Transcript
Marc Maron (0:00)
Lock the gate.
Mo Amer (0:09)
All right, let's do this.
Unknown Comedian (0:10)
How are you?
Mo Amer (0:11)
What the fuckers?
Unknown Comedian (0:12)
What the fuck, buddies?
Mo Amer (0:12)
What the fuck, Nicks? What's happening? How's everybody holding up? How are you doing? How's that thing you went to see? What's going on with that thing on your hand? I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you lost your job. How are you doing with all the insanity, weather wise? How are you doing with the snow, the floods, the fires? How are you doing with all the insanity that's going on culturally, politically? What's happening? Are you holding it together? Are you eating correctly? Try to, you know, stay engaged in a way where you can manage it. Try and be realistic and adapt and figure out how to move forward. Because as old Hunter said, in a generation of swine, the one eyed pig is king. And that is, that's diplomatic in terms of, you know, where we're at now. But old Hunter knew what he was talking about. Gonna go back and read some of those books. So I don't know, man. Today I'm here. I'm here and I'm aware and I'm trying to figure out a way through day to day, figure out how I can help, what I can do, who needs help, how can I help them, that kind of stuff. Being charitable, being decent, being respectful, having tolerance, having empathy. Stay on top of it, will you? Stay on top of it? Today, actually, I get to have a real conversation about real, real global things with Mo Amer. He's a comic with two standup specials on Netflix. He was a cast member on the series Rami. He's got his own series on Netflix called Mo, which is now in its second season. And it's terrific. You know, I welcome and I completely consume and learn from television series created by artists who are of a certain background that is not necessarily contextualized culturally. Good examples are Sterwin Harjo.
Unknown Comedian (2:19)
Yeah.
Mo Amer (2:19)
And Rami Youssef. Like, these are things, the world of the reservation, you know, I knew nothing about. I just didn't. And maybe that's on me. And Rami's experience as an Arab Muslim here in the States was unique to me in terms of what that community was like, what that, what that. The struggles within the community, his struggles with Islam, all that stuff in terms of how these communities live in this country. And with Mo's series, he's a Palestinian American and comedian and his family is Palestinian and what they've lived with and been through and what they hold onto historically, traditionally and familially in Terms of being in this country was an eye opening, mind blowing experience. And we were able to, to really kind of have a discussion about that, about his life, about Palestine, about American Palestinians and you know, I as a Jew and Mo as a Palestinian. But the bottom line is, and oddly the most important thing about the conversation is that we're both comedians and we both love comedy and have a personal history with comedy and some heroes in common. But, but we were able to talk about the other stuff. Look, I talk about things, I talk about my fears, I talk about the politics of this country. Look, I knew and know what's going on in Gaza is awful and I've stated that, but I do get a little preoccupied with what's in my own backyard in terms of the ongoing shift from democracy into some sort of competitive authoritarianism, which is a documented term that you should probably look up. There's been some articles about it. It's sort of what Hungary is and what Hungary became through that autocrat Viktor Orban, who is a big hero to some of the right wing pseudo intellectuals in terms of the shameless shift that they support away from liberal democracy in this country. And as it's starting to unfold, you know, we're gonna, it's just, look, we're gonna start hearing questions we haven't heard in a long time, if ever.