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00:06Nazeem, hello. Hello, Virginia. How are you? I'm really well. Well, this is a lot of fun
00:11because you're one of our most important comedians. Don't laugh. No, I love being called an important
00:18comedian. Well, because you say that you want to make the majority feel like the minority
00:24for one hour. That would be something that is in my mind. And I wouldn't normally want
00:29to let other people know about, but here we are. Too late. I mean, yeah, I think it's fun
00:36if you can kind of flip a dynamic. It's not that I go out looking for controversial issues
00:41to talk about. Like, I want to make people laugh. I want to have a good time. But comedy feels
00:47like the only tool I have at my disposal to make sense of this ridiculous world we're
00:52living in at the moment. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you in action, Nazeem.
00:56Can't wait. Okay, bye. Bye.
01:01I'm Virginia Trioli and I've spent my life paying attention to creative Australians and
01:06wondering what is going on in that wild mind of theirs. In this series, I'll showcase artists
01:14and performers at the peak of their powers and tell the story of their triumphs, their stumbles
01:19and why they make the glorious work we love so much.
01:24Donuts for Nazeem Hussain. Nazeem Hussain is one of the biggest stars of Australian comedy,
01:30whose provocative shows have won international acclaim.
01:34Right, let the house just go now. All are coming in.
01:36Sir, please remain calm.
01:38For more than two decades, his audacious stand-up and sketch comedy has held up a mirror to society,
01:45revealing uncomfortable but hilarious truths.
01:49That's not even an insult, calling someone un-Australian.
01:52Like, everywhere but Australia and Bali is un-Australian.
01:56Do you reckon?
02:03I'm thrilled to be unashamedly celebrating the art of making
02:07because we are a country of so many brilliant, creative types.
02:23Hey.
02:23Hey, hello, Nazeem. How are you?
02:25Good, how are you?
02:26Great to see you here.
02:27You're about to go in there and wow an audience.
02:30Well, that's the plan.
02:31OK.
02:32I hope they've studied the refund policy.
02:34Because there is none.
02:38So we're heading to the powerhouse here.
02:40Have you played this joint before?
02:41This is honestly one of my top five venues in Australia.
02:44Oh, really?
02:44It is beautiful.
02:46It feels like a treat.
02:47And the acoustic, everything's great about it.
03:02What's your pre-show prep?
03:04The aim is to try and be chill, but I inevitably pace a lot and look at my notebook and
03:09feel like I need to cram more and more jokes and ideas.
03:13But in theory, just be chill and just act like I'm not thinking about the show.
03:17Okay.
03:24Hello!
03:27Hello, hello.
03:29Hello!
03:32Well, I mean, oh, there's a lot of white people.
03:35Honestly, I did not expect this amount of white.
03:39Bloody hell.
03:39Oh, come on, white people, go.
03:40It makes them...
03:42All right, all right.
03:43So, not bad, not bad.
03:44A lot of confidence, a lot of white pride in that.
03:47Woo!
03:48Brown people, it makes them...
03:50I like that ratio.
03:52That is good.
03:52All right.
03:53I'll tell you a bit of personal news, everybody.
03:54I just became a dad, everyone.
03:58We had a baby boy.
03:59We named him Yusuf.
04:01Yusuf Muhammad Hussein.
04:02Now, we named him that because we're trying to save money,
04:04if I'm honest.
04:05Disneyland's expensive.
04:06No way he's getting on a plane with that name, so...
04:10Oh, Nazeem, that was a solid hour of race jokes.
04:14Everyone gets skewered,
04:16and yet every person there is absolutely laughing their guts out,
04:19including me.
04:20How do you manage that?
04:22I think it's more just about moving the camera around
04:24and just sort of just letting everyone feel a little different.
04:29For me, making a joke is effective when there's tension to pop,
04:32like when there's a bubble of expectation
04:36or people don't really know where something's going.
04:37You know, if there's a joke about brown people
04:39and white people are laughing,
04:40they get self-conscious,
04:41and then it goes both ways.
04:43Everyone's sort of looking at each other,
04:44figuring out, like, whether...
