#479 – Tamer Kattan

Tamer Kattan (00:02):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (00:03):

Bam. We’re live.

Tamer Kattan (00:05):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (00:05):

Wait, why? Huh? Oh you. Yes. Tamer. Kaan

Tamer Kattan (00:12):

Tamer. Hey, how are you, man?

Sevan Matossian (00:13):

Goodson. Did I pronounce your name? Right?

Tamer Kattan (00:16):

Uh, it’s Tamer like a hammer

Sevan Matossian (00:18):

Tamer,

Tamer Kattan (00:19):

Tamer, Tamer. Pretend there’s a, yeah, pretend there’s a, it’s easier. If you think of it with two S

Sevan Matossian (00:25):

TA you, you gave me a perfect way to pronunciate it. <laugh> and uh, and I still pronunciated it wrong.

Tamer Kattan (00:31):

<laugh> like

Sevan Matossian (00:32):

Fucking, and SaveOn can’t even say pronunciate, uh, Seon. Yeah, you pronounce

Tamer Kattan (00:37):

Itson okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. I had a Persian friend named Kon, so that’s

Sevan Matossian (00:42):

K E B a N.

Tamer Kattan (00:44):

Yeah, it was really similar.

Sevan Matossian (00:46):

I, uh, Chevon’s a lake in Armenia.

Tamer Kattan (00:49):

Oh, cool.

Sevan Matossian (00:50):

Yeah. I’m living your, I’m living your, your parents’ life. I got a, uh, I, I married AJ Nazi Jew, and I’m an Armenian and we have, uh, three, uh, little Jamian boys.

Tamer Kattan (01:02):

<laugh> that’s great, man. Congratulations.

Sevan Matossian (01:05):

Thanks. Yeah, I’m pumped two, five year olds and a seven year old. My wife got ’em 23 in Mead. One of them, uh, using a fake name just in case I have an uncle. Who’s a killer. You don’t wanna out him. And, uh, cuz you know how that works. Right? You heard about that?

Tamer Kattan (01:17):

No.

Sevan Matossian (01:18):

Yeah like if I try, if, if you let’s say you were to go 23 and me yourself. Yeah. Well your DNA is so close to so many other people that they can kind of like triangulate on other people and be like, oh shit, Tamara’s second cousin. Uh, we were, we’ve been looking for, for a, a murder case.

Tamer Kattan (01:34):

Oh,

Sevan Matossian (01:35):

Okay. Yeah. But you can, but you can 23. Me and me, yourself with a fake name. And uh, and we did that and he, the kids 51% OJ KK, those are like the super inbred Jews and um, and, and uh, and 49% Armenian, which I think were pretty, we’re pretty solidly inbred too.

Tamer Kattan (01:53):

Wow. That’s almost 50 50, man. That’s crazy.

Sevan Matossian (01:56):

I know. I thought it would’ve been 50 50. I mean, I, I didn’t pay close attention in that class. I think it was like anthropology where they talked about yeah. How people were made

Tamer Kattan (02:06):

<laugh> yeah,

Sevan Matossian (02:08):

Like they did the chromosome talk and anthropology 1 0 1, but I didn’t pay attention. I was looking at

Tamer Kattan (02:13):

Girls. Yeah. That’s wild. No, but you, you don’t often see it. So, uh, so cleanly split. It’s like one of those cats that has a different fur right down the middle of its face. That’s that’s crazy.

Sevan Matossian (02:22):

Right. Um, could I, where are you?

Tamer Kattan (02:25):

Uh, right now I’m in Libon I just got here yesterday from Berlin

Sevan Matossian (02:29):

In Libon is Portugal

Tamer Kattan (02:31):

LIBO and Portugal. Exactly. It’s the most Western point of Europe. So it’s the closest to the states.

Sevan Matossian (02:38):

Oh no shit. I was, I was gonna say something stupid too. And it’s just north of it’s. Portugal is pretty close to Africa too, right? Just north.

