Name: Bassem Youssef | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #521
Uploaded: 2024-07-31T19:37:10.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bassem Youssef | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #521' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-31. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bassem Youssef | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #521' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-31. Transcript available.

Bassem Youssef | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #521

I got a few tour dates to tell you about Wallingford, Connecticut, Portland,
Maine, Bangor, Maine, Moncton, Canada, Las Vegas, Nevada.
We'll be back for the USC LSU football weekend, Oklahoma City, Northern Little
Rock, Springfield, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
La Crosse, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Moline, Illinois.
You can get tickets for those at TheoVaughn.com slash T-O-U-R.
Thank you so much for your support.
Thanks for tuning in.
Today's episodes are regarding the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
I've heard a lot about this issue, and I wanted to deepen my own understanding.
I recognize that this is a sensitive topic, but the only way to truly learn is
to seek knowledge.
I decided to have guests from both sides of the aisle, if you will.
I did this in separate episodes because I'm not a debate moderator, and I chose
guests who I thought would share their views sincerely, and I think both of
them did.
I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to learn, which is something that
they don't even have in some countries.
Today's guest is a comedian who was born in Egypt and now lives here in America.
He's also a political commentator, writer, and a former medical surgeon.
He's been called the John Stewart of the Arab world and has been pretty vocal
about the Israel-Palestine conflict for years.
You may have seen his viral appearance on Piers Morgan.
We're going to talk about that and a lot more.
I'm very grateful for his time.
Today's guest is Bassem Youssef.
Bassem Youssef.
Bassem Yes.
That's how you say it, Bassem?
No, Bassem.
Bassem.
Bassem.
Oh, yeah.
It's a softer Bassem.
Oh, Bassem.
Bassem, yeah.
Your student special at the Wiltern.
Yes.
On October 4th.
Yes.
And what kind of like, so your audience is predominantly, because you're
Egyptian.
Yes.
And is your audience mostly like Egyptian folks or does all Middle Eastern
people come out and support a Middle Eastern comedian?
Mostly brown people, 60% Arabs, sometimes 50% and then maybe 20% like Indian,
Pakistanis and then the rest are white.
Yeah.
So I get like between 20 to 30% white people.
But it's different from each state, from each show.
So it's been quite a riot, to be honest.
Yeah, you've been doing comedy because you were a surgeon.
A heart surgeon, yeah.
You're a heart surgeon.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Hey, bro.
Why would you stop doing that?
Why would you?
No, why do it?
Because medicine is terrible.
It's a thankless job.
Is it?
Yes.
I spent 19 years of my life in medicine.
19 years of my life.
And I say in my show, I mean, you do that because that's what's expected of you
in the Middle East.
In the Middle East, you're expected to be one of three things, a doctor, an
engineer, or a disappointment.
So I didn't want to disappoint my parents.
So I went into medicine and I went there for 19 years.
I didn't have any kind of aspirations.
It's like, what do you want to do?
I'm just going to do the regular stuff.
I wasn't the guy who's cracking jokes in class or anything.
Really?
No, nothing.
A regular guy.
Just a regular, boring guy.
Really?
Just a boring guy?
Very boring.
And then, so how do you realize that you're able to be a comedian then?
Because that's kind of-
I didn't.
You didn't think at all when you were a kid?
I didn't.
I didn't.
Revolution happened in Egypt, 2011.
And I just happened to be like a regular fan for Jon Stewart.
And so I watched Jon Stewart for years.
And I had this dream of maybe I'll be a writer on a similar show in Egypt.
So when the revolution happened and I saw the kind of crazy stuff that they've
been showing
on television.
So it's like the craziest conspiracy theories ever.
And that was a revolution in Egypt?
Yes.
So the state-run media was running all kinds of crazy stuff.
So I started doing YouTube videos, making fun of it.
Yeah.
Blew up.
And in two weeks, I had millions of views on my YouTube channel that I just
opened.
I didn't even have a YouTube channel before that.
And then suddenly every single platform, every single television station won me
on the show.
Wow.
And now I said, now, do a show.
So I did a show out of nothing.
And I hired people who were not in the business, people who were like amateurs
like me.
And it became the biggest show in the Middle East.
And I had 40 million people watching each episode.
And so how does that end?
Did you just...
Oh, I was kicked out.
I had my show canceled a couple of times.
I had even the signal, the satellite signal jammed a couple of times.
I had lawsuits.
I had shows shut down.
People threatened around me.
I was threatened.
And then I...
By both regimes.
I went through three different regimes.
Oh, wow.
Military, Islamist military.
And then they both hated me.
And that's when it's you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When you make fun of people and everybody hates me, it's like, okay, I think
you're doing the right thing.
And I couldn't do the show anymore.
So I escaped.
I left Egypt, 2014.
I came here into a very dark era.
I didn't know...
You know, like I was everything.
And then I came here and I'm nothing, nobody.
And it was humbling because I thought, hey, I have a good story.
I'm a doctor.
I did comedy.
I should come here and Hollywood should open its door.
Nothing.
Nobody cares about you.
Like, yeah, you were great in Egypt.
Now, we don't know what to do with you.
So I think it's got to be a big transfer.
I think that's scary.
That would have to be one of the scariest things, I think, for a comic is going
to another country.
Because the entire template of everything is different, like the pentameter of
what's funny, like things that people know and don't know, references, all of
that.
And then you're in a whole new space.
And Hollywood does not care, really.
It's like you show up.
They don't care.
It doesn't matter.