04:46You know, so I feel like...
04:47Is it okay to laugh?
04:48Is it okay to laugh?
04:49There's a lot of thinking going on.
04:50It's race jokes within race jokes within race jokes,
04:53which is a complicated and tricky little thing to land.
04:56It doesn't always land.
04:58A lot of the writing happens on stage and...
05:01Oh, really?
05:02Yeah, and I think it kind of has to because, you know,
05:04you might have an idea that's funny
05:06and you can only figure it out on stage in front of an audience
05:09and find out whether they're going to laugh.
05:11And meanwhile, I can't sleep.
05:12Like, I'm wide awake.
05:13My friends are like,
05:14just get noise-cancelling headphones.
05:16Listen to white noise.
05:17That'll help you sleep.
05:18So I was like, all right, what's white noise?
05:20Like, Coldplay, do you mean?
05:21And, um...
05:23You can ask almost any comedian,
05:25where's the line?
05:26Where's the line that you won't cross?
05:28I don't know if I can...
05:29I don't know if that matters to you.
05:31That might be how it comes across.
05:33Like, there's a, you know, there's a veneer of,
05:34like, I don't care, I'll just say anything.
05:35But I am very conscious to not make fun of people
05:38who are routinely humiliated
05:40or do it in a way that doesn't, like, bring them in.
05:43Yeah.
05:44Because the audience will let you know it doesn't feel nice.
05:46Like, it feels like a bully up on stage.
05:48Yeah, there is definitely a line.
05:49I think there is a responsibility if you've got a microphone.
05:52He comes at it from his own perspective,
05:54which is really important.
05:56I suppose for him in a very small venue,
05:58it would have been 50 seats, maybe.
06:00I remember me and my wife
06:02were the only white people in the crowd.
06:04I was watching people I felt
06:05who hadn't laughed that hard in Australia before.
06:08In terms of that they had some comedy made for them.
06:12And I was like, oh, this is how white people feel every day.
06:16And, uh, and it made me realise
06:17just how important representation is.
06:20I found, um, I found something called Brown Noise.
06:22Have you guys heard of Brown Noise?
06:24It's like a real thing, yeah.
06:25It's like, I, uh, I found a three and a half hour track
06:27and I put my noise-cancelling headphones on
06:30and I pressed play and I said,
06:31welcome to Brown Noise.
06:33And then it was just my mum's voice.
06:35You should have been a doctor.
06:36You should have been a doctor.
06:36You should have been a doctor.
06:40I feel like the better I get at comedy,
06:42or the more I do it,
06:43the more comfortable I am with, like, playing the room.
06:46And so, yeah, like, if they're laughing,
06:49I just keep going.
06:51I'm not too, I'm not shy to milk something dry.
07:11Do you smell that?
07:13Oh, my goodness.
07:14Nazeem was born and raised in Melbourne's Burwood,
07:17the middle child of Sri Lankan migrants.
07:20It's a surprise, like a kinder surprise.
07:22Oh, my God, look.
07:23Oh, yum.
07:25A background rich with inspiration for his comedy.
07:30This is the food that gets you into trouble
07:31when you're an immigrant kid.
07:33In primary school, I remember, like, opening my lunchbox
07:35and kids are like, what the hell is that?
07:37And I was like, nothing.
07:38Just close it, put it away.
07:39Veggie white.
07:41Veggie white.
07:44I'm stuffed.
07:46Absolutely delicious.
07:47And a nap.
07:54Nazeem, who's this cheerful, happy little kid in this picture?
07:58The only brown in the village.
07:59I think that's me, yeah.
08:00I think it's just me at kinder.
08:02I think I actually wanted to be a firefighter
08:04for a very short period of time.
08:05Most kids do?
08:06Yeah.
08:06And then my mum was like, no, a doctor or a lawyer?
08:09That's it.
08:10Well, I want to bring your mum straight into the conversation.
08:12Here she is.
08:13And that's you there and your sister and your dad.
08:17Because she is central to, well, of course, your life,
08:21but also your comedic life.
08:23She's sort of like a comedy origin story, really, your mum.
08:26She kind of is.
