The Chris Cuomo Project - Max Amini Explains What People Don’t Get About Iran

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Max Amini (comedian and actor) joins Chris Cuomo to talk about what the world misunderstands about Iran and the people who live there. Born in Arizona to an Iranian family and raised partly in Iran, Amini describes what it was like growing up between two cultures — experiencing both the warmth of Persian culture and the repression of the Islamic Republic. He explains the “double life” many Iranians live under the regime, the difference between the Iranian people and their government, and why Western audiences often get the country’s identity wrong. Cuomo and Amini also discuss cancel culture in comedy, the pressure artists face in a social media age, and how propaganda and political messaging shape how Americans view the Middle East. Amini argues that storytelling — even through comedy — can help bridge cultural misunderstandings and bring attention to the reality of life inside Iran. The conversation also touches on the Iranian revolution, the role of the regime in fueling regional conflicts, and why Amini believes the Iranian people deserve to have their story told beyond the stereotypes often seen in the news. Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Head to https://factormeals.com/cuomo50off and use code cuomo50off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year (new customers only, auto-renewing subscription required). Get 20% off and free rush shipping on LEAN, the weight loss supplement from Brickhouse Nutrition, at https://takelean.com with promo code CUOMO. Head to https://Superpower.com and use code CUOMO at checkout for $20 off your membership. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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healthy diet and exercise plan. Remember, no shortcuts, okay? If you want it to be real, you've got to do it the real way. Visit takelein.com. Enter Cuomo for your discount. The promo code is Cuomo at takelein.com. MaxaMini is on the Chris Cuomo project. I know. I know. Chris Cuomo here. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. I'm surprised he said yes too. Why? Because he is blown up so funny. But I also believe he is so reflective of not just what he's, what's making us laugh, but what's making us scared and worried about our world, specifically, what's happening in Iran. And Max checks so many boxes. He's hilarious, okay? And he's on the ascendant, and he's got a huge following. But he was born here, and then the family moved back to Iran. So rare. But he understands how Persian culture suffered and wound up under the yoke of oppression of an extreme Islamist regime. He understands what that could look like in America.

And most importantly, it was an opportunity to have a conversation with a really funny guy about something that is absolutely no joke, which is what America must do in his opinion for Iran. Now this is why I have a podcast. Max, thank you so much for being here. success, the garden, Chicago, all over the country, all over the world, well deserved. Why do you think, let's talk funny first, why do you think things are going so well right now? Thank you. In regards to my comedy. Yeah. Well, I think. Who cares about anybody else, brother?

I think my ability to connect to many different cultures. I was born in America to an Iranian family, and then we migrated. I grew up in Iran. So I sort of have the both of best world. Like I understand what it's like to be American. I truly understand what it's like to be Iranian. I can relate to all immigrants. And I think something personally,

I'm very attracted to understanding cultures, you know, understand how family dynamics work in Albania, in Greece, in India. So that natural interest, I think any artist, when you're interested in something genuinely, it'll scream in your art. in your art. So you use comedy.

I mean, you're not constantly joking about Iran or what's going on. You're very eclectic in your comedy. You kind of take the audience where you find them. You're not there to put something on them. You're there to draw something out, right? Is it by design? Yes. And ultimately, is a sense of, you know, in comedy,

you have to relate to someone, right? And it's, what do I learn about you and what they know about me? And that's where we really find the funny. And I think that's been the dance. It's just like a true relationship, a true romance with the idea of who you are and what are your positive sides. I sort of love bringing out the positive things about every culture. But I do it obviously using comedy.

So there's bittersweet moments in there. How do you negotiate what is a safe space for comedy versus what can get you canceled? Well, the cancel culture is trending in different areas, right? I think it's if you worry about it all the time, it's going to hold you back. If you reckless, it'll catch you nowadays. People are bringing sound bites back from 10, 15 years ago. I think we're living in an era that authenticity is the most important. and if you got some skeletons in the closet,

you should sort of find a place with your demons because I believe everyone's true side eventually will come out. And as an artist, you constantly expressing yourself. So I think everybody should work on themselves and bring the most honest part of themselves out in public and hope for the best. You can't fight the head.