Tamer Kattan (02:45):

Yeah. It’s not far exactly like it’s, it’s just on the other side of Spain. Like if you look at the Spanish peninsula, the edge of it, it’s a California shaped country on, on the Atlantic. And so yeah, the, from the Southern Portugal, it’s very, um, African like tempera, uh, temperature and you could see, you could see Morocco.

Sevan Matossian (03:06):

Oh, you literally can when you’re at the coast.

Tamer Kattan (03:09):

Yeah. If you have great eyeballs. Yeah. If you, you know, like from Portugal. Yeah. There you go. So from there, yeah. You can see Africa.

Sevan Matossian (03:17):

Why are you there?

Tamer Kattan (03:19):

You take the over there. Yeah, exactly. I got married during the pandemic and fell in love and we, I, she was li she’s a Swedish girl living in Barcelona. And then, um, we wanted to start a life together. We were both in a new country and, um, Portugal had a really good golden visa program cuz the other thing is I wanted to get my mom over here. And so that’s uh, for several reasons we decided on Portugal.

Sevan Matossian (03:42):

And did your mom come?

Tamer Kattan (03:43):

Yeah, she lives like 30 minutes away by train and at a place called carve. It’s a little beach town. That’s very similar to like Newport beach and where we live is, I mean, it’s very similar to California.

Sevan Matossian (03:56):

Uh, very interesting that you use Newport beach as the example. What a remarkable, what a remarkable place.

Tamer Kattan (04:03):

Yeah. It’s pretty wild. It’s uh, yeah, it reminds me a lot of Newport beach. Actually, if you squint, you feel like you’re Newport beach.

Sevan Matossian (04:11):

If you hate rich people and you want it to go away, you want that hate to go away, visit Newport beach. What a wonderful place with some really, really fucking rich people. And there’s like a chewing gum on the ground and you don’t have to worry about being robbed. And uh, they use the right amount of alcohol and the drinks. I mean, what a, what a fantastic kind of like paradise in, in what otherwise is a California that has some, uh, some growing pains going through some growing

Tamer Kattan (04:43):

Pains. Yeah. It’s a really interesting place. I spent some pretty formative years there and it was really interesting. We lived in on a street called 49th and Neptune Uhhuh and where we lived, a lot of the houses were owned by big surf companies. And so they’d let pro surfers pop in and out. And literally the, the part of Newport beach we lived in, they called it the projects, uh, very tongue in cheek because it was, they were the only homes where like multiple roommates were living there, but we were living on beachfront property. I, I lived across the street from Dennis Rodman, uh, when he was at his peak, it was very bizarre.

Sevan Matossian (05:17):

H how old, how old are you?

Tamer Kattan (05:19):

Uh, 51.

Sevan Matossian (05:20):

Okay. So we’re the same age. Holy shit. Okay. It’s so interesting. I watched the interview last night that you did on, uh, they tried to bury us podcast. Oh yeah. And I watched, I watched episode one with your mom. Wow. And your mom looks so young. Yeah.

Tamer Kattan (05:34):

Yeah, she

Sevan Matossian (05:34):

Does. And she said she was born in 1947. I’m like, holy shit. This dude might be the same age as me. You look young too.

Tamer Kattan (05:40):

Thanks man. Yeah. I’m a happy person now.

Sevan Matossian (05:42):

Yeah. Black don’t crack.

Tamer Kattan (05:44):

Isn’t that? <laugh> yeah. I’m Egyptian. That’s close enough. Yeah. Where same area. It’s like if, uh, black was, uh, Mexico, Egypt would be San Diego, like we’re, <laugh> we’re right on the border

Sevan Matossian (05:57):

And, and you’re born in Egypt.

Tamer Kattan (05:58):

Yeah. Born in Cairo.

Sevan Matossian (06:01):

Um, do you know, do you know of Patrick bet, David?

Tamer Kattan (06:06):

No, I don’t think so, but you know what? I’m, I’m a better recognizer by face than by name. Uh,

Sevan Matossian (06:12):

Let me see if I can bring him up here. He is a, um, uh, uh, Egyptian Armenian, um, entrepreneur in, uh, in the United States. He has the largest, uh, YouTube station, um, which is kind of a weird way to brag about him because he’s done so much else. This is him right here. Do you recognize him? Um, he wrote this book, your next five moves. He owns an insurance company. He has like 20,000 employees.

