Negin knew she wanted to change the world. She just didn’t realize that political punch lines were as powerful as writing public policy.
“Everyone wants to know that they are going to have health insurance.”
I started out as a super academic who then got a series of professional degrees from some very expensive Ivy League schools. Next I became a policy analyst for the city of New York. I felt the work I was doing was important because I've always been one of those people who thought I could single-handedly change the world for the better. I aligned myself with the Democratic Party. I worked for C-Span. I worked for Charlie Rangel. I worked for Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was all part of the plan. Public policy was giving me financial stability. There's a real simple career path. Unless you're an idiot you will excel. And besides, everyone wants to know that they are going to have health insurance tomorrow. But the whole time I was following this career trajectory, I was also doing sketch comedy. I would go to auditions on my lunch break and do gigs at night. I would completely compromise my work so I could maintain this schedule. I was totally maintaining these two separate aspects of my life.“I got tired of pretending that I liked my job.” Other people performed their tasks with joy, and I looked at them with envy. Then one day a friend of mine confronted me. He said, “Why are you doing what you are doing? Admit it, Negin, you are a comedian!” It was like a straight-up intervention. And I started crying. I told him, “No, you don't understand. I am going to be a congresswoman. I am going to be a senator. I am going to save things.” It's so dorky, but I had a breakdown. I had to admit that I was more comedian than I was policy analyst. The issue when it came to changing my career was my commitment to public service. It's embarrassingly cliche‚ but it's true. Besides the fact that there's no money in comedy, for the longest time I couldn't see how comedy could have a tangible effect on the political and social landscape.
“All of a sudden I could see how I could transform things.” I started infusing sketch comedy with political jargon. Up until then, I had never talked about being Iranian in my act. I had never talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It all became much more possible for me on an emotional level. From there I just took the necessary steps, like call Mom and Dad and tell them the plan, get headshots, those things.
“It's socially unacceptable to be a comedian in my culture.” According to most Iranian parents, there are only three acceptable career paths. You either become a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. My parents have the typical immigrant story. Their sacrifices, especially my mom's, made it possible for my brother and me to do what we want to do. When I told them my plan to pursue comedy, they stood behind me. They didn't want to stifle me, and they had the means to support my decision. Persian audiences were different. There are maybe three or four Iranian comedians in the United States, and we do random gigs across the country. The other comedians in this circle are all male. What I have found is that it is okay for a male comedian to go on stage before a largely Persian audience. It is not okay for me to go on stage. There's an extreme double standard.
“I feel I was designed to do this.” I was not always funny. Up until I was about 14, I was super-awkward. I am convinced this is because I started growing hair on my legs when I was like 11. Don't laugh. It was horrifically noticeable because I am Persian and I was living in California and going to school with girls named Samantha and Suzy. At home, I had to lobby for the rights to shave my legs. Once my mom became hip to being a girl in the United States things became easier for me socially. Now that I've made this leap in my career I feel I was designed to do this. There's no other thing that I could do at this point. I have this motto: Falling back is not an option. People often say, "Well the good thing is, you always have all that policy stuff to fall back on." I view that as a defeat, and I am pretty unwilling to make that an option. I mean, when Kafka made that dude into a cockroach, that was it. There was no turning back.
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