You can't. It's a crazy world nowadays with social media. And there are some people that are really out there to get you. Many different intentions. I mean, we hear all these conspiracies about different artists that they were huge and they fell. And they said, oh, he rubbed somebody the wrong way. All of this is fake. It's just, you know, they're setting him up.

Who knows? I just don't want to live in fear. So how do you not in the world where you're supposed to be taking? chances. The whole gift of observational comedy is when you make me laugh at something that I didn't really see that way, or I believe the gold standard, which you do well, is you make me laugh at something. I'm not supposed to be laughing at. That, to me, is the genius of that form of artistry. Very dangerous, though, now. In a way, probably not since Lenny Bruce before both of our times, right? I mean, even Carlin and those guys, they were all, Carlin is to me a gold standard,

right? Genius. But riding the wave of, we'll never let that happen again until we just started to right now. So how do you do that dance? I personally, I try not to think about it so much in that sense, because Chris, it's like an MMA fighter. You go into the ring and you want to fight. If you're you think so much about how that guy is going to punch you, you're going to lose that fight. You go in there, you've done your best, you've done your best practice, you know your rights and wrong, you go in there if you genuinely believe that I'm standing on the right side with this topic, then you should throw your punches. You know, I tell you, with my comedy, I give you an example. When I go to the Middle East, that's where sensitivity is the highest.

And certain topics... Dave Chappelle says he's safer to speak in Saudi Arabia than he is in America. Unless he says some shit about the Saudis, and then he'd be coming home in pieces. Exactly, exactly. And also Chappelle is referring to something very specific. Right. He went through a really bad experience, a hell of a topic with the trans, with the transgender. So the transgender topic, yeah, it's a lot more comfortable to speak about it in the Middle East

because the Middle East doesn't really have the most open-minded side about this topic. So what do you do when you're there? I have to understand that there are certain red lines, right? You go to another country, you go to another culture. You're not there to be a rebel and to poke the bear in a disrespectful way. But at the same time, this is my belief, personal belief. I'm there to create positive thoughts. I'm there to create a sort of a situation

where I send a message to where families will have more respect for one another. And what I mean by that, a brother will respect his sister more so than certain maybe cultural habits or certain things that have made women, you know, suffer more in a household versus... So with my...

way of storytelling, with my way of telling my experiences in my family as a Persian person with my sisters, I try to show aside that a great man respects a woman this way. And I present a topic. And I think once people listen to it, they realize, okay, his heart is in the right place. Now, maybe some people might disagree with that. But then I'm okay. I'm okay with, you know, just standing by sort of my beliefs. Here's what I think, you know, this is where I stand with women, and this is how I present it. You're an unusual commodity, because most people's story, your generation, is we barely got out in time, 79, you know, and we were running from this, we were running from that,

and we came back here, and we had nothing, and then we built it. You're the reverse. You were born in Arizona, went back. Yep. How'd that go over in the house once you were old enough to have conversations about it? What was the decision to go from America back to Iran?

It was tough from day one. It was never an easy topic. How old were you? I was eight years old. So you're eight years old, so you don't have a say in it. You do what you're told. You get there. How are you received?

Well, the family is very loving. you know as a kid you go to iran it's a very warm culture all that part was amazing but when i went to school i didn't speak a farcey so it was it was really it was a culture shock in so many ways and the teachers would just smack you and and not lightly they will beat the shit out of you at times like if you were late they literally had a stick and they would beat you at the door of the school um so it was it was a And fuck, but, you know, really at that age, you just adapt. You don't know, you're not having an opinion. You're not going home and saying, what's the problem?

You know, here's the problem, what's the solution? My father was a very loving, naive character in the sense that the backstory is. My grandfather was a very well-known scholar, wrote over 100 books, very impressive character. He was paralyzed at age 16, taught himself four languages, became a very wealthy, very well-known writer, had his first newspaper in Iran. And his wish was to send his kids abroad to become educated and come back and serve their own country. My grandfather passed away two years before the Iranian Revolution. And he didn't get a chance to write in his will. Well, if there's a revolution, kids, don't be stupid and come back to Iran. So here's my dad. You know, finishing his, he got his

masters from GW and he said I promised my dad I'm going to go back and serve Iran so he took us all back and my mom my mom was I never forget my mom was extremely um sad about the move and she she grew up in London from the age of 13 so we were all it was just like a it was a huge shock and I go to school uh as an American you know kid now I'm in Iran and the first day of school the first hour in school the kids are shouting, death to America, and I'm standing there going, do they know I'm American? Are they trying to kill me?