Tamer Kattan (06:41):

Wow.

Sevan Matossian (06:41):

Yeah, he is, uh, I, I had him on the show half Armenian, uh, half Egyptian. Um, and, uh, he’s, he’s uh, got some, uh, harrowing tale of escaping, uh, Egypt during, uh, during the tussle.

Tamer Kattan (06:56):

Oh, wow. During the revolution I was there during the revolution. I had a wild experience there too. It was pretty wild.

Sevan Matossian (07:02):

Yeah. He, he’s a, uh, he’s a young man though. He’s only 43.

Tamer Kattan (07:05):

Yeah. It’s uh, the graffiti during the revolution when I was there, I, I was there performing comedy at the American university in chiro for the protesters, for the younger generation and the graffiti man. Oh my God. It was just tear jerking.

Sevan Matossian (07:20):

Um, wait, what year was that? That you were there?

Tamer Kattan (07:23):

Uh, well, I have a tattooed on my arm, actually, 2011, the 11th of the 11th day of February, 2011.

Sevan Matossian (07:31):

You know what I’m such, uh, uh, I’m wrong. I, I, I, I I’m, uh, he, I, I lied to you.

Tamer Kattan (07:37):

<laugh> okay.

Sevan Matossian (07:37):

He’s he’s not, he’s not Egyptian. He’s half Iranian.

Tamer Kattan (07:41):

Oh, okay. Yeah. Cause

Sevan Matossian (07:42):

It’s, I get all my, all my middle Eastern dudes all scrambled up.

Tamer Kattan (07:45):

Hey man, I get it. We’re like Mexican food, you know, like the ingredients on the inside are similar, but the, the Shell’s different.

Sevan Matossian (07:51):

Those are Mexicans crossing the border. No, they’re Venezuelans. Yeah. That’s what I said.

Tamer Kattan (07:55):

<laugh> yeah, I get that.

Sevan Matossian (07:58):

I apologize. Uh, tell, tell me, can you tell me about your harrowing experience in Egypt?

Tamer Kattan (08:04):

Sure. I had, uh, at the time, I think I’d been doing comedy in two for about 10 years, maybe. No, no. Less than that. 2011. Uh, yeah, maybe like seven or eight years at that point. And I heard, you know, the Arab spring was the big topic being covered and they were like showing you the Arab spring through all these different lenses of life. And one of the lenses they took us through was these, um, Egyptian kids that made a comedy production company that would have comedy shows every Friday. And then they have a comedy school every Saturday where people would use comedy to vent like the anxiety and the stress and the frustration. And I was just so impressed by them. So I thought, Hey, maybe these guys have a Facebook page or something, cuz this was like a, a CNN article. And so man, I, I was an in betweener probably very similar to the Iranian cat you were referencing and in between her, in the sense that I wasn’t accepted by America as quickly as I was rejected by Egypt. Okay. So I felt like I was kind of floating in space

Sevan Matossian (09:09):

And why the rejection Tamer,

Tamer Kattan (09:11):

You know, I think a lot of times when you immigrate from one country to another country, you use these different, um, social institutions to connect with people a lot or religious mm-hmm <affirmative>. And because my parents were conflicting religions, we didn’t really go to mosque. We didn’t really go to temple. So it’s not like we had this pop up turnkey group of people that were automatic friends when we immigrated to a new country. So

Sevan Matossian (09:37):

We, and you didn’t wanna kill gays that, and that put you on, on the out that put you way on the outside.

Tamer Kattan (09:42):

We were very progressive, you know? Yeah. I came from a very progressive family and, and I think, um, you know, uh, religious people, you know, if people, especially Egyptians that moved to America, the Christian Egyptians were very insular because they felt like they were refugees in a way. Right, right. From the way they were treated by Muslims. And then the Muslims themselves felt like they had so much racism towards them in America. So the behavior or the treatment towards them had reversed. Right. And so both of them were very elitist in a way to who was let in and who was let out. So I was kind of this kid floating in the middle and I always said, I, I don’t know if I’m a Muslim or a Jew or an American, but the one thing I know I am is funny. Yeah. And when I saw a group of these kids being so brave and, and pushing for improvement in this country that I still felt love for, and I saw them identifying as comedians, I was like, well, I’m that I am undeniably that.

