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Maysoon Zayid Biography - Institute for Middle East Understanding
At first glance, it would not appear that Maysoon Zayid has much to laugh about. But the Palestinian-American Muslim actor-cum-comedian with cerebral palsy has been steadily making a name for herself, performing standup comedy nationwide as well as overseas.
Born in New Jersey in 1976, Zayid is a woman of firsts. She is America's first Muslim woman comedian and the first person ever to perform standup in Palestine and Jordan. "It was fabulous being in Palestine," Zayid says, "because I didn't have to give a context for my jokes. The first time I did standup was during the height of the second Intifada. When they laughed, they were so relieved. They said how good it felt to laugh."
Asked what it was like to perform in the Arab world, Zayid says, "Comedy is comedy, and the reception doesn't change that much. If people can relate to what you're saying, they laugh. I think I'm just as much an anomaly in Dheisheh refugee camp as I am in Lexington, MA."
Along with Dean Obeidallah, she founded the first Arab-American Comedy Festival in 2003. This annual event showcases established comics as well as giving new comedians their first opportunity to perform in front of a big crowd.
Zayid began her career as an actor, earning her BFA in acting from Arizona State University. She appeared on the popular soap opera As the World Turns for two years. However, she found her disability and ethnicity repeatedly limited her advancement. Zayid then turned to standup and began appearing at New York's top clubs, including Caroline's, Gotham, and Stand Up NY, where she hilariously takes on serious topics such as terrorism and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
When she is not touring solo or as a special guest on the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, or co-hosting the radio show Fen Mejnoon with Dean and Maysoon (Crazy Art), Zayid spends three months a year in Palestine running an arts program for disabled and orphaned children in refugee camps. "Every time I go there, I'm shocked by how much worse it's gotten," she says. She helps the children use art to deal with trauma and bridge the gap between disabled and non-disabled children. Eighty percent of the funding for the camps comes from her comedy work.
Maysoon Zayid is an actress and professional standup comedian, who received her BFA in acting from Arizona State University. After returning to New York City, Maysoon attended the world renowned Neighborhood Playhouse. She is currently receiving private coaching from Circle Repertory Alumni Tanya Berezin.
Maysoon has appeared on As The World Turns, Law & Order (Episodes: Bible Study and The Dead Wives Club), MTV, NBC Nightly News, CNN, ABC's 20/20, The New York Times, and WashingtonPost.com.
Maysoon has performed comedy in top New York clubs, including The Improv, Caroline's, Gotham, and Stand-Up NY, and has toured her stand-up act extensively in both the USA and abroad.
Theater Credits include "Frida Kahlo" in The Child Diego "Laura" in The Glass Menagerie, "Joan" in Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and "Nura" in Door of Hope.
Maysoon was the first comedian to perform standup live in Palestine, performing in Nazareth, Haifa, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. She is a graduate of The Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership.
Maysoon spends 3 months a year in Palestine where she runs art and wellness programs for disabled and wounded refugee children and orphans. Learn more about Maysoon's Kids.
Maysoon writes the biweekly column "The Palestinian American Princess's Guide to NYC". She is also co- founder and an executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival.
In the fall of 2006, she debuted her one woman show Little American Whore at LA's Comedy Central Space. L.A.W. was produced by Kathy Najimy and directed by Abby Marateck.
Maysoon Zayid is a woman who described herself in a BBC interview as "a Palestinian Muslim virgin with cerebral palsy, from New Jersey, who is an actress, comedian and activist."
She cofounded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival in 2003 with comedian Dean Obeidallah This highly-acclaimed, first of its kind festival has received national and international media coverage. It is held annually in New York City and showcases Arab-American comics, actors, playwrights and filmmakers.
Zayid has a role in the 2008 Adam Sandler film, You Don't Mess with the Zohan.
Zayid has been a resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey.
What sorts of comedians does a Palestinian-American girl from New Jersey with cerebral palsy idolize?
Maysoon Zayid: First and foremost, I was crazy, crazy, crazy about Whoopi Goldberg. I was a big fan of Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell because
they didn’t look like the rest of the people I saw on television, and they weren’t like these supermodels that were perfect and ethnically typical.
They were people that I could relate to.
But the comics that I love, love, love the best are Bill Cosby, George Carlin and of course Richard Pryor; Richard Pryor is the original shaking comic. He was all buckled, and I was like, “If he can do it, I can do it!” Although, I’m the drug-free shaking comic, so that gives me an edge.
What made you decide to pursue comedy as a career?
Maysoon Zayid: I got a degree in theater and acting, and went out into the real world and did great as an extra. People loved me because I filled
that great disabled and ethnic quota. But I kind of knew that I would never be seen on television — other than the back of my head — if I didn’t
create my own career. I went back and drew on Whoopi and Rosie and Ellen [Degeneres], and all these very non-conventional actresses that found
a way to make it by using comedy as an introduction to the business.
So for you, stand-up comedy revealed itself to you later your life?
Maysoon Zayid: No, it wasn’t that late; it was within a year and a half of graduating college. I was like, ‘Comedy is the way.’ But no, my dream
was never, ever to become a comic, but then I started doing it and instantly fell in love.
