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    I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV: Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man
    I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV: Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man
    I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV: Memoirs of a Middle Eastern Funny Man
    Audiobook6 hours

    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

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    About this audiobook

    “A funny, insightful memoir” (Kirkus Reviews) about growing up Iranian in America, and the quest to make it as an actor in Hollywood without having to wear a turban, tote a bomb, or get kicked in the face by Chuck Norris.

    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).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateFeb 17, 2015
    ISBN9781442387782
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV

    4/5

    21 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This 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

    • 3/5
      Average script, funny! For listening in a time when you want to relax. Not actually listening
    • 4/5
      This 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.