08:27I think, like, you know, she sort of represents, like,
08:29a bigger version of me, you know?
08:32Someone that's navigating between two worlds,
08:35who doesn't know how to keep things in.
08:39Doesn't really navigate the subtlety that well.
08:45And that's me.
08:46I'm just all out.
08:47She effectively raised us, you know,
08:49my dad left when I was about five or six.
08:51So, yeah, single mum, you know, having to work several jobs,
08:55navigate a different culture,
08:58try to raise us as good Muslims with a Sri Lankan identity.
09:01So she really dialled up all aspects of her personality.
09:05Isn't there a story about her pulling in the former premier,
09:08Geoff Kennett, to the aid of her children?
09:10Yes.
09:10My sister was getting bullied.
09:11So my mum took matters into her own hands.
09:13Of course.
09:13Just went straight to the principal.
09:15The principal, he didn't really have an intention of resolving the thing.
09:18My mum then got in the car, drove straight to the local MP's office,
09:22who at the time was Geoff Kennett, premier of Victoria.
09:25Had no appointment, just walked in with her hijab.
09:28She saw Geoff, walks into his office.
09:30The receptionist chased my mum.
09:31My mum locked the door behind her, spoke to Geoff Kennett.
09:3545 minutes later, walks back into the principal's office with Geoff Kennett by her side.
09:39Geoff's like, just do whatever this woman says.
09:40All right, just...
09:41And then the bullying stopped.
09:42So, you know, you can't wait for people to do things or say things for you.
09:46You know, you've just got to front foot it.
09:48So, you're a kid who's getting bullied and learning to have a smart mouth to deal it back.
09:54Yeah.
09:55Very early on with kids that would make jokes about me, I'd give it straight back and then
09:58they would, you know, everyone would laugh at them.
09:59Sometimes they would cry, but they would never mess with me again.
10:02The laughter that I'd get when I'd tease someone back, that was like a weapon.
10:06So, it's just like, I wasn't trying to find the hypocrisy.
10:08I was trying to find the laugh.
10:09So, do we see this as the beginning of your comedic voice?
10:13Probably.
10:14Now that, you know, we're digging into that part of my childhood.
10:19The kid who made his bullies laugh was on the cusp of becoming a confident young comedian.
10:25Community television offered him a defining opportunity.
10:28We've got a new coffee maker.
10:31Well, I tend to like making tea more than coffee, but...
10:34Four years after 9-11, while studying law and science at university,
10:39Nazeem and some fellow Muslim friends put together a show on community television
10:43called Salaam Cafe.
10:45This is surely not a permanent appointment.
10:47What are you, criticising my food without even tasting it?
10:49Yes.
10:50Yes, I am.
10:51Salaam Cafe was a huge moment in my career.
10:54It's probably where, well, it's where television started for me.
10:57A bunch of friends, including Waleed Ali, Susan Carland,
11:00just talking about Muslim life.
11:01I think, in a way, the show came about because, you know, it was post 9-11.
11:06And we were in the news a lot, Muslims.
11:08Yes.
11:09Not for good stuff, surprise.
11:11And it sort of came from this frustration about, like,
11:15let's just do a show that, let's be on TV as people that we know.
11:19But I had no filter.
11:20I'd just say anything and do anything.
11:21And then you'd get feedback.
11:23So I learnt that, like, oh, there's an audience out there
11:25that don't all like you,
11:26and you're going to hear from them articulately.
11:29And so we would get these angry emails from people,
11:31from Muslims saying that we shouldn't be making fun of the religion,
11:36which we weren't, I think, I don't know.
11:38And then non-Muslims were like,
11:40stop trying to make Muslims not look like terrorists
11:42and pretend that you're not.
11:44We know what you're really about.
11:45So you couldn't win.
11:46And so through that experience,
11:47I sort of learnt to develop a thick skin, I guess,
11:50like that you can't convince everybody.
11:51It is day one of the race for Camden,
11:54and I'm going to Camden to meet the people,
11:56to press the flesh, the halal flesh,
11:58to see what makes them tick in a non-explosive type of way.