I'm freaking out. I mean, it was probably one of the most, to this day, I remember even the smell of that day. That's how, how, you know, memorable it is to me. How did you process how aware, or at what point became aware, that I'm living in a fucking crazy place right now. There's like a schism here

between what I understand as my family's lineage as Persians, and Persians has, like, disappeared into this regime that came from other countries, right? The Ayatollah and everybody who came in, everybody thinks they came out of Iran and rose up. It's not how it happened, obviously, you know. How did you process that? What was that lived experience?

Well, again, as a kid, I feel like, first of all, we were always aware that this is, different, this is crazy, but we live a pluralized, like a pro-lize, I'm getting the word right, you're living a double life. You're going to school, you go out in public, it's one life. You come home is a complete different life. So you come home, you have your family, you have your parties, you have fun, your cousins are around, it's amazing. You go out in public, You cannot play music. You can't, you can't, you know, you can't dance.

You know, boys have their own school. Girls have their own school. You see your little sister wearing a hijab. And so there's, you live two different lives at the same time. Extra sucky for the girls. Extra, yeah, absolutely. But at the same time, Iran was fun. It was, it's not, you know, Iran is, to this day,

Iranians are really forward. with their Western culture. They listen to the best music. They wear the best clothes. They're very fashion forward. So it's this duality that's happening. You've got the government and this face of Iran. That's what they're promoting in the media.

But behind the scenes, Iranians are living a very Western life, you know, per se. Support comes from Factor. Now, here's the truth about getting in shape. you've got to move, you've got to rest, and you have to get smart about your intake. What you drink, what you eat, the amount of calories, whether you're at a deficit, what your macros are within it, and I know that gets complicated. That's why I hooked up with Factor, okay? Factor is a shortcut, it's a cheat code to helping you make the right choices.

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New customers, qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase is necessary. You'll see what it's about when you get on the site. This is the way to go. The X-factor in getting to a better place with your fitness is what you eat. That X-factor is factor. I heard a guy say, yesterday, we were talking about what I characterize in this country as the brown menace, what the president has architected out of migrants. I call, he never uses those words, but I do, which is to characterize how he refers to these people. They're responsible of everything bad that happens in this country.

have the stigma on them of having entered illegally. So it's like in the law, they called it an ab initio argument. From the beginning, you did something illegal. So everything else must be illegal. You're bad. Jobs, pay, health care, housing. It's all on these people. The guy says to me, wow, we got one thing going for us, though. I said, what is that? All these people are Catholic. Imagine if they were Muslim. And I said, you mean imagine if they were Islamists? And he was like, I just said that. And I said, no, you didn't. But it made me think in preparation for today.

You got another barrier, which is, we don't want to fuck with them. That dog has teeth. We've done enough. You guys do it. Bravo. Wish you well. Second one is, wait, are these the kinds of people we want to be helping? Aren't these the 9-11 crowd, these guys?

How do you negotiate that space of, when I grew up in Queens here, Persian was a thing. Then it like disappeared for like the next 35 years. Persian is back now. People identify as Persian. Again, I'm not Iranian. I have nothing to do with these people. I'm Persian. How do you explain to people who you are and who you are not terrorist?

You know, all these different labels that get put on that world, that culture. How do you distinguish? How do you explain to people? I love the way you put. that picture out there is, and it's very, very accurate and very important, especially the Islamic,

the Islamophobia part of this. Well, the way you just explained, you said the Persian culture that free, that beautiful Iranian history that was there,

you used the word disappeared. And the truth of the fact, The truth of the matter here is that it never disappeared. A culture never disappears. Just the media, the way they presented Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran changed. So now for 46 years, if you live in Europe,

if you live anywhere out of Iran, you live in America, what you see is the people of 9-11. But that is an absolute wrong picture. So you have a government that's called the Islamic Republic. It's not Islamic and they're not republic. Neither one of those titles is true. They're not, they're a mafia terrorist group that they're running this country. They're not, in no shape of form anybody could agree that these guys are religious people.

