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| Maysoon Zayid |
Maysoon Zayid is a Palestinian-American actress, comedian, known as one
of America's first Muslim women comedians and the first person ever to perform
standup in Palestine and Jordan. She is also a social worker and does some
amazing work with children. Here’s her story.
I do a joke on stage that tells my story. I say “In
the oppression Olympics, I would win a gold medal. I am Palestinian, Muslim, a
woman of color, disabled, and I live in New Jersey”. I grew up with three older
sisters in a small Italian Catholic town in New Jersey. I spent my summers in
Jerusalem. My parents couldn’t afford physical therapy so they sent me to tap
class. I blame that for the fact I ended up being a performer.
Every day, I am hustling. In order to be a
comedian, you have to write. So few people realize how much writing goes into
doing comedy. I love my job. I get to cure the world making people laugh. I’ve
been on the road for thirteen years so I’d love to settle down and have a talk
show like Oprah. I am currently developing a comedy series. I am excited about
getting back to acting and privileged to also be writing for the show. It’s
called “If I Cancan,” stay tuned.
My biggest challenge as a writer is that because of
my Cerebral Palsy, I am awful at typing. I write everything in my head and hire
someone to type for me. It’s frustrating when I get a great idea in the middle
of the night and have to wait to tell it to my typist. I’m pretty good at not
forgetting though, so that’s good. As a comedian, I’ve been blessed and lucky.
The biggest challenge is the fact that men get paid more. I have never been
discriminated against as a comedian, but I have as an actress. Hollywood shuns
disability. We are the largest minority in the world and the most
underrepresented in media. Often when you do see disability on TV, non-disabled
actors are playing the parts. This is inauthentic and offensive.
I initially was rejected admission by my local
public school when I enrolled in kindergarten. They wanted to send me to a
school for children with Down syndrome. My parents fought the system and won. I
believe if I hadn’t been mainstreamed, I would not have the life or success I
have today. I wanted to give that opportunity to disabled and wounded
Palestinian refugee children also. Our main challenge is the Israeli
occupation. it is hard to accomplish anything under violent oppression. Our
other challenge is that there is very little early intervention. Even though
these children have the ability, they lack the basic skills necessary for
mainstreaming. Our goal was to use interpreters and technology so that kids
with disability could be mainstreamed between the third and fifth grade. We are
currently working with Al Shurooq School for Blind Children in Deit Jala,
Palestine.