12:02It was in these early days of Salaam Cafe
12:04that Nazeem created what was to become
12:07an enduring character in his comedy, Uncle Sam.
12:11We are here in Camden, which will soon become Islamden.
12:16Tell me about the origin story of this particular character.
12:19We were like, we need a segment.
12:20Tomorrow we've got the deadline.
12:22What are we going to do?
12:23I was like, let's just go to Frankston
12:24and just interview some bogans, you know?
12:27So we just went down there,
12:28and I just started acting like an uncle
12:29and just getting all these crazy responses,
12:31and we aired that, and it went nuts.
12:32What is Ramadan?
12:34Ramadan!
12:35Is that like a papadum?
12:36Go talk to this boy.
12:37He's by himself.
12:39He must be Muslim because nobody liking him.
12:42Are you Muslim?
12:44The character comes from just like many uncles
12:47that I've grown up around.
12:48They just have this, like, beautiful view
12:51of the community and faith,
12:52and they just want to share it with people.
12:54So at a time when people were really, like,
12:57freaked out about Muslims,
12:58this is probably when I enjoyed playing that character the most.
13:01He's written to be as kind of guileless
13:04and almost to be daffy, like a daffy uncle.
13:07But what's he trying to do?
13:08Turn Australian, you know, Sharia, right?
13:11Actually, he's trying to introduce Sharia law into Australia,
13:13and that's the gag.
13:14I think the fact that Uncle Sam is quietly spoken
13:17and quite polite amuses me.
13:20And he walked down the street
13:21and he'd talk to Australians who would patronise him
13:23and not realise that he was ripping the piss out of them.
13:27It's just the most perfect satire.
13:30Well, I think this is where this very...
13:33..this man who's very dear to you,
13:35Amur Rahman, comes in.
13:36Mm-hm.
13:36How old were you when you met each other?
13:39Ah, teenagers.
13:40I think, like, we would go to Muslim community events
13:42and, you know,
13:43when everybody else was trying to take things seriously,
13:46we were not taking it seriously.
13:49You were sitting up the back making jokes.
13:50We were sitting up the back making jokes.
13:50And so it was kind of fun to meet someone
13:53who was also just as irreverent.
13:55Well, you put together the show
13:57that ended up being your breakthrough moment,
14:00the two of you, which is Fear of a Brown Planet.
14:02What's your name?
14:04In the pink?
14:05Victoria.
14:06Nice to meet you, Victoria.
14:07I'll take you on a date, Victoria.
14:09Candlelight dinner, I'd be sitting here gazing at you.
14:12You'd be sitting there gazing straight back at me.
14:16And my mum.
14:19I was probably the more...
14:20Well, definitely the more palatable of the two of us.
14:23Like, I was sugar and he was spice, you know?
14:25You either like him or you're like, I can't do chilli.
14:27So he was, um...
14:29Yeah, it felt really exciting
14:30to be able to say your thoughts on a microphone
14:34to people that clap with you and laugh.
14:38And it just felt really good for us.
14:43After their early success in Australia,
14:45Nazeem and Amer took Fear of a Brown Planet
14:48to the tough judgements of the Edinburgh Festival.
14:52He got a one-star review this morning
14:55which said, amongst other things,
14:57that, uh, we were racist
14:59and, uh, that we weren't good enough comedians
15:02to write about coming from immigrant stock.
15:06First couple of weeks, it was brutal.
15:08I think it was a one-star review, I think.
15:10It was a one-star review.
15:11We had, like...
15:11I can see...
15:12I can see you feel...
15:13You still feel it.
15:14I still feel it.
15:14Just like, oh, it's so...
15:15I've got so much to say about reviews,
15:17but, like, the worst reviews
15:18are the ones that actually make sense
15:20and you're like, oh, you're right.
15:21You're right, yeah.
15:22Oh, I hate you, though.
15:23Why'd you just tell everyone?
15:25Yes.
15:25You know, sometimes you need that pressure
15:27to cut the crap
15:29and just get straight to the funny bits.
15:32So I think it was good.
