Mo Amer (Mo, The Vagabond, Black Adam) is an award-winning comedian and actor. Mo joins the Armchair Expert to discuss feeling anxiety only when there’s something unsettled at home, embracing the responsibility of being a comic that’s also made a personally and culturally meaningful thing, and the best part of his new show being that he gets to introduce different layers to his story. Mo and Dax talk about his brilliant telecommunications engineer father relocating their family from Palestine to Kuwait, living through the Iraqi invasion that catalyzed the Gulf War, and creating a supportive Sandlot brotherhood that still exists to this day. Mo explains how his teacher encouraging him to do Shakespearean standup rocketed his entry into comedy, performing some of the greatest sets of his life returning to Iraqi war zones, and the emotional rediscovery of long-lost home movies of his family and childhood.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guest of this episode?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax Shepard and I'm joined by Monica Padman.
Hi.
Today we have Moe Amer on.
Yeah.
I'm a big fan of Moe.
Moe is great.
Mo is a stand-up comedian and an award-winning writer. I first saw him on Rami, which is another show I love. Friend of the pod. Where he plays Mo in that, but not our Mo in Mo.
Mo plays Mo in that, but then in his show, he's a different Mo.
He's a different Mo, but very similar. Also Black Adam and two standup specials on Netflix, Mo Amr, The Vagabond and Mo Amr, Mohammed in Texas. And he's on tour right now with El Oso Palestino Tour, which is the Palestinian bear. That's what that translates to.
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Chapter 2: How does Mo Amer describe his experience with anxiety and performing?
They were pointing at my bedroom and they were threatening they were going to throw a grenade in the bedroom. Tell us, tell us, tell us. They were trying to figure out who works at the Equator Oil Company since the whole reason of their invasion to begin with is the supposed siphoning of Iraqi oil. Was that their premise? They were diagonally drilling in? That's what they were saying.
I don't know. That's a bigger conversation to me now. As a grown ass man, I see what's everything going on living in America. Now I know who's been putting all these people in power.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that. But that was the premise is that Kuwait was stealing from them and he's there to take it back.
But then since it's the Kuwait oil company, so our neighborhood was a hot one and it was all about collecting people who could help manage and turn over the control of it.
Your dad's like, I just do telephones. Well, that's the biggest fucking thing. Communication. Okay. That was probably on their top five list, transferring all communication to it all. So my dad had one choice, either do it or potentially your family is at risk. Might take them all out. You're not going to find out if they're bluffing or not. Yeah, exactly.
You're just going to say, yeah, that's me. What are you going to do? So he was forced to go in and redirect, from what I've heard, some of it at that time. And he regrets it. Didn't feel good about any of it.
Well, he had to protect himself and his family.
He loved Kuwait, and he loved the people of Kuwait. He loved everything there, and he was just saddened to see it all happen that way, but he was also just protecting our family. Soldiers would show up early in the morning at our house and all throughout the whole street. It was pretty regular, but I felt like our house was a spot, and play soccer with these guys, have me, like, hold them
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Chapter 3: What is Mo Amer's family background and early life in Kuwait?
Uh-huh.
And she booked it.
And she didn't want to be there.
No, she wasn't there to act. She was there to just be there with me and do this thing. And then she booked it. I'm pretty sure I did cry about that.
You did.
Yeah, I think so.
But you guys made it.
Oh, yeah. I didn't blame her. Even then I didn't blame her. But I was like, man, I suck.
Yeah, a non-actor beat me. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's rough.
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