Politics still pack a punch(line) for Iranian-American comic

Then he tried drive-in shows, which posed the same problem for stand-up comedy as online video calls: “You don’t hear their laughter,” he said. “You need to remind them: ‘If you like what I’m saying, if you like the joke, please honk,’” he recounted. “So people would honk at you, you tell a joke (and) they would honk at you.”

In some U.S. states, he performed at outdoor venues to a limited capacity audience. At others he performed indoors. In Arizona and Florida he performed in comedy clubs, where he said he felt nervous because it was before the vaccine was rolled out.

“Comedians need interaction — we’re best in a room, with an audience, laughing, talking,” he said. “And this remote world took that away from us but again I think we adapted, a lot of people adapted.”

Jobrani, originally from Iran, moved to California at age 6 with his family. Like many Iranians they had fled the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. He grew up in the San Francisco area.

His acting credits begin just after the Sept. 11 attacks with a major role in the American action series “24,” in which he played a member of an Afghan militant group hoping to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles.

Later he stopped taking such roles, but still played with the theme, setting up the “Axis of Evil” comedy tour. He wrote a book entitled “I’m Not a Terrorist, But I’ve Played One On TV.” His comedy is largely fueled by that and his background. During Donald Trump’s term in office, he focused on the U.S. president.