Born in Shiraz, Tehran, but now living in America Elham Jazab is a bug-eyed, big-haired Iranian standup comedienne. Her comedy revolves around the American culture and her experiences in it. She used to be an actress, but now she's working on her stand-up.
And we're talking about people, not cats!
From his website www.mattkazam.com you can get onto his Facebook, MySpace and YouTube sites. You can also buy his stand-up CD featuring two of his live routines.
What are you waiting for? Subscribe to Matt Kazam's YouTube channel already!
Marvin "Krazy" Kharrazi is a Iranian-American Jew who (I'm not making this up) quit law school to follow his dream of being a stand-up comedian. His act goes through his identity as a Jew, an Iranian, his religion and it's history, plus lots of sex jokes.
An article from Forward back in 2005 talks about and interviews Dan Ahdoot and Marvin Kharrazi. Marvin is interviewed as "the other Iranian Jewish comedian" in a Jewish Journal piece.
Krazy Kharrazi has his own YouTube channel. And he's on Facebook.
Carry on watching... Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.
Brother of Shappi Khorsandi, son of Hadi Khorsandi and comedian in his own right. His comedy is high-brow, but with a smattering of accents and misunderstandings.
Bit of an awkward interview about Persian/Farsi, Iranian/Persian. Not very funny, either! You have to feel a bit sorry for the guy interviewing him.
Peyvand Khorsandi is on Facebook and he contributes regularly at Iranian.com.
(Note - it's Shappi not Shappy, Chappy or Shapi the Iranian comedienne.)
Some interesting pictures from Afghanistan.
Fred Halliday once wrote about the Left being on the wrong side of internationalism. He was criticising the Western Left for backing the mujahadeen (and allying themselves with the CIA in the process) against the (Soviet-backed) Afghan government. Looking at the destruction wrought on that country since the fall of the government, the Afghan civil war, Soviet invasion and defeat, rise and fall of the Taliban and subsequent rise of the Northern Alliance (containing many Wahhabi-influenced leaders with views similar to the Taliban) you may be inclined to agree with Halliday.
Shahram "Sean" Tahmasebi (or Tamasebi) is a Persian American bi-lingual comedian who seems at ease, and funny, in both Persian and English. He regularly appears in TV in the US and at the nation's top standup comedy locations.
Turns out Rick Steves isn't the only American to report from Iran over the past few years. Matt Lauer of American news network NBC reported from Iran a couple of years ago. Here are his video clips...