You’ve mentioned in interviews that your parents have been very supportive of your career choice.
Maysoon Zayid: Yeah, they’ve been amazing.
Has that always been the case?
Maysoon Zayid: No, my dad thought I was a stripper in the beginning. He’s an old-fashioned Palestinian, Muslim dad who has been here for 47 years;
you’d never know it from his accent. In the beginning he had no concept of what stand-up comedy was, and when I tried to give him examples of
famous comics, it was only men’s names that I could come up with that he could recognize. So all he knew was that I was working in bars at night.
He thought I was a stripper.
How did you convince him otherwise?
Maysoon Zayid: He saw me on Al Jazeera. He was so proud. It was a complete turning point for him, the day he saw me on television and was able
to tell his friends, ‘That’s my daughter.’ Then, he was, like, thrilled. [Adopts Middle Eastern accent] ‘Now so many more Arab men will see you,
maybe you’ll finally get married.’
That is the ultimate goal, isn’t it?
Maysoon Zayid: That is the only goal. [Laughs]
Obviously, being Muslim and having cerebral palsy are such big portions of not just your act, but your life as well. Have you ever worried that
you might not be able to develop beyond that persona and niche?
Maysoon Zayid: No, because I’m a Jersey girl at heart. So when it comes down to it, I feel like the stuff I do is really relatable. I don’t think
that when Arabs are no longer in style, I won’t be; I think it’s because I have so many different facets of my personality– whether it’s being
Muslim or Palestinian or a Jersey girl or disabled or single and in my 30s. I have so many different areas to draw from that I don’t think I’ll
ever hit a wall.
What are some of your favorite areas to draw from, besides being Muslim and having cerebral palsy?
Maysoon Zayid: I wouldn’t say that being Muslim and having cerebral palsy are my favorites. [Laughs] It’s kind of not like that. It’s like I go,
‘Okay, I’m going onstage, and I must talk about being Muslim!’ I like to draw on my own life history. My favorite, favorite stuff to do is anything
that takes the audience by complete surprise– like being able to tell a joke that contains a fact that completely shocks my audience. That makes
me really stoked. I love doing family stuff; I love doing political stuff, and I mostly like doing jokes about my dad.
You’re involved in a tremendous amount of charity work.
Maysoon Zayid: Yes, the love of my life is the charity I run called Maysoon’s Kids. It’s a wellness and education program for disabled, wounded,
and orphaned refugee children in the West Bank. I’m going back [to the West Bank] on July 7 for that. I can’t wait. Between the PBS special coming
out, the Adam Sandler movie premiere, being a performer and delegate at the Democratic National Convention, and a tour in Kuwait, I get six weeks
in Palestine with the kids.
So this is going to be a big year for you.
Maysoon Zayid: This is already a big year for me. This year has been incredible, and to have the PBS special come out now, I couldn’t be happier.
It was really amazing when they filmed it: I didn’t realize how much footage [Glenn Baker and Omar Naim, the directors] had really gotten. It’s
really interesting to be at this point in my career, where I’m really happy and things are rolling; people can see that I’m not a flash in the
pan. I also have a movie in development.
Little American Whore?
Maysoon Zayid: Yeah. It started off as a one-woman show, directed by one of the greatest comedic actresses ever, Kathy Najimy. Oh my god, it was
such a blessing to work with her! I don’t care if people think I’m niche or that the fact that me being Arab got me to meet her. Wonderful! We’re
hoping to go into pre-production in September, if I make it through the Democratic National Convention without winding up in Guantanamo.
I think that might be more of a problem at the Republican National Convention.
Maysoon Zayid: That would be hilarious, if I was a delegate at the Republican National Convention. I could never have pulled that off, because
I’m sure Dick Cheney would have accidentally shot me in the face.
Do you find that jokes about 9/11 or the Iraq War are difficult to sell? Is it too taboo to be funny?
Maysoon Zayid: I find the association of 9/11 in comedy uncomfortable. I’m from New Jersey; I’m from a town called Cliffside Park, and I saw the
[Twin Towers] every morning, every night, and every day. The whole concept of what that day was, and how it affected us that day and at large,
I just don’t draw humor from.I find it very hard, if not impossible, to do jokes about that. I don’t find it hard to do jokes about the Iraqi
War. Dean [Obeidallah] and I were doing jokes at the beginning, and got kind of a backlash against us, and that was in 2003 when people were
really gung-ho about the war. Now, people are so aware of all the misleading information that got us into the Iraq War, so I think they’re much
more receptive to jokes about the occupation.
Is it possible to be a Muslim in stand-up comedy without being inherently political?
Maysoon Zayid: Yeah, because you don’t really have to reveal that you’re Muslim. We don’t have a banner on our heads that says, ‘I’m Muslim!’ Muslims
come in all different sizes and colors, and unless I told people I was Muslim, no one would have known. I could have easily been the random disabled
comic; and I could have just gone out and been the girl who was in drug withdrawal, if I didn’t want to claim that I had a disability.