Tamer Kattan (10:38):

And so it was a sense of identity and it drew me towards those guys. And so I, I sent them a message on their Facebook fan page and I said, Hey, man, I’m really proud of you guys. And I think what you’re doing is really brave and, and, and very cool. And you know, I just want you to know, as a, as a fellow Egyptian, I’m proud of you. And the response back was a little unusual. They’re like, Hey man, well, we looked you up and you’re a great comedian and let’s see if, or you’re a real comedian. Let’s see if you’re a real Egyptian and why don’t you come out here? We’ll fly. You come perform with us during the revolution. And uh, so yeah, man, so it was crazy. Um, my, I didn’t tell my, my mom because I didn’t want her to be freaked out. My dad had just passed away and, and I I’m an only child. So I went to Egypt first and then I let her know. I said, Hey, I’m sorry, I’m in Egypt now. And don’t be

Sevan Matossian (11:25):

Scared. Why would she freak out for safe safety?

Tamer Kattan (11:27):

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Sevan Matossian (11:30):

And, and did you have some hairball experiences while you were there?

Tamer Kattan (11:33):

I’ll tell you one of the most, the, the most crazy experiences I had that was also brain splitting mm-hmm <affirmative> was that I was the last comic on stage. So I was the, the most foreign, all the other comics were Egyptian. And then it was here, comes the Egyptian American, right. Which, which Egyptians always a point of going, you’re not a really Egyptian anymore. You’re this other thing. And so when I was,

Sevan Matossian (11:57):

You’re doing them in English or Arabic, the, the standup in English.

Tamer Kattan (12:01):

Okay. In English. And I’d throw in an Arabic word here and there to be cute, you know? Sure. Um, but at, towards the end of my set, I heard people fighting in the back of the stage and I was like, whoa, something’s going on? And so I ended my, the end of the show, I got in a pause break, but I could still hear the fighting. So I went and the kids were younger than me and smaller than me. So I felt like a big brother. And so I ran back there and this man was just screaming at them, saying, what you’re doing is wrong. It’s hot on and all this stuff. And I, and I go, Hey, man, I go back up and I stepped in between him and the kids. And he looked at me and he goes, Tamer, Habibi. It’s so good to see you.

Tamer Kattan (12:38):

And I looked at him and I go, what? And he pulled out a picture that he had of me as a child. And he said, I was friends with your father. I came here to see you. And I’m like, what are you doing, man? Why are you screaming at them? He though, because what they’re doing is wrong. I go, then I I’m, I’m part of the show too. This is my job. Why, why aren’t you yelling at me? He’s like, because they know better. You’re not Egypt. And it was such a bizarre experience to have this guy that I recognized for my childhood, but who was also the worst kind of person at a comedy show and yelling at these, at these young kids who are just trying to live and trying to be heard.

Sevan Matossian (13:16):

Um, I, I wanna get back to, uh, who find out a little bit more about this gentleman, but for those of you who don’t know, and this is a common term that I grew up with also even being Armenian and we spoke Armenian, uh, almost all my family also speaks Arabic, um, hobby, bees, and Arabic word. That literally literally means my love for those of you who don’t know Arabic culture or middle Eastern culture. It is crazy affectionate like, and, and I’m crazy affectionate with my boys. There was always an uncle holding me. I was always on someone’s shoulder. Someone was always pulling my cheek. Someone was always telling me my love, Habibi, Habibi. It was always my love. Everyone was loving everyone. And it’s interesting words dictate our, our world and our reality. I don’t think most people realize it, it, we are living in a truly magical world where people are, I mean, half our, um, half the half the world is asleep, probably more because they’ve been allow to sleep by words, by word fuckery.

