Jobrani’s jabs take on all races in routine

February 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By JESSE WASHINGTON

History says Maz Jobrani is descended from Caucasians. Some Americans think he’s a dangerous Arab. Jobrani, however, prefers to call himself “Brown and Friendly.”

That’s the title of a new comedy special from this Iranian-born comedian who was raised in the United States and now travels the world running roughshod over ethnic stereotypes.

Jobrani starts his show laughing at his fellow Persians, then widens his scope to the whole Middle East. His Indian wife — “not casino Indian, computer Indian” — gets no mercy. Before the end of the show, Mexicans, white Americans, Japanese, the Swiss and more get lampooned, in a variety of perfect accents.

“If you come from a place of love, and you’re not saying, ‘I’m better than you,’ that’s one thing that allows you to talk about different ethnicities,” Jobrani said in an interview. “It’s almost like laughing with each other.

“I’ve had people come up to me after the show and say, ‘Why did you not make fun of Pakistan?’ People are actually upset you didn’t talk about them. When you do, it’s like, ‘Cool, I’m in the circle.’”

Jobrani is 37 with fair skin, a prominent nose, shaved head and dramatic down-swooping black mustache. He moved from Tehran to the San Francisco Bay area with his family when he was 6. A love of theater led to standup comedy and roles in film and television, including “Life on a Stick,” “24,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Knights of Prosperity.” His new one-man show premiered on Showtime in January and was released last week on DVD.

In the fourth grade, Jobrani endured insults after Islamic revolutionaries took hostages inside Iran’s American embassy. In high school and college, he was called “sheik” and “camel jockey.” Then came the World Trade Center attacks, which changed the lives of many Middle Easterners living in the United States.

“Definitely in the West, we’re all cast as the same now,” Jobrani said. “Whether you’re Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Iranian, Afghan or whatever, you just get thrown into this category. And nine times out of 10, you’re depicted as bad.”

The cure for this disease is familiarity. Besides ethnic jokes, Jobrani’s show also includes common comedic themes such as clueless parents and his newborn son learning to breast feed — but from a different point of view.

One of his best shows ever was in Ottawa, Canada. The auditorium did not sell out, so the promoter sent free last-minute tickets to theater subscribers — a group of older, white people.

“They were loving it,” Jobrani recalled. “Part of it is just being exposed to a Middle Eastern comedian. How many white people have been exposed to that? People have these perceptions of us not laughing. They have a perception of us being terrorists ... and then they’re going, ‘Oh, wow, this is funny.’ You know, funny can be universal.”