15:33The second half of the run,
15:34there was an improvement
15:35and suddenly we sort of, like,
15:37started to figure out
15:39what made the show good and funny
15:42and, yeah, people started coming.
15:43What were you learning?
15:44So what do you learn
15:45when you do stand-up night after night after night?
15:48It's getting yourself away
15:49from the sort of easy laughs...
15:52Yes.
15:52..that makes you a better comedian.
15:54Let me get this right.
15:55So for white people to go out
15:58and enjoy the company of other white people,
16:00for that to happen...
16:03..you need to intoxicate yourselves, is that...?
16:05..in order for that to happen, is that...?
16:08LAUGHTER
16:13While Nazeem's comedy career was taking off,
16:16he was working as a tax accountant at PwC.
16:20But his dual life was about to come to a head.
16:24You called yourself a tax accountant Batman.
16:27LAUGHTER
16:27Tax accountancy by day?
16:29Pretty much. Literally.
16:31And what, by night?
16:31Comedian.
16:32Yeah, like, I was walking to gigs with my suit on
16:36and my shirt, and I'd be taking my suit off on the way sometimes.
16:40Just like Batman.
16:40And literally, yeah, going on stage with, like,
16:42suit pants and a shirt, like,
16:43oh, if I take off two buttons, it kind of looks casual.
16:46Definitely very different worlds.
16:48When you're at PwC,
16:49you get an extraordinary opportunity from SBS.
16:53Yeah.
16:53So I sort of said,
16:54why don't we just pitch this idea to SBS?
16:56You know, cos that would be the exact show that I'd want to do.
16:58Not thinking that they would say yes,
17:00and then they said yes,
17:01and I was like, oh, crap, but I've got a job.
17:03Well, you said, like, should I go?
17:05What'd they say?
17:06And so I was like, look, you know,
17:08SBS have offered me this TV show,
17:09but PwC is number one for me.
17:12That's just, you know, I'll say no.
17:14He's like, wait, wait, they've given you your own show?
17:15I'm like, yeah.
17:16He's like, you've got to say yes, you idiots.
17:18Did you need to hear that?
17:19I think I did.
17:20That is a great thing to be told.
17:21It was a pretty, like, it gave me a lot of comfort.
17:23Well, I've got some Legally Brown here, the SBS show,
17:27and in this particular scene, white man dancing,
17:31so Matt O'Kine goes searching,
17:35almost in a sort of a furtive drug deal-y type way,
17:39to be taught how to dance like a white man,
17:42and what ensues is a cringing, juicingly accurate representation
17:47of what it is like,
17:49but, of course, in that kind of, you know,
17:51reverse racism way that you love to do.
17:54You want to dance like a white man?
17:58Watch and learn.
18:08He's sweating.
18:09I actually pulled a neck muscle doing this.
18:12That was great.
18:14Yes.
18:15Notice his intense sex face,
18:16and how his feet are constantly out of time
18:18with the music and the rest of his body.
18:21It's like poetry.
18:23White sneakers.
18:26And then some Riverdance.
18:27The Riverdance.
18:29Hey, my career, hey!
18:32Damn.
18:33Damn, I swear you guys were white
18:35the way you were moving just then.
18:36So what's the challenge of sketch comedy
18:38when you're doing that?
18:39So when you're doing something like Legally Brown on SBS
18:41and you're having to churn it out,
18:42you're working in a team, I guess?
18:43You're working with other writers?
18:45Oh, it's like, it is so much more...
18:47I would say in many ways more difficult than stand-up.
18:50Because...
18:51Well, you need to write the sketch as well.
18:53So you've got to have a good team of writers,
18:54good comedy actors or comedians.
18:56You've got to have people that edit well
18:58and know how to get the timing right.
18:59Mm.
18:59You've got to be able to say the things that you want to say
19:02and not be told off by the networks.
19:04And if one of those elements falls over,
19:06like, it's just not funny
19:08and the audience doesn't know why.
19:10He's one of a rare breed of comedian
19:12who can do stand-up and sketch comedy.
19:15There are a lot of comedians who can only do one or the other,
19:17and he can do both seamlessly.
19:19Yes.