Sevan Matossian (14:13):

And they’re being trick into to anytime you’re offended. I hate to say it you’ve been fucked by word fuckery. <laugh> no matter who you are, you’re responsible for that. You, you made up, you, you bought into some sort of illusion, which is O okay, but you should know it and this, but imagine a society that the United States and, um, you know, during these times of crisis and, and, you know, you know, I was stopped at, at the border many at times, coming into the United States, asking what my role was in the Syrian army. And I understand I, I I’m hating, but, um, my love these people, these people are lovers. Yeah. They love so fucking hard middle Eastern people. Would you say that’s a fair characterization,

Tamer Kattan (14:55):

A hundred percent, a hundred percent. There’s a, there’s a, a crap, ton of love. And it tends to be that way in most countries when, uh, you don’t have a chance to achieve the American dream and you can’t be so individualistic because it’s gonna get you nowhere. Right. You know what I mean? So then you, your focus shifts to family. And I think there’s, you know, there’s been a lot of, uh, there’s a tremendous amount of love, and you could see it in the words, in the language. It’s an ancient, a lot of languages are ancient language, and you could see the amount of affection and love and importance of family in, in the language. And a lot of the older, older languages,

Sevan Matossian (15:29):

Uh, I think you have some oatmeal in your mustache.

Tamer Kattan (15:31):

Kidding. <laugh> it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s water.

Sevan Matossian (15:35):

I wanted to say booger, but I’m like, you know what? He’s a guest claiming it’s

Tamer Kattan (15:38):

Oatmeal. Oh, Booger’s a crazy, I like that word, man. I haven’t heard booger in a long time.

Sevan Matossian (15:42):

Booger <laugh>, uh, and Tamara, who, who, who did that guy end up being? Who was he?

Tamer Kattan (15:47):

He was a good friend of my dad’s. He was a guy that like, uh, was friends with my dad. And, you know, it’s a very strange thing when you leave a place like Egypt, especially back then, because there is no, there was no FaceTime. Um, there was no, you know, social media,

Sevan Matossian (16:02):

Facebook, Facebook, you mean,

Tamer Kattan (16:03):

Yeah, there Facebook or FaceTime or anything where you could communicate and see each other, you know, Skype, any of that stuff. So you, you become ghosts. And the memory, uh, that they have of you is sometimes it’s like saintly, you know, or they, or they, them imagining you in America, it’s such a distorted vision, um, from, from what life is really like. So it was a very strange thing to watch this guy be simultaneously angry at a show that I was a part of and also at, at boys, uh, at, at the boys that I was on the show with. And then also so excited to see me and his face full of love. His face was split with love and hate. In, in this one environment, it was very bizarre

Sevan Matossian (16:45):

Because there were some jokes that were sacri in, in, in, in the context that he, he lived the world.

Tamer Kattan (16:51):

Yeah. Well, he wanted E everything was SAC because I did ask him, I go tell me, I go, my, I didn’t fly on all the way across the world to come here to offend you. Right. I’m on my, my I’m, you know, me since I was a baby and I I’ve always loved making people laugh. And I go, so tell me, what, what did I talk about that defended you? And he goes, okay, I’m glad you ask culture. And I’m like, what? That’s everything, man. That’s everything you can’t say that you can’t, you, you’re not gonna censor me. You’re not gonna silence me. And so, yeah, that was, uh, it was a bizarre, it was a very bizarre experience. And it was almost like, it was almost like trying to get back together with a girl that you’d broken up with going out on a date and then realizing no, it was the right decision.

Sevan Matossian (17:34):

Uh, I would, I wanna show you guys something this, uh, is about, I’m only gonna show you guys, uh, a minute of this. This is at the top secret comedy club. This is from 2019. This is 12 minutes of time that you will be very happy you spend, if you go find this, uh, before I hit play on here, um, how, how many years of material, if you can, I don’t know if you remember, you have so much content on YouTube. Do you remember this moment? And, and, and can I ask you a couple questions about the content?

Tamer Kattan (18:04):

Sure. I absolutely remember the moment and yeah, whatever you want. Go for it.

