As he takes to the road with his new show Namaste, which visits Chesham, Bracknell, Farnham, Newbury & more, Omid Djalili talks to Mark Wareham about putting a funny spin on the state of the world and how being cancelled post-9/11 makes him the perfect comedy ambassador for these tumultuous times
Q. How long is it since your last tour?
“Well, you can’t really call it a tour. It was during Covid and very few came out but I did it anyway. I threw out all my material and made it all about Covid. We finished at the Hammersmith Apollo, it was one of the first gigs back there, and it was full of anti-vaxxers. December 18, 2021 and 2,600 people showed up. It wasn’t socially distanced, it was a big superspreader event. There was a march that day so they all piled in.”
Q. Can you explain a bit about the new show Namaste.
“Well, I’ve always tried to be nice about people but this time I can’t. The world is in such a terrible state. At the end of the day the whole purpose of comedy is not just making people laugh. That’s not the end game. When you talk about the means to an end, the means is comedy but the end is to actually make sense of what’s going on. And because I’m from the Middle East, I feel I do have some answers. People come to me as some kind of bridge, like a cultural stopgap, as someone to spread light on things. People don’t get what’s going on. They don’t get the connection between Iran and what’s going on in Gaza, they don’t get what’s going on with Joe Biden attacking Syria and Iraq. It’s me trying to use comedy to make it more palatable for a British audience to understand what’s going on. So I’ve put my hat in the ring.”
Q. So it’s a more considered, rational response, rather than a Mr Angry approach?
“Yeah, the tour poster of me with steam coming out of my ears. I’m angry but it’s a controlled anger and it’s considered. Audiences are really appreciative of that. So many people want to hang around afterwards. They say ‘thank you’, not ‘Oh mate, that was hilarious.’ It’s making sense of things. You give them a glimmer so people have some sort of handle on the situation.”
Cancel Culture
Q. Do the cancel culture warriors need to be on high alert for this tour?
“Cancel culture is a real thing. We’re always on the edge of being cancelled. We’re one joke away from having a TV series taken away or being kicked off a film. But I feel I’m old enough not to care anymore. I’ve been watching people like Seann Walsh and Louis CK and I kind of wish that I was cancelled cos they reach a level in their comedy where they just don’t care. Seann Walsh was this wide-eyed young guy doing Strictly and didn’t realise he was going to be pilloried in the press. It’s given him a kind of ‘I don’t care any more’ attitude. It’s a release. Nothing can get worse and you’ve got nothing to lose. And that’s when people are at their funniest. So you either do that by getting cancelled or just by getting old. In my case, I’m just too old to care.”
Q. It’s almost 30 years since your debut. Do you feel your material has changed a lot in that time?
“I was terrible back then. I look back at myself and it was appalling. I didn’t really want to do it. All my friends used to say, you’re funny you should get up there and do it. So I thought I’d give it a shot, but I didn’t really care much about it. It was only when 9/11 happened and I thought this is something serious I could have a voice about. I worked with Whoopi Goldberg 20 years ago when we did a sitcom together in America. I did some shows in New York and people were saying he’s good but he’s not quite top level. And Whoopi said, ‘Yeah, that’s what they said about Richard Pryor,’ And she made this connection between me and Pryor, and I said I’m not having that. But she said, ‘No. For your people,’ – and we’re talking about a whole gamut of countries and cultures from the Arab States, Iran, Pakistan, India – ‘for brown people, you are the first.’ So, like Richard Pryor, you do stuff that is geared towards white, middle America or middle England, and they will love you for it, but you won’t get really good until you become authentic. That’s what she was saying. As you get older that authentic voice will emerge.
“So she made me promise not to stop doing stand-up. And she said soon you’ll see others being inspired by you. And I thought, really? But I have seen people come through like Guz Khan, Romesh Ranganathan, who’ve told me I gave them the confidence to do it. So if I have inspired people that’s great. But Omid Djalili in the 1990s is definitely not my cup of tea. I looked a mess. I didn’t know how to dress, wore the wrong colour boots with the suit, I just looked like a fat, mentally ill person but I was at least trying to write recognisably good stand-up. So I try and forgive myself, but I’m much happier with what I’m doing now.”
Q. Do you feel, intrinsically, because of who you are, it’s impossible for your act not to be political?
“Yeah, it’s impossible. People would just be disappointed. I love Tim Vine. I went to see his show and he made me laugh from beginning to end. But if I did that to my fans I’d be hanged from a lamppost. They’d say, ‘What are you doing? There’s all this stuff going on. Are you seriously not going to mention the Woman, Life, Freedom movement? Are you seriously not going to make fun of this regime?’ So I do feel obligated, yes. For someone in my position and from my background, it would be remiss not to.”
Q. But the trick is you’ve still got to make it funny…
“Well, I was talking to Sean Lock about this before he died and he said if I do have a political thing to say, I’ll make it funny. But I’m not going to stand there and do slogans. And there’s a bunch of us who’ve always felt that. Unless it’s funny, I’m not even going to bother. I’ve got reams and reams of notes of things that have outraged me, but if there’s no joke there then I won’t inflict it on the audience.”
About the show
Q. What else can audiences expect from you? Obviously the usual swagger, a bit of dancing, any singing?
“There’s always going to be a little bit of singing and dancing, but it’s mostly a systematic look at the state of the world and a systematic look at myself. The first third of the show is about me. And the journey I’m going to take you on, I could get cancelled for. So I talk about the times I have been cancelled, and the whole Israel-Palestine thing is in the context of me having been through this before because after 9/11 I was cancelled. Before the days of cancel culture, I was cancelled. I called my manager on September 12 and I said, ‘There’s a gig with Jack Dee tomorrow, I presume that’s not going ahead.’ And he said, ‘Yes it is, but not with you. All your gigs are gone until Christmas, nobody wants to have you on. They don’t trust you.’ And I said, ‘So they think I’m a terrorist?’ And he said. ‘Well, there’s an association.’ And I said, ‘So they think I’m a sleeper cell.’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And then I asked him ‘You don’t think I’m a sleeper cell?’, and he paused… So I knew I had to do something. A lot of people think my career was made by 9/11 but no, I saved my career with comedy, cos I really believe that comedy is stronger than politics. Someone who is cancelled can joke their way out of it. I was never really cancelled for my jokes, I was cancelled for who I was. So it’s the journey of how I resurrected my career after 9/11. And because I’ve been through this before, I can look at what’s happening in Israel and Palestine, and this terrible global situation where we’re on the verge of Third World War… and the idea is, what can I do to avert it? I have no say, but I can certainly put out some thoughts and ideas that will have a little influence.”
Q. You had to cancel a show in Shropshire last year, just after the October 7 attacks, are you worried about any repeats of that?
“Who would have thought that calling for a ceasefire and calling for peace would get you cancelled. Some people had written to the venue saying we’d like to speak to Mr Djalili about his stance on Israel. And they cancelled it, I didn’t ask them to cancel it. I could have handled it but if you feel there’s a security risk then that’s not good. But it doesn’t stop me, it was the venue’s decision. I would never cancel a show.
Q. Are you taking your great mate Boothby Graffoe on the road with you?
“Yes I am. I’m very lucky to have someone of his standard as a support act. If he does his A material he’ll blow me off the stage! He’s very kind, he’ll listen to my show in the dressing room and tell me, I only winced six times. He’s like my comedy police. He’s got a few new songs and he creates a very nice atmosphere.”
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