Like they're people of faith. They're using the religion. to act anyhow with extreme corruption and really, I think it's fascinating how they translate

these passages however they want to kill people. So that's really not the religion. And it's so important I explain this. Because a lot of people don't know. Iran is multi-faith

country, we have a massive number of Iranians that are Jewish. We have a massive number of Iranians that are Christian, Baha'is, Zoroastians, and for many, many years, they lived in harmony and peace. To this day, we have a very large Jewish population that live in Iran. So the culture, even the Islamic Republic of Iran, couldn't come and affect that. Because we have Iranians. We have Iranians. that are Christian and they've been there for many years. So there's nothing they can do about that. And people don't know that the best thing about Iran is that when an Iranian meets another Iranian,

they say, hey, you're Persian, yes, I'm Persian, they shake hands. Nobody says, oh, you're Iranian. What's your religion? Nobody says that. You might be friends with someone for two years and one day go to the house. I'm like, oh, it's Friday night, they're having Shabbat. Oh, okay.

Oh, you guys are Jewish. it's it's we're first iranians and that's what's beautiful about the culture so if the western iranian or persian persian is the culture right iranian is the race um nowadays we say persian because we want everybody to be reminded that this culture is a beautiful deep uh valuable rich culture and we're not this title that they've has been slapped on us for the last 46 years 46 years. 46 years is a long time. It's a long time.

I feel like a lot of the young kids now they're in the 20s. Yeah. Oh, I got another angle for you that I think is really important. And it's hard for me to articulate. But every time I hear it, I'm like, you know who Elika Laban is? So Elika Laban is a really significant voice in America about Iran. Her father is in Iran. LeBahn is not her real name, but she uses it as a pseudonym to protect her family who are still there.

And she's very outspoken. She's a UK-trained attorney. I know what you're talking about. Super eloquent. Yes, yes. She truth-bombed me on this issue once, where I was kind of like, yeah, but, you know, it's tough to convince Americans to want to get involved somewhere else. man, we've got so much bitterness. We go in, you know, Trump is like the spirit animal of our kind of disappointment of foreign engagements, you know, as he would say somewhat crassly, but still, we didn't even get the oil.

We didn't even get the oil. What did we get out of Iraq? What do we get out of the Middle East? Why are we involved in any of this stuff? These people are crazy, these 9-11 people. And that captures a lot of it, and they have resistance to end. They've done enough over there as far as they're concerned. And she says, yes, but what you don't understand is that we were you, and now you are who we were 46 years ago.

And I'm like, what are you talking about? There's no Naya Tolla coming in this place. She said, you say that now. We would have said the same thing. Iran used to look around and it was a joke to them how these zealots. She was like, Wahhabism comes out of Saudi Arabia, not out of Iran. She's like, within the region, Persians were very cosmopolitan. And the idea of religious zealotry was not a thing, let alone extreme Islamism.

That would have never been what would have taken over. It's just like America. And she said, and what crept in was socialism that was driven, not by what you see in Germany, but democratic socialism. But fundamentalism, that everything has to change, everything is wrong, everything is corrupt. There must be a return to orthodoxy, to first principles. And with that came Islamism. And it infiltrated an unhappy people at an unhappy time who wanted something that they could grab onto and be different. And before they knew it, usurpers came in and took over the military and killed a few people

and scared us into quiescence. And just like that, thousands of years of cultural history were erased. And I'm telling you, I'm almost parroting what she said. That's how powerful it was. With that said,

I have zero success in making that argument myself to Americans. When I say, you know, and I was joking with somebody about you coming on the show, and I was like, I got to tell you,

this Max guy, he made me my way in. And they were like, why? I was like, he really looks like one of us. You know what I mean? He can really just

slip right in here and be like, hey, listen to me. I'm having, you know, come on. You know, I went to UCLA. We're all good here. How much do you believe that, by the way, as a parallel of periods in time and when the impossible can happen? I think it's a great comparison. Do I believe it's going to happen?