Sevan Matossian (18:09):

How long? Um, yeah, Corey. Exactly. I know, uh, just watched a clip of Tamer standup due to 20, you know, what’s funny when we’ve had, uh, I don’t know, 20 comics on the show and he’s like only one of two that actually knows how to talk, which is kinda a trip.

Tamer Kattan (18:23):

Oh, that’s sad.

Sevan Matossian (18:25):

It is sad. It is sad. Uh, how many, how many years of material, how long did it take to refine this? This 12 minutes?

Tamer Kattan (18:34):

Uh, yeah, I’d say 10 years.

Sevan Matossian (18:36):

Yeah. This is incredible right

Tamer Kattan (18:38):

Here. Thank you, man. I really appreciate that.

Sevan Matossian (18:41):

Is, is any part of you? Like what the fuck has, have you like you, like, you want like, uh, has anyone not seen this? How come I’m not,

Tamer Kattan (18:50):

You know, it’s a

Sevan Matossian (18:50):

Funny thing. How does this not have 10 million views? Where the fuck is my Netflix special? I mean, this is, this is a nuts 12 minutes. Yeah.

Tamer Kattan (18:56):

Thank you so much. Yeah. You know, I’ve, uh, I’ve been, I’ve been very fortunate in the sense that I started comedy at 40. And so, because I started comedy at 40, the industry ignored me and, and you know what? No. And I had no issues with it because quite honestly, I didn’t get into comedy to make money. I didn’t get into comedy cuz I wanted to be a star or a celebrity or anything like that. I got into comedy cuz it’s the only thing that maybe act like a sane person. It’s it’s the only thing

Sevan Matossian (19:25):

Sane. SA S a N E. Okay.

Tamer Kattan (19:27):

S a N E, correct. It, it makes me happy. I do it for me. Um, it’s teaching me how to be a better man and a better husband. It’s if you do it with, in off the same branch that I’ve been inspired to do it through. It’s very, um, self exploratory. Um, there’s a quote that I above my desk and it changed my world in terms of how I write comedy. And it was from Terry Cruz and he said, um, my life changed when I stopped trying to be the best and started trying to be the only, and, and that changed my focus from being competitive or being jealous or worrying about what other people were getting or what I wasn’t getting and more into, what do I have in my life story that nobody else has and,

Sevan Matossian (20:13):

Oh, okay. I was gonna ask you, what does that mean? The only, but okay. I see what you’re saying.

Tamer Kattan (20:18):

It just made me it it’s so much more self-examining and my comedy makes me nervous. Now my comedy, I, I post videos now and I’m a little bit scared and I wasn’t like that when I was just putting up comedy to be funny. And I think it took me a long time to get to that place. Not necessarily as a comedian, but as a human being

Sevan Matossian (20:38):

Psychologically stripping you’re

Tamer Kattan (20:40):

Stripping. Yeah. A hundred, a hundred percent. And then I think now that I’ve, you know, I got married during the pandemic. So I left New York, which is, you know, the, the, the epitome of, of, of a comedy city and a comedy industry to Europe where English speaking comedy is kind of a new thing. Like I’m, I’m going on the road. And we’re performing in cities and countries that have never seen English speaking comedy before. Uh, we performed in a tent in a, on a field for 120 people in Bratislava, in Slovakia and surrounded by communist block buildings. And we were talking about the existence of God and they were cheering for us in a country where you’d be arrested to do that stuff before. So it’s like, uh, this is the most romantic chapter of my comedy life because it’s the most entrepreneurial and long answer to your question. But the reason why, uh, you haven’t seen this video before is because I wasn’t good, uh, about posting stuff and being as entrepreneurial as I’m being now. And, and now I am. So now the videos are coming fast and furious and I film every single set I do. And, um, everything that I’m doing this week is what you’ll see on, on my feeds. The, you know, two days later,

Sevan Matossian (21:54):

Uh, you can be as long winded as you want. I’m notorious for inter I will interrupt a motherfucker. Uh, boy, no matter what, if I have good, I like it. If I have a question, I, if I, I love listening to you, I’m already. So every time you talk, five more questions pop up in my head. I, oh, this, this whole European thing, the way you’re talking about it makes me feel like it’s 1950, but this is 2022. Yeah. Uh, European tour and the stories you’re telling feel like, uh, I mean, I mean, you’re going to unchartered territory. It’s pretty cool. I wanna play with a little bit of this and then we’ll circle back, check this out, guys. This is some good stuff here.