19:29Nazeem's comedy career can be hectic and unpredictable.
19:33So he seeks out ways to find focus.
19:45Jiu-Jitsu is this old martial art.
19:48There's so much order.
19:50There's a way things are done.
19:51There's respect.
19:51There's a hierarchy.
19:53So it's the structure of my life
19:55where everything else is chaotic.
19:58Jiu-Jitsu has completely upgraded my life.
20:02Like, I'll go every morning at 6.30,
20:04and it's almost getting bashed every morning.
20:08There's something about, like, being physical,
20:10where you are grappling to not get choked out
20:12or have your arm snapped off,
20:14that it's like it unlocks the creative side of my brain.
20:17And for the rest of the day, I kind of ride that wave.
20:23There you go.
20:23Oh, white belt.
20:25As a comedian who plays with risk,
20:28Nazeem's not afraid to make himself vulnerable.
20:33In 2017, he took a bold step by appearing on
20:37I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
20:39This powerful exchange was highlighted by the network
20:43as a key and highly emotional moment
20:45of Nazeem sharing how the aftermath of the Lint Cafe siege
20:49affected his family.
20:52So that was horrific,
20:53and it was very frightening for a lot of people.
20:55And my sister then texts me, and she says,
20:56Nazeem, she goes, I'm scared to wear the hijab home,
20:59because I think people are going to attack me.
21:00And then throughout the day, that hashtag started trending,
21:02I'll ride with you, non-Muslims were volunteering
21:04to sit with Muslims and make them feel more comfortable.
21:07And then she then messaged me later on going, no, you know what?
21:10I now feel comfortable and safe knowing that my fellow Australians
21:14are willing to stand up and support me on public transport.
21:17Yeah, that was nice.
21:18And that made me...
21:19Like, it actually made me cry when that happened,
21:21because that man wanted to divide Australia.
21:25He wanted us to turn on each other.
21:26Oh, he was a lunatic.
21:27But what he did instead was make us come together.
21:30The fly-on-the-wall style of the production
21:32lent Nazeem's very personal story
21:34an air of authentic self-revelation
21:37that struck deeply with his castmates and the viewers.
21:41It was a turning point.
21:44It changed a lot of things for you, didn't it, that kind of show?
21:47I felt like I didn't need to do any more, like, explaining.
21:50Like, I sometimes felt like to do a punchline on a joke about whatever,
21:54I'd have to first prove to the audience that I'm with you
21:57and that, look, you know, I love Australia too,
21:59but this is something that I'm a bit annoyed with.
22:01And then, you know, then you can get to the funny.
22:03But after that show, people were like,
22:04oh, we know this guy we love, we know where his heart's at.
22:06So you just get straight to the punchline.
22:08They know what... Isn't that interesting?
22:10So it sort of kind of ploughed the field.
22:11It just made it so much easier to tell jokes.
22:23Ordinary Australians can smell and see an underdog.
22:26Our government still hasn't got the message.
22:28I reckon what might overwhelmingly pressure them
22:30to stop funding this genocide is maybe,
22:32if we all just did something small,
22:34to start at Auslifying the way we said Gaza,
22:36instead of calling it Gaza, we started calling it Gaza.
22:38Then Australians would be like, oh, shit!
22:40Gaza's in strife, quick!
22:42Someone call up Bunnings,
22:43let's organise a sausage sizzle!
22:46Your comedy has referenced Palestine, Gaza and Israel
22:50from day dot, right from the very beginning.
22:52Did the events of October 7 make it harder for you
22:56to want to do comedy around Palestine and Gaza?
23:00Yeah, it was definitely something that I didn't walk into,
23:03you know, without thinking or overthinking.
23:05And I took a lot of guidance and advice from people I trust.
23:09People who I know understand the landscape.
23:12It's one thing that I always do.
23:14I don't just speak first and think second
23:17when it comes to big issues like that.
23:19So I'm lucky to be around some clever people.
23:22In 2025, Nazeem released an excerpt from his
23:26Totally Normal show as an online special.
23:29Do you reckon we should make jokes about Israel tonight?
23:31Yeah!
