Since those early days when I made videos in the laundry room in my apartment, I playfully imagined being a guest on Jon Stewart’s show. I just didn’t know how I would ever get there.
Within three weeks of starting my online show I had offers to speak to the local media. But by the fourth week some journalist from the Daily Beast wanted to interview me. It was the first time I talked to a foreign journalist about my work. I was excited, and I had one goal in mind: Stewart has to read this. He has to find out what I’m attempting to do.
So in the interview I simply inserted Jon Stewart’s name in every other sentence: “Who was your inspiration?” . . . “Jon Stewart” . . . “What is your biggest dream?” . . . “To have a show like Jon Stewart’s” . . . “How often do you have bowel movements?” . . . “Well, three times a day after watching reruns of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
My little subliminal trick worked and the first English article ever written about me was titled “Jon Stewart of the Nile.” Heck! I added some Middle Eastern flavor to the man!
It wasn’t long before more foreign news agencies were asking for interviews. I continued with the same strategy of dropping Jon Stewart’s name in every single interview, until, one day, it worked! After a year and a half I was interviewed by someone who was the ex-girlfriend of a senior writer and producer on The Daily Show.
This was in the summer of 2012, when my contract had just ended and we were having trouble getting the money for our crazy idea of a live audience show.
As I was going through the endless negotiations of our second season, I worked in the interim on a travel show called America in Arabic. It was a reality show about Arabs who live in America—basically Keeping up with the Kardashians without the boobs, gossip, breakups, drama, and someone’s father turning into a woman. Instead it was thoughtful, objective, and very boring.
One of the cities we shot in was New York. I got ahold of that Daily Show producer and asked him if I could shadow the team to understand how they put together their show. He was amazingly helpful and actually invited me to come to the writers’ room and the production meetings in addition to getting a good look at the stage. He even allowed me to shoot inside their building and include it as a part of my reality show.
This might have been the coolest day in my life. I was inside the freaking Daily Show and geeking out hard.
The most I had hoped for that day was to get a selfie with Jon Stewart and make it my Facebook profile picture. But shit just kept getting better and better . . . Jon Stewart invited me into his office for a chat.
I went in expecting it to last for maybe ten minutes, but it went on for an hour. We talked about the Middle East, world religions, politics, and how it’s difficult to potty-train toddlers. When we compared the politics of hate and xenophobia in both of our countries we found things to be sadly similar. I discovered that I wasn’t actually imitating him on my show; it was the same stupidity in both nations that was encouraging similar forms of satire. We were merely seizing the moment. I told him about my plans to have a theater, a live show, and that one day I would pay back the favor of his talking to me by inviting him as a guest on my show. Then I squealed like a fan girl after he shook my hand good-bye, and told him that I would never wash my hand again (I kid, I kid).
I WENT BACK TO MY AMERICA IN ARABIC TEAM AND LOOKED EMBARRASSINGLY happy. My day was made, I couldn’t ask for anything more. And yet, “more” was asked of me; Jon’s assistant came looking for me to invite me to be on the show!!!
One year earlier, when a journalist had asked me what I’d do if I ever met Jon, I replied that I would try to impress him so completely that he would bring me on as a guest. Well, apparently it worked!
I came on his show and managed to hold my ground while not messing up. I got a few laughs from the audience too. I did it!
Later in the green room, he met with me and said, “You are a natural. I know you might find this weird, and that you made a leap of faith switching your career to be a satirist, but you will soon discover that you are made for this. You are not just another guest, you are a friend and a colleague.”
As I write this now, I’m watching the last episode of Jon’s Daily Show on my DVR. I miss that man like crazy.