Speaker 3 (22:25):

No one even believes I’m in Arab cuz you know, I’m happy. <laugh> and I get that. There’s not a lot of happy Arabs on TV. There’s only bad Arabs doing bad things. Cause we’re just on the news. We don’t have a TV show to counterbalance all that negativity and TV shows, humanize people like will. And grace did amazing things for the gay community. The Cosby show. Well, no.

Sevan Matossian (22:49):

Oh well <laugh> there is something I wanna show you in. This has nothing to do with the show. Look do, do you, do you work out Tamer?

Tamer Kattan (22:59):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (23:00):

Um, look at this guy right here. Let me see if I can find him wa watch how this guy sits down right here in the front row.

Speaker 3 (23:06):

There took us three days to want to go home. <laugh> it’s true. We got to America confident on October 28th, but three nights later on October 31st.

Sevan Matossian (23:17):

You see that face he makes

Tamer Kattan (23:19):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (23:20):

You think he sore

Tamer Kattan (23:22):

<laugh> yeah. Maybe

Sevan Matossian (23:25):

Like did he just do back squats last night?

Tamer Kattan (23:27):

<laugh>

Speaker 3 (23:29):

Three days. Oh man. It’s true. We got to America

Sevan Matossian (23:33):

Concert. Watch his face

Speaker 3 (23:34):

On October 28th <laugh> but three nights later on October 31st

Tamer Kattan (23:40):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (23:40):

Halloween night, either that or he charted his pants and he had to sit in a wet one or something. I’m like what? What?

Tamer Kattan (23:45):

That’s hilarious, man. Yeah. I think it could be physically if his, if his, uh, if he’s anticipating pain physically in the hamstrings. Yeah. Uh, I think it could be a workout emotionally. If he’s worried about getting the attention of comedian while sitting in the front <laugh> he might be like, oh shit, don’t make noise. Cuz the cup made a sound. He’s like, oh shit. I don’t want the attention of the comic.

Sevan Matossian (24:09):

I I’ve um, I I’ve had comics on here. Who, who, who their bread and butter is the audience. Um, I, I watched, I don’t know, 50 videos of yours and I haven’t seen you interact with the audience at all. Now that I think about it.

Tamer Kattan (24:20):

Yeah. I mean I do. I definitely do. And there’s there’s a video that went viral wore I I had a, a heckler that was so bad. She threw a cocktail glass at me. No. Oh yeah man. And I used like a, a good old fashioned street comeback. It was in east London. And literally the video is me apologizing to her saying, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to ruin your night. I, my goal is not to offend you and she’s like, fuck you, fuck you. Fuck you. And on her way out, she goes, fuck your mother. And the whole room goes and then I go, I don’t have a mom. Me and my dad share yours and that’s

Sevan Matossian (24:55):

Oh, oh, oh, it’s my favorite. Oh, it’s my favorite. Oh.

Tamer Kattan (25:00):

And the whole crowd in east London crowded an all black comedy club. They all start screaming. And this sister just threw a cocktail glass at me. And I did a little, little, little sh uh, little, uh, Bob and we, and every, the comment section was crazy. They’re like that guy boxes. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (25:16):

I? Oh, uh, Todd glass attacks. Uh, oh no, let me see. How would I find that clip?

Tamer Kattan (25:22):

I think if you go Tamer Kitan, uh, shuts down heckler plus uh, up next, if you put an up next it’s a comedy platform in the UK, that’s kind of like a Netflix streaming service. Um,

Sevan Matossian (25:36):

Uh, Tamar, uh, Tamara Kant owns audience member.

Tamer Kattan (25:39):

That’s it? Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (25:40):

Next up comedy.

