I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV: Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man
Written by Maz Jobrani
Narrated by Maz Jobrani
4/5
()
About this audiobook
After he emigrated with his family to the US during the Iranian Revolution, Maz Jobrani spent most of his youth trying to fit in with his adopted culture—learning to play baseball and religiously watching Dallas. But none of his attempts at assimilation made a difference to casting directors, who only auditioned him for the role of kebab-eating, bomb-toting, extremist psychopath.
When he first started out in show business, Maz endured suggestions that he spice up his stand-up act by wearing “the outfit,” fielded questions about rising gas prices, and was jeered for his supposed involvement in the Iran hostage crisis. In fact, these things happened so often that he began to wonder: Could I be a terrorist without even knowing it? And when all he seemed to be offered were roles that required looking menacingly Arabic, he wondered if he would ever make it in America.
This laugh-out-loud memoir chronicles a lifetime of both killing it and bombing on stage, with “plenty to say about matters of race, assimilation, embarrassing family members, life in America for brown-skinned people before and after 9/11, the vagaries of international pop culture, and making it in big, dumb, fizzy, sometimes beautiful America” (The New York Times).
Maz Jobrani
Maz Jobrani is a founding member of The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. He performs stand-up comedy around the world, including in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East where he performed in front of the King of Jordan. Maz starred in the films Friday After Next, 13 Going on 30, and The Interpreter. He was a series regular on ABC’s Better Off Ted, and he has guest starred on Curb Your Enthusiasm, 24, True Blood, and Shameless, to name a few. Jobrani is currently a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” He has also given two TED talks, which can be viewed at TED.com. He has performed his stand-up on The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, and Showtime and is starring in the indie comedy feature, Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero, which he cowrote and produced. I’m Not a Terrorist, But I’ve Played One on TV is his first book.
Related to I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV
Related audiobooks
Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American on Purpose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love & Courage: My Story of Family, Resilience, and Overcoming the Unexpected Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Music to My Years: A Mixtape-Memoir of Growing Up and Standing Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Russell Peters: Deported Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYes, My Accent Is Real Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chinedu Unaka: Mostly Kidding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ophira Eisenberg: Bangs! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un)Popular Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Split Decision: Life Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Missed Translations: Meeting the Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anjelah Johnson: The Homecoming Show Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Other Home: Living, Leading, and Learning What Matters Most Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: And a Thousand Cocktails Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Off the Record Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grouchy Historian: An Old-Time Lefty Defends Our Constitution Against Right-Wing Hypocrites and Nutjobs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Live in Oakland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All Our Names Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death, and the Search for Truth in Tehran Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Suck at Girls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Date Rape Dad: Why Bill Cosby Did It And Why America Didn't Give A Dam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If at Birth You Don't Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Humor & Satire For You
Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarianist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scrappy Little Nobody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mary Jane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Humans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy People Are Annoying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sh*t My Dad Says Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swamp Story: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel by Bonnie Garmus: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV
21 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book brings lots of subjects that I like to read about in one place: Iran, USA, humility and humour. His recurrent struggles with his mother are exactly what I'm still seeing in my relationship with my mom and it reminded me that it's a universal issue and you can look at it from a humoristic point of view.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Average script, funny! For listening in a time when you want to relax. Not actually listening
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was mostly memoirs highlighting important milestones in his life and he generally had a very amusing way of telling the tales. Of course the biggest problem he had was with his parents which I think is fairly common with children of immigrants. Most parents embarrass their children. Children of immigrants have the added issue that their parents are different and do and say ‘weird’ things. Jobrani’s family happened to be pretty rich and his dad drove a Rolls Royce which helped him stick out in a crowd. Being picked up from school in a Rolls tended to garner attention, which is not what you want when you want to ‘blend in’. He also had to fight against the family pressures to become a doctor, lawyer or some other ‘respectable’ profession. So he didn’t have much support when he tried acting and standup. But then how many really funny comics come out and say, “ya my family thought I was funny and pushed me into stand up comedy…”Overall, I enjoyed the book and I think he did a good job of bringing up a topic that he has been working on for years, and is particularly timely right now with the current US election going on. And that is just being a Muslim doesn’t make someone a bad person wanting to blow up Americans. As a matter of fact there are plenty of American Muslims out there that adore our country as much as the rest of us. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.