't material that he would've done maybe if he were in another city, but the people in that audience were dying and now he had them and then he took 'em on his journey. Wow. So I try to do that as much as I can.

Fritz Coleman (49:49):

You're really good at your crowd work. How did you arrange for that guy to come up and propose to his Kurdish woman on Stakes? Which was really amazing. And why I was really moved by that was that, you know, the Kurds are a very misunderstood culture as well. And I thought it paid off the multicultural aspect of your whole audience at the Kennedy Center was really awesome.

Maz Jobrani (50:10):

Yeah. So that was actually not on the special. The special was shot, um, the, I think the year before at the Kennedy Center in 2017. Then we went back and uh, I was doing another show at the Kennedy Center and uh, they had an, an audio video who said, Hey, can I follow you around and kind of make a little documentary of this? I said, sure. I said, by the way, a fan has reached out cuz this was, this is how the, the, the proposal came about. Said a fan has reached out. He told me that he's this American guy who was served in the military and he met his Kurdish wife. Um, and they came to one of my shows as like their first date and now he wants to propose. So I said, maybe, uh, you can film that too as part of this mini doc that you're filming that's on my YouTube channel.

(50:59):

And so the way we did it was actually kind of interesting cuz um, what I did at the end of my show, I, I, you know, I'd gotten into my closer and I said, guys, you know, I wanna try something different. Okay. Um, I have put all of your names into, we've taken your tickets and we've put it into a little bit of a a a raffle <laugh>. We're gonna pick a name <laugh> and I'm gonna let that person come up and finish the show with a joke. So are you guys into this? And you know, some people are like, what's going on? They don't know what's going on. Some people are clapping, so cuz they thought the show was over. Uh, so I of course picked the guy's name and I'm like, you know, whatever, uh, Frank, you know, Johnson come on up and I go bring whoever you're with because when we're done you guys are just going to exit off stage.

(51:43):

So now he's got his fiance, uh, or or girlfriend, but he hasn't told her. So they bring them up and he comes over and then I do a little interview and then I go, all right, so your turn to tell a joke. So then the guy very smoothly takes the microphone and just, you know, holds cord and says, tells the whole story about how my girlfriend and I, our first date, Maja Brony show this and that. And what a great experience to be up here now on stage. And, you know, you bring people together. Speaking of bringing people together, <laugh>, uh, I would like nothing further than, uh, the world to witness. And he gets on his knees and then he proposes. It was excellent to her. It was amazing. But, but here's the, here's the, the button on all that Somebody, I don't know who it was. Talk about like not getting the, not not getting it. Somebody like on, on, on some post that I made, like saying Thank you all for coming or what an amazing night or whatever. Somebody wrote like, I really enjoyed the whole show, but this new thing of him letting people come up to tell a joke at the end, it kind of, it it ruined the show. Like

Fritz Coleman (52:48):

Didn't even get, that

Maz Jobrani (52:49):

Was a joke proposing like, that's very funny.

Louise Palanker (52:51):

We didn't get it. It just wasn't funny. And it wasn't funny enough.

Fritz Coleman (52:53):

That's funny.

Louise Palanker (52:54):

Oh my god, that's beautiful. Well we're gonna let you jump out cuz we know you've got, uh, you know, a busy life and I'm gonna, is there anything you wanna plug before we wrap it up and uh, read the credits?

Fritz Coleman (53:05):

Where's the special gonna Air Maz? Is it gonna be a, a streaming service?

Maz Jobrani (53:08):

So the special is, you know, I've been a regular now at the Comedy Store for 23 years and I've been looking for when you would call, we call it a special, but is it really a special if you're just filming in another theater? And so I thought what's a special thing to do? Well, my home club where Mitie Shore made me regular, let me do the special there, tell a little bit about the story of becoming a regular there. And so we're filming it this Saturday. If anyone's in LA they should come out seven or nine 30, I think there's a handful of tickets left. And then after that we hope to, um, get it on either a streamer or if not, then my YouTube channel, which is just at Maio brai. Um, people, if people wanna follow me, I'm very active now on Instagram and on TikTok and all that stuff. It's all at Maio Brai. That's the best way to follow me, know what's going on. And then from there I'm heading out to Europe from for a European tour and then back to the US for more US days.

Speaker 4 (54:01):

Oh wow.

Louise Palanker (54:03):

That's exciting stuff. All right. Check out all of those links and follow MAs jabban and you will not regret the choices that you have made. Um, I'm gonna read our closing credits. Thank you so much for joining us. We would love to continue this conversation with you on Instagram and Twitter where we are at Media Path Pod and on Facebook where our show pages Media Path podcast on our Facebook group is Media Path with Fritz and Weezy podcast community. You can find full video podcast episodes loaded with bonus visual content on our YouTube channel Media Path podcast. You can write to us at media path podcast gmail.com. And if you enjoy the show, please give us a nice rating in Apple Podcasts and talk about us on social media. You can sign up for our fun and dishy newsletter@mediapathpodcast.com. And we want to thank our wonderful, thrilling guest, Maz Givani. Thank you so much for being with us. Maz, our team includes Dina Friedman, John Maddox, Sharon Beo, bill phc, Thomas Hubble, Mason Brown, and you. Our theme music is by me and John Maddox. I Louise Lanker here with Fritz Coleman and we will see you along the media path.

Speaker 4 (55:08):

Thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day.

Louise Palanker (55:13):

You too. Safe travel.

Speaker 4 (55:14):

Thank

Maz Jobrani (55:15):

You. Bye-bye.