And you have to understand, I was even a comedian who changed.
I just been there for three years.
I just left medicine, did a show out of nothing, became successful.
So I only had two, three years under my belt coming to America as a comedian in
Arabic.
So I come here.
So I started doing stand-up comedy and I sucked so bad because it's my second
language.
And also, it's not just the language, it's the rhythm, the music.
Each language has its pauses, its rhythm, its cadence.
And I would write stuff that would be intelligent, but I wouldn't deliver it
right.
So I went into the years of darkness and humiliation.
And that was here in the U.S.?
That's when you first started stand-up?
Yes.
Wow.
What was your first set at here?
I did something in, oh, the improv, like open mic, and it was terrible.
And I did a few, open my mics, and then I, but here's the trick.
What helped me is that I was someone with a good story.
So I didn't go into comedy the first, like right away.
I won a speaker series.
I'm like, ah, I came from the revolution, Egypt.
So I wouldn't go to talk to universities and stuff.
Like a talk.
A talk.
That's better.
And then with that talk, I would put jokes.
And then I was like, oh, I have five minutes.
Let me try it.
And then I suck.
It's like, no, that's not the five minutes.
Now I have two minutes.
Yeah, yeah, two minutes.
So I would go back and forth, back and forth, back.
And I went for years.
And when COVID hit, I still went on the road because I needed to have any time
I can get.
So I would go and I would play for five people, six people.
And it was funny that people knew me from Egypt, from my own country, Arabs and
Egyptians would know me.
And they would see my name.
It's like, oh, we have to come and see Bassem Yusuf.
Now in their mind is this guy with this huge show.
And they come.
And I'm a struggling comedian.
And I would see it on their faces.
They would say, oh, too bad.
Bassem is a has-been.
Maybe he'll be driving an Uber in three months.
Yeah, maybe this is how he'll make his money.
So it was very humiliating for me.
And then two years ago, something happened.
Started to fill in spaces at places.
I have kind of a few sold-out shows.
And it went well.
And last year, I was actually talking about shooting my special already.
I was having interest.
And then October 7th happened.
And then I blew up because of Piers Morgan.
And then more people came to me.
But here's the thing.
When I was complaining about not having enough people coming to me, I wasn't
ready yet.
Oh, yeah.
After October 7th, now everybody knew who I am.
Yeah.
So they came to my show.
And you were a little more prepared.
If I was, if that, if the Piers Morgan thing happened, if that-
Two years earlier.
Two years, I wouldn't be good enough.
And people will come and get disappointed.
Yeah.
So I think I took my time.
And I think I'm grateful for that.
Yeah, it's funny you said about like your time and how it like, you think you
have-
I remember when I first thought I had like five minutes, I'd be like, guys, I'm
doing-
I got five minutes, you know, calm down.
But then you realize if you have five minutes, you really only have like two
minutes, you
know, it's like when it really, when you cook the fat down and kind of figure
things out.
Yeah, that Piers Morgan thing was huge for you.
Yes.
That was huge.
Came out of nothing.
Yeah.
Came out of nowhere.
A comedian friend of mine, Amir Kay, connected us.
And he works with me a lot on the road.
And this was absolutely, this was just so funny and insightful and ridiculous.
Yes.
Did you know it would have that big of a impact?
It has 22 million views.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's, I went into that and I was warned by everyone that I know that not to
go on the show.
Yeah.
Because at the time with October 7th, there was a certain story and a certain
perception
and no one was allowed to talk outside of the perception.
It was all one-sided.
And my wife is half Palestinian and her family, many of them are in Gaza.
And they were bombed.
And she lost many of her family members all through the years.
But it became so natural that Gaza gets bombed that it's crazy that this is a
part of their life.
So we don't even talk about it.
It's like, yeah, we don't, we don't, I don't even hear anyone about anybody of
her family
until a bomb goes on.
And that's not just like the last eight months.
I'm talking about like years.
So when that happened and I saw there's, this is one-sided and our, my side of
the story is not being allowed to talk.
But nobody is willing to listen because everybody was hysterical.
So when he went in and he said like, how's everybody, how's your family?
I was like, well, I know I tried to kill my life, but she's using my kids as
human shields.
So I use the same stuff that they're using.
Because it, the way that they were justifying the continuous attack was
ridiculous.
One of them was by Ben Shapiro and even DeSantis.
He said, well, you know, Israel warns Palestinians before bombing them.
It's like, oh my God, how cute.
How, wow, wow, wow.
So it's like, if, so if Putin warns Ukrainians, it's okay for Putin to bomb
Ukraine.
Because as long as you warn them, that's fine.
And I, and I, and I find that like, and I said, and I thought like, I think
Israel became so effective of warning them
that they actually be like, warn them ahead of their funeral.
They actually been sending flowers to the funeral.
It's like a, we're very sorry for your upcoming loss.
We're going to be there in 10.
I mean, it's like, it's like, are you guys gaslighting us?
And then I was hearing, oh, there's so many babies we kill, but we cannot help
it.
What do you mean?
If you're the most funded, most advanced, most trained, most supported military
in the Middle East,
and you can't help killing babies, maybe you can stick to your day job.
Maybe, maybe genocide is not the hobby for you.
It's just, so it kind of like drew, it was, for me, it, the, the, the, a
justification just drove me crazy.
So I took every single element that they were taking and I just regurgitated
back to them.
Right.
And he said, so what should Israel do?
It's like, exactly what they did, kill more people.
Why not kill more?
Kill more, because