When you’re a comic, you can create your own history, your own character; you can do anything you want onstage. It’s like the last bastion of free speech. I think that if I had chosen not to say I was Muslim, I could have easily done it without trying to be more concise. But I think that once you do say you’re Muslim, it does become more inherently political for certain audience members, who have no concept of what Islam is.
I felt like I had to talk about being Muslim, because we’re so inundated with these ridiculous, stereotypical images of Islam on television. And quite often, even in entertainment, the images of women in Islam are ludicrous. So I was like okay, I’m a Muslim woman and I’m very spiritual and proud of who I am and who my family is and where I come from, so let me talk about it so that people can see that Islam has different faces.
Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Maysoon Zayid: I consider myself a human being. I do; I really do. I say that to people, because a lot of people are like, ‘Are you this? Are you
that?’ and I don’t consider myself anything more than really someone who’s a human being. I’m a humanist; I believe in equal rights for everybody
at all times; I tend to be more vocal about the disabled, about women, and about Palestinians because those three major groups that I belong
to are just constantly, constantly under siege.
Any of my comrades will tell you that it’s so much harder for a female to book a show than a male, even if we’re on the exact same level. In fact, sometimes I have more credits than some people, and I’m still not given a chance to do what the guys are able to do. So I think thats why I’m much more vocal. But I don’t consider myself a feminist so much as a humanist.
Stand-up comedy has always had a huge American-Jewish performer base. Since you come from a Palestinian family, has the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
ever manifested itself in your act?
Maysoon Zayid: Oh yeah, I talk about Palestine and Israel all the time. It’s such a major, major, major part of my life. I’ve been told by so many
people that I should stop doing that, and I just can’t. I go back and forth to Palestine every single year four or five times so it’s a big part
of my life. If I’m going to do jokes about the tolls going up across the George Washington Bridge, I’m going to do jokes about another 50 checkpoints
popping up in Palestine and Israel. It’s unavoidable for me to talk about, because it’s such a huge part of my life.
Is your family supportive of the fact that you work in a heavily Jewish-influenced part of entertainment?
Maysoon Zayid: Wow, that’s a really crazy question. No, we’re not like that. My family and me and pretty much all the people I work with don’t
really care what religion anyone is, to the point where I don’t even ask people what religion they are. Dean and I run the New York Arab-American
Comedy Festival, and people always come in who are like, ‘Do you let Jews in the festival? Do you let Christians in the festival?’
I always kind of answer the same way: I never ask anyone what religion they are, and I don’t care what religion anyone is. It doesn’t affect me in any way, and I have no prejudice against anyone who’s not Islam, and I have no issue with anyone’s religion. I just don’t. There’s just such a huge difference between being Jewish and being a Zionist. That’s not even a blip on my screen, and it’s not even something I’ve ever thought about.
And because I’m very vocal about Palestine and Israel and crimes against humanity, people tend to think I’m anti-Semitic. I’m always like no, I’m not, it’s absolutely impossible. If anyone questions what my opinion of Jewish people is, they should talk to Adam [Sandler], because he’s my idol and one of the men I love most in this world and totally respect. If I had an issue, I would never work with him.
I think that’s another reason why I’m so happy to do comedy, because I have the opportunity to dispel these stereotypes. I was in Palestine when I found out that I had gotten the part [in Sandler's movie], and people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re doing a movie with Big Daddy?’
Have you ever received threats from more conservative members of the Islamic-American community?
Maysoon Zayid: No, but I have received threats from the more conservative members of the Israeli community! [Laughs] The worst thing that anyone’s
ever said to me from the Muslim community is, ‘You would look so much prettier if you covered your hair.’ [ed.note: Maysoon has amazing hair.]
That’s as far as they go. In general, when you look at comments and blogs, people are really excited about what I’m doing. People in the Muslim
community tend not to attack me because I’m very vocal about who my father is, and he’s a really religious guy, and I think they’re like well,
if her dad’s cool with her, we’re cool with her.
I’ve gotten such positive feedback from the younger Muslim community; they’re so excited about what I’m doing. I always joke that my core audience is like 20 to 29-year-old female hijabis — the girls who wear hijabs — along with moms and dads and aunts and uncles. They love me because, I think, they’re seeing [other Arab-American comics and I] doing stuff that they weren’t able to do in the community. I feel that we’re the first generation of Muslim-Americans who are able to do this type of work, because when they came over to America, they just had to work to feed their families. We’ve been given the opportunity to explore the arts, so it’s kind of hot.
One of your ongoing bits revolves around the fact that you’re still a virgin. Have you received any titillating offers from anyone to change that
status?
Maysoon Zayid: Oh, it’s constant. I get offers all the time, and it’s usually one of those things where the dude is drunk off his ass in the front
row of the comedy club, and he’s like, ‘I don’t care that you’re a cripple; I’ll totally fuck you!’ And it’s like, I’m so thrilled for that offer,
thank you so much.
I really wanted to, I could, so it’s always fun when people offer. I always say that I’m a virgin by choice, and that’s my father’s choice. But I’ve decided that if I’m not married by the time I’m 35, it’s game over. It’s going to be like Britney Spears; anyone who wants to come in, can.
Coming soon.
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