Mo Amer Talks About Starting Comedy at 14 and How Chappelle Has Helped Shape His Career

When I heard that Mo Amer was coming through Chicago to play Zanies, I was very excited to speak with him about the experiences he shared in his Netflix special “Vagabond” and the journey that’s led him from refugee to prodigy. Mo Amer’s life seems to be living proof that you are never too old or too young to take destiny by the reigns and choose your fate. His parents did this when they made the difficult decision to pack up their 6 children and flee their war stricken home in Kuwait. Then, Mo, the youngest of the Amer children, chose his fate when he set his mind on becoming a professional standup comedian when he was just 10 years old. Mo said that after seeing Bill Cosby do an hour and kill in front of 70,000 people at a rodeo in Houston, Texas he knew that standup comedy was what he wanted to do. Four years later, the sudden loss of his father had Mo skipping school and in danger of not graduating. It was then that the kindness and support of his English teacher got him back on track and his life as a standup comedian took root.

“I was 14 so I couldn’t go into any comedy clubs because they serve alcohol. Let me go ask my Muslim mom to take me to a comedy club? Yeah right! She didn’t even know what standup was as an artform. It’s one of the indigenous artforms to America, there’s jazz, hip-hop and standup. After my dad died, I was skipping school all the time. My English teacher was getting me back on track and she said, ‘Don’t you want to be a comedian?’ so I said ‘yes’ and she said, ‘You’re not going to graduate, you’re skipping so much! I know you’ve gone through a lot with your dad passing away. How would your dad feel if you don’t graduate?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God! You’re cold blooded!’ But she just made my life. She was like, ‘I’ll let you do standup every Friday in class and if you do any monologues from Shakespeare, I’ll give you extra credit.’ I was doing standup in class on a weekly basis. Then, she took me to the arts department, and she was like, ‘This kid’s coming in doing original material and doing all these different accents. I think he belongs in here.’ I ended up in theater a year later and was performing in thespian festivals. It was natural.”

I loved how Mo’s teacher recognized that his trauma response was educational and that because of the loss of his father, he was making really poor decisions and was in danger of not graduating. She used his talents to make school a place he wanted to be, so he started showing up and a star was born. These types of stories make my heart sing. I wondered if Mo believes the loss of his father had something to do with why comedy resonated with him so well when he was 14 or if he thought it was just a coincidence. He said, “It’s definitely not a coincidence. Comedy is something I decided to do at 10 and it took a big traumatic event to happen in my life for my teacher to guide me back to it. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. I think it’s just destiny.” Besides his English teacher, Mo Amer also called his mother his hero and gave her credit for being the glue that kept their family together. He said, “She’s an incredible woman. She’s my hero. She’s been through so much in her life, from losing her home in Palestine, to losing her home in Kuwait, to losing her husband, to losing her parents at a young age too. She’s a really resilient woman and a believing woman and somebody who really understands life on a spiritual level.”

Starting comedy and performing original material is a risk and being a risk taker might be a trait he inherited from his father. Standup comedy takes serious confidence, courage and talent for anyone, let alone a 14-year-old to do. I was curious how Mo believes his writing’s evolved since he first started out performing his weekly shows in English class. He said, “I think it’s been a very natural progression. Everything with me is very natural. However, my Netflix special, ‘Vagabond’ was meant to tell my story. Before, it was a lot of constantly explaining myself, so I was like, ‘This is who I am. If you have any questions, a lot of it will be answered in the special.’ Now I can go off and do my thing as a standup which is a lot of fun, but I also feel it’s import that I share this really unique experience with people. It was so beautiful to see how many people have had a similar experience. It was lovely to see other people watching my special and relating to it. Doing it on such a high level was such a beautiful thing. It’s been really cool to let people know that they’re not alone.” Being able to find the humor within the tragic events he’s lived through, and then create “Vagabond” out of it, is the art of the craft of comedy and Mo is a natural. Besides Mo Amer, there’s only one other comedian I know of who started standup at 14 and was a natural at such a young age and that comedian is Dave Chappelle. And wouldn’t you know it, as fate would have it, the two of them are friends. I asked Mo to tell me a little bit about their friendship and he said, “Dave introduced me on my Netflix special. I met Dave around 2007 and we started touring and doing shows together. I’ve probably done 1,500 or 2,000 shows with him. He’s one of my mentors. Danny Martinez taught me everything about standup and the artform and being a professional and Dave taught me how to take it to the next level and deal with this phase of my career.” Comedy brings people together and I am really looking forward to seeing Mo Amer go up at Zanies next week and hearing the new stuff he’s working on now that he’s shed his outer layer and gotten introductions out of the way when he released “Vagabond.”

Get tickets to see Mo at Zanies Chicago August 16-18

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Sara Dahms

Sarah Dahms is a comedy superfan hails from Chicago and travels all over the country checking out the best comedy everywhere.
Sara Dahms
Sara Dahms
Sarah Dahms is a comedy superfan hails from Chicago and travels all over the country checking out the best comedy everywhere.