Tamer Kattan (25:41):

Yeah. That’s it next up? That’s it? Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (25:44):

Okay. <laugh> and, and do we, do we actually get to see the cocktail? The, the,

Tamer Kattan (25:49):

No, you get to see me Dodge it, but you don’t get to see the glass flying at

Sevan Matossian (25:52):

Me. Okay. Let’s let’s watch a little bit of,

Tamer Kattan (25:53):

Oh, I’m so sorry that I ruined tonight. That was sarcasm. Yeah. I didn’t mean to upset you. I don’t have a mom. Me and my dad share yours. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (26:18):

Hey, is that, um, you know how most people, uh, there’s, there’s a point in your life where like, if that happened in your twenties, you’re pissed, but in your fifties, you’re like, man, I’ll never forget this day. What a great day. Someone threw a cocktail glass at me. Yeah.

Tamer Kattan (26:34):

Well, you know, what’s funny, man. I’ll tell you. I, uh, I, I still feel shame when I say this is that I, I, I grew up as a person that had a very bad temper and I had, um, and it made me a very lonely person. It made, it made, I lost friend after friend. I was one of those guys that was friends with people who were best friends, but I never had a best friend. I was an only child. And I had a dad who psychologically didn’t touch me or talk to me or anything. So no

Sevan Matossian (27:01):

Shit. What about my whole thing about middle Eastern men being so loving?

Tamer Kattan (27:04):

Well you’re right. He was very loving, uh, to other people. It was very

Sevan Matossian (27:08):

Not to his own son. Okay.

Tamer Kattan (27:10):

Oh man. Even at his funeral. Yeah. There was a, a woman he used to carpool with who was my age and she said, is it okay with you guys? If I mourn for him, the way that we do in my culture mm-hmm <affirmative>. And we said, of course, and she got down on her knees and kind of gave a eulogy as to how he was her FA he was like a father to her. And there was a, and I was at my own dad’s funeral going, he was more of a father to her than me and it killed me. Right, right. You know, and it was a, it was a very messed up thing. My mom explained to me that my dad lost his dad when he was very young and it broke his heart. So my dad consciously kept a distance from me so that when he died, I wouldn’t, uh, have my heart broken <laugh> wow.

Tamer Kattan (27:51):

So backwards. Wow. So backwards. But I don’t, you know, so I, I, I became a very angry guy for a very long time. And, uh, I lost a lot of friends. I even lost family. And, um, you know, that anger, it was like a drug addiction. And until I got to a point where maybe even, uh, my testosterone dropped a little bit and I, I softened as a human and I had, I started to have loss in my life, friends that had died, um, for bad reasons, too, people that really didn’t deserve it. You know, all that living that kind of life, softens you a little bit and makes you understand your own mortality. And, and it made me start realizing how dumb my anger was and how I didn’t wanna be like those people. And I didn’t wanna be that kind of a man.

Tamer Kattan (28:35):

And I, I felt like my dad was a vampire and he bit me and I had to go to therapy. So I could be like a vampire on Twilight where I could have a girlfriend and I could have a relationship and I could go out in the sun. And so even now, when heckler get mad at me, I don’t, I don’t really get mad back because I know that there’s no way the words that I said on that stage made them that angry. They were pre angry. Oh, they were pre anxious, pre stressed out pre. And I understand that I, I empathize with, especially now, I empathize with people who are angry, stressed out, even if they’re a, a supporter of, of a politician. Who’s the opposite of who I believe in. I’m not going to treat another human. Like they’re not a human. So if someone’s gonna get mad at me now, I, I’m usually pretty cool level headed. And, you know, and aware of the outside environment, I don’t have tunnel vision anymore

Sevan Matossian (29:31):

In, in the most, in the most superficial sense. And I don’t mean that with negative connotation. It’s great for your career. Everyone in the audience now remember, will not forget for as long as they live the night that they went and, um, watched Tamara QAN <laugh> they will. They, I mean, they it’s, it’s a great comeback mother jokes. I try to use one in every show. If like someone in the comments like gets wily. I always try to make, you know, your mom joke. Yeah. I think they’re timeless. Um, I think they’re fun. Um,

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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