Maz Jobrani brings Abu Dhabi show to Etihad Arena November 7

Maz Jobrani returns to Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on November 7th, and the Iranian-American comedian says the show could be his last in the capital for some time. After nearly two decades of touring, including two previous appearances at the venue, he is stepping back from the road to spend time with his children.

The logistics are simple. His son has just gone to college. His daughter is a couple of years away. Jobrani wants to slow down and, as he puts it, smell the roses. Tickets for the November 7th performance start at Dh275 and above.

What audiences will get is material he says travels well across borders. At his most recent Abu Dhabi appearance, he performed essentially the same set he delivers in Western countries, and it went through without objection. “I was able to do the show I was doing in America and Australia and Europe in Abu Dhabi, and nobody batted an eye,” he says. For someone who first toured the region almost 20 years ago with the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, when promoters handed down the rule of no sex, no religion, no politics, that shift in what can actually be delivered on stage is striking. “And I was like, wow, the society has moved forward,” he says.

Jobrani credits the UAE’s multicultural audience as one reason he enjoys performing there, describing Abu Dhabi as one of his favourite places to play. But the operational reality of his craft, he argues, is also about the work itself. He has no patience for established comedians who blame cancel culture when the real problem is stale material. “Listen, you’re not being canceled. You’re just lazy. You haven’t written new jokes,” he tells Gulf News in a virtual interview conducted at 6.15am Dubai time.

His argument is that delivery fails when the material does. “Your jokes and your point of view is what it was 20 years ago. Now 20 years later, our kids see a different world,” he says. Comedians who recycle decades-old routines and then complain when younger audiences object are, in his view, misdiagnosing the problem. The answer is not censorship or self-censorship but better writing, adjusting jokes and finding ways to be funny without the words he once used. He acknowledges he has accidentally offended audiences himself, but says that does not give performers permission to stop evolving.

That philosophy shapes what actually makes it into his set. “I don’t want to punch down. I want to punch up,” he says, avoiding jokes about physical disabilities or circumstances beyond a person’s control while keeping politicians fair game. Donald Trump supplies plenty of material, though Jobrani is not grateful for it. “I would give back any money I made from Trump jokes if he would just go away because it’s really hard to keep up,” he says, describing the president as being like a toddler you can’t control. He sometimes avoids the news entirely now, checking the stock market instead as a rough barometer.

Behind the show is a career built on delivery of a different kind: using humour to dismantle stereotypes. Born in Tehran and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area from age six, Jobrani was called names in high school and college, and the September 11 attacks changed life for countless Middle Easterners in the US. He turned those experiences into stand-up, film and television work, with appearances in Life on a Stick, 24, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Knights of Prosperity. With the Axis of Evil comedians performing in America after the attacks, the mission went beyond entertainment, aiming to show Americans that people of Iranian, Indian, Arab and other backgrounds were ordinary human beings capable of humour. One audience member told him, “I never knew these people laughed.” He counts George Carlin and Richard Pryor among his inspirations and praises Macklemore for using his platform, saying celebrities should always have an opinion.

Even artificial intelligence has entered his workflow experiments. He asked AI to write jokes in his voice, with underwhelming results, then had it impersonate an audience member named Joe so he could practise crowd work. He supports regulation of AI while recognising its potential in medical research, and reveals he has recently been dealing with a health issue, without elaborating.

For now, the immediate delivery is the November 7th show, followed by a deliberate pause. He is not abandoning the political jokes or the cultural observations. He simply wants more time with his family.