Mo Amer escaped being funny
During our condensed and edited conversation, Amer talked about his reasons for accepting the concert in Saudi Arabia, his friendships with Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel, and why he’s not afraid to cancel the concert.
What time are you in?
10 evening In fact, I was still editing before I moved here, because the special wasn’t finished yet. Now it’s just a matter of final touches and adjustments — coloring, ADR, and whatever else. I’ve been running around like crazy all month – really, all year – so I’ll do a show, and then I’ll jump in and start editing until like five o’clock. I am Or 6 I amThen sleep, wake up, and do a show.
Are you traveling with your wife and child?
Yes, I took it everywhere. It was, like, a dream come true. I got a tour bus in Europe, a double decker with a little office upstairs, with Wi-Fi and Apple TV and everything. So I was able to do it — go upstairs, edit the private file, come downstairs, sleep with my son and my wife, wake up in the next city, next country, and do the whole thing again. It was very special. I will show you the pictures. [He holds up his phone, showing off photos of his toddler.]
amazing. how old is he?
Twenty-one months.
Beautiful.
The whole family is together, man. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, brother. Nothing close to this.
So clearly the occasion of our conversation is your new occasion. I want to get to that. But, before we get there: Your audience knows you from your past specials and from your show on Netflix. But maybe let’s define, for people new to your story, where you’re coming from. If someone came in cold, what would you want them to know about your life story?
It’s interesting, because the first special, “The Vagabond,” was intended to fill this gap in information. That’s what the whole special was about, like never having this conversation again. It’s very interesting, not this interview in particular, but my entire existence has been like this. It was naive on my part, perhaps, on some level, to think, I have my own explanation of where I’m coming from, okay, that’s enough.
I see what you’re saying. So I felt like, “I’m tired of having to explain myself from scratch every time. Let me put something out into the world that will do that for me.”
all time. People say: “Oh, were you born in Kuwait? You’re Kuwaiti.” I say to myself: “No, I’m not Kuwaiti. It’s not the same in the Middle East, that’s where your lineage comes from.” “Well, where are you from?” “Well, originally I am Palestinian.” “Well, why aren’t you there?” “Well, that’s another story.” [Laughs.] “Where do you live now? You’re in Houston? Oh, so you’re from Texas.” Yes, I’m from Texas. Of course I’m from Texas. I’ve been there my whole life, basically. So I’m from Texas. But then you go abroad and they say, “Oh, you’re American.” When you come to America, they say, “Oh, you’re from abroad.” I want to say, “You know what? Fuck you both.”
[Laughs.] Yes. There’s an amazing joke in “The Vagabond” about the logistics of that — kind of slipping through the cracks that way, going to the airport and the guy behind the desk asking, “Where’s your Kuwaiti passport? Where’s your American passport? Where’s your Palestinian passport?”
Right, that’s one part. That’s one thing. I would say it’s much more complicated than that. I mean, you know, I spend my whole life like this person. Doing a stand-in with US troops before I even became a US citizen is really unprecedented. I will see it with my own eyes, as a product of war and displaced by it, a generational displaced person. For those reasons, I thought it would be really good for me to do that – almost on a therapeutic level, or on a spiritual level – to be able to perform in front of American forces in particular, and be myself. That’s the essence of stand-up, right? To be yourself. And the opportunity to do that was really unique – I don’t think anyone else had done that before, certainly at the risk that I was under. I mean, they canceled my subscription once, right after 9/11. They said: “Don’t go, for your safety.” But then I thought it was more important to go, so I did, and that’s when I realized that there were a lot of military bases around the world, and that there was a much bigger geopolitical game being played – bigger than all of us.