23:33All right.
23:33Called jokes about Israel for 12 and a half minutes,
23:37it's now become one of his most watched online clips.
23:41Israel doesn't let anybody leave.
23:43They control everything that comes in.
23:44Food, water, medicine, electricity.
23:46It's like being in a relationship with R. Kelly, you know?
23:52Does that punchline justify the speech?
23:57Well, you had that repeated refrain where you say,
24:00did the punchline justify the speech?
24:02I found that really fascinating.
24:04To watch a comedian clearly having to walk an absolute tightrope
24:08of I'm here to tell jokes, but I'm here telling jokes
24:11about something that matters to me deeply
24:13and is an incredibly serious subject and divisive subject.
24:17Obviously, merely mentioning Israel or Palestine or Gaza is heavy
24:21and people are immediately tense.
24:22But then the jokes are like, not surface level,
24:24but they're easier to digest and it starts to get a little harder
24:27to maintain the veneer of comedy around it.
24:30And so by the end of that routine, effectively, like,
24:34I'm laying on a punchline, but it's almost just like
24:37to serve the mechanical purpose of justifying what I've just said.
24:40You might not necessarily be setting out to change minds,
24:43but have you ever had any Jewish or Zionist supporters
24:48come to you and say that you've changed their mind?
24:51Oh, I've had a lot of Jewish people tell me
24:54that they love what I'm doing and support me.
24:58And I've had people really kick up a fuss in the show,
25:02who have come to the show.
25:03Within the show?
25:04Yeah, yeah, when I get on the Israel material.
25:07But to be honest, I feel like when there's someone in the crowd
25:11that does or says something and, you know, I've got the mic,
25:15it really brings the audience together.
25:17So it actually improves the show.
25:18Right, so...
25:19It really gets the energy back up at the 50-minute mark.
25:22I think it's great that he covers all those subject areas
25:25because, you know, a lot of people put them in the too-hard basket.
25:28I mean, to some degree, I do, if I'm honest.
25:30I think it's outside my specialty.
25:33People understand Naz has an understanding of that situation
25:40to be able to talk about it.
25:42If someone else did that heavy-handed
25:44and didn't have an affinity with it, we wouldn't accept it.
25:48It's his résumé that says this material is safe in his hands.
25:55I went to a rural country town here in Queensland called Capella,
25:59and I got to the hotel.
26:00There was a middle-aged woman standing there named Barbara.
26:03Bleached blonde hair.
26:04She had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth,
26:06and she was holding my set list,
26:08and at the bottom, I had in big, bold letters, jokes about Israel.
26:11She looked really pissed off.
26:12She was like, is this yours?
26:13I said, yep.
26:14Are you a comedian, are you?
26:15Yeah? I said, yep, my name's Akmal.
26:18And, um...
26:20So, she gives it to me.
26:21As I'm walking off, she goes, oi, Akmal.
26:23I said, yeah.
26:24And she puts a white fist in the air, and she goes,
26:26free Palestine!
26:31And that just blew my mind.
26:33That's how you know that Israel's gone too far,
26:36when even Bogan Queenslanders are like,
26:39nah, I'm with the Arabs on these, actually, yeah.
26:45Anyway, that's how I met my wife, so...
26:55So, what's been the most unexpected response?
26:58Oh, I had a Palestinian guy who came to my show.
27:02He's an artist. He's from Gaza.
27:03And then afterwards, he came out and he said,
27:05yeah, I haven't felt like laughing, um, you know,
27:08for the last couple of years.
27:09And so, yeah, that was something that really mattered to me.
27:12Yeah.
27:15That's a good answer.
27:16Oh!
27:17Mmm!
27:18I understand how words can hurt,
27:21also how words can have real-life implications.
27:23Yeah.
27:24Um, but...
27:26I guess if I did have an intention,
27:27it would be that my comedy brings us closer together,
27:30and makes us understand each other more,
27:33as opposed to, like, create a wedge
27:35where we're pushed further apart.
27:38So, listen, you guys have been great.
27:39Thank you so much for coming.
27:40I appreciate you coming out.
27:41Thank you so much.
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