Amer's Netflix comedy series about his life, Mo, is now in its second season. His family is Palestinian, and fled the first Gulf War, so Amer grew up in Houston from age nine. "Palestinian culture is a folksy farmer kind of mentality and life," Amer says. "And when I came to Texas, one of the things that was really attractive to me was the country music, the folksy music, the storytelling tradition of that." Amer spoke with Dave Davies in 2022 when his series debuted. Also, Justin Chang reviews Black Bag, a new thriller from Steven Soderbergh.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Mo Amer and what is his background?
As the first season ended, Mo was trying to stop the theft of his family's olive trees from a Texas farm when he ended up trapped in the thieves' truck and transported to Mexico. As season two opens, he's stuck in Mexico City because he's undocumented. He sells falafel tacos from a vending cart and plays in a mariachi band to get by.
But he's desperate to get back to Houston, where his long-awaited asylum hearing is fast approaching. Here he's talking to a clerk at the American Embassy in Mexico where he's been seeking a travel document to get into the United States. You know me. This is like the 12th time I've seen you. I've seen your colleague like six times.
Yeah, this is like the 13th time I have to ask you, where's your passport?
I don't have a passport. Exactly. Next. No, no next. Wait, wait. Okay. Look, I got an asylum hearing coming up in Houston that I've been waiting for for 22 years. And if I get that asylum granted, I can eventually get a passport. Please, God, I've been begging for the last six months after I was kidnapped and brought to Mexico against my will, and no one's willing to help me.
Right. You were kidnapped by the Olive Tree Cartel. It was, right? But don't do that. My lawyer said if I can get a laissez-passer, I can legally cross the border. Yeah, but just come to terms with the fact. You're Mexican now. Okay? Feliz cumpleaños. I'll tell you what.
If you give me a laissez-passer, I'll donate to your vacation fund. You want to go tubing in San Marcos? Because I can't afford more than San Marcos. You want to bribe me? Who said bribe? Nobody said bribe. I didn't say bribe. I did not. Put your hand down. I didn't say bribe. I said donation. Politicians take donations all the time.
Moe, short for Mohamed, has made a name for himself in comedy, starring in stand-up specials, touring in the U.S. and other countries, and co-starring in the Hulu series Rami. In his Netflix series Moe, he's close to his mother and autistic brother, his Mexican-American girlfriend, and a kaleidoscope of ethnically diverse friends.
Season 2 eventually takes him to his ancestral home in the West Bank, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is integral to the story. A review in The Guardian says season two of Mo brings together food, identity, immigration, family, and Middle Eastern politics in a way that's as fresh and intriguing as the falafel tacos that become central to the plot.
Today we're going to listen to my 2022 interview with Mo Amr when the first season of Mo aired. Mo Amr, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you for having me. I got to tell you, I struggled a little bit when I was writing your introduction because I feel like if I describe you as Palestinian, that doesn't quite capture the Mo Amr I see in your stuff. You kind of have more than one identity, don't you?
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Chapter 2: What is the plot of the Netflix series 'Mo'?
No, absolutely. Assessment of situations of people is crucial to be not only a great salesman, but a great, you know, stand up comedian. So it did help a lot, you know, and it's one of those things that when you experience such hardships, you become really good at like figuring out what's good and bad and following your gut, more so following your gut. Right.
Like, you know, this could be a good thing when you tap into that and you realize that you have a high percentage of hit rate where you're right. You start to trust it way more.
And when it's time to close things up and split too, I imagine.
Exactly. Exactly.
You know, we mentioned earlier that your family left Kuwait and ended up in Houston. Tell us a bit more about that. Your family was in Kuwait, had a comfortable life. And then the first Gulf War happened, which was Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait. How much do you remember of that departure?
I remember all of it, every bit of it. That's why I recreated it in the flashbacks as much as possible, whenever budget allowed us to do. I think it's one of those things that's glossed over. It's such an important topic, the Gulf War, that really sparked everything.
Even to this day, we're still dealing with that war, this domino effect of political relations throughout the MENA region, Middle East, North Africa. And I really believe that that was one of the biggest turning points in that area. I mean, if you think about it, there wasn't any American military presence there pre-Gulf War. And since then, we've never left.
And we've been present in that area ever since. And there's so many people that were affected by that war. You know, particularly a lot of Palestinians were affected by it and had to flee from there. It was like, now it's that they're, you know, think about my mom and my dad's perspective.
This is the third, second or third time they have to flee because of being stateless and, you know, to have to create a new life again. So this is something that was really important to me to show this, like, generational connection. Trauma, essentially, that you're starting now to see it starting over in Houston, Texas.
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