Not exactly the same way. We're in different times in the world. I think Americans are overall, when it comes to these times. topics. They're more educated. Also, technology. We have, we're not 1979. But something is also very important to add to this story is that the Islamic Republic of Iran didn't just find their way in that easy. They were also put in there. You know, the Germans. Yes. The French. And during Carter's presidency, there was a well, you know, organized.

plan to bring the Ayatollah's and replace Shah because Shah had become a character that was very intimidating towards the West. He was raising the price of the oil. And he became, you know, sort of a character that it looked like, he looked problematic. And... Do Russians believe that Americans owe them for that, by the way,

that the idea that you have nothing to do with this, that you have no responsibility here, you've done enough. Is there a feeling within the call? Obviously, you can't speak, but is that a thing where it's like, oh, so you fucked us when you didn't like the Shah and brought in these psychos, but you don't have any responsibility for the result?

Yes. Yes. The Ayatollah's, okay, yes, and I tell you, the most painful part of it, the Shah of Iran was a true ally to the. Americans. He was a good friend. He did right by the Americans. And the history now shows that. Maybe in the beginning, it was a great idea to, you know, throw the Shah of Iran and bring these atollahs and be able to take over the oil and other resources for a lot less, less competition. Now, the Saudi oil becomes more tradable.

Maybe at the time, this looked like a great idea. But today, look at what happened to the Middle East. Israel said the head of snake is the Islamic Republic of Iran. They're not wrong. All of the money that they generated in that country didn't go to the people, didn't go to building schools or hospitals. It went to the Hezbollah, it went to Hamas, it went to Yemen. And that is the saddest part of this last 46 years.

And in a matter of this last year, you see this war that's happening in the Middle East, all these people dying. It's all from a poor decision, in my opinion. Those people at the time, they thought this a great idea. 46 years later, you know you made a mistake. This region is not better today for the world. Why do Americans have to suffer from an event like 9-11?

Why do we need to live in fear on this side of the world because we have created a monster that now is out of control. Why do people of Israel have to live in a fear that Islamic Republic of Iran is going to wipe them out off planet Earth? It's just a terrible creation for the whole world. Support comes from Brickhouse Nutrition. Listen, I know everybody's looking to stick a needle in them,

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You know, we've gotten very lazy with our history, and we want people to give us takes, and we use it as a proxy for our own understanding. But if you just go back and look before this period, there was so much cosmopolitanism in that place, whether it was Baghdad or Constantinople, Istanbul, Istanbul, Iran, Tehran, these places were like Paris. They were so fashionable. They were so forward. They were so Western. And people blame Islamism, but you've got to see where it started.

And it's absolutely spreading. And that's a problem. And America hasn't even woken up to it yet. We're making a boogeyman out of these migrants. Some of them, some of them are from the Middle East. Some of them are some of them from China. Some of them are everywhere. But predominantly, they're from Central and South America.

And we've made them what you really need to see the Ayatollahs has. That's what you should be thinking about. We're like in an island over here kind of, right, in a figurative sense. I think we just had a situation. where we have as many Muslims in New York as Jews. It's one of, you know, two places in the world. Here in Israel, you have more Jews than Muslims, and they won't last if it hasn't changed already here in America.

But we don't know what it's like to have big Muslim populations. We don't. I do because Queens has always been such a melting plot that's a first stop, right? So I saw my neighborhood where I grew up now is mostly Muslim. and it's a mix. There's Pakistanis, Bangladesh's, that's its own thing. You know, they, but it is Muslim nominally. But as you say, the religion is not necessarily what drives the culture.

The culture is that, well, they're Pakistani. You know, well, yeah, no, this guy's Muslim, but he's from the UAE is very different than, in fact, they're very different people. We don't appreciate that here because we haven't seen it yet. But that plays into why they don't want to help either. They don't want to help because they're like, well, Muslims are fucking, that's scary. Let's leave them all over there. And every country has their own Muslims and their own sort of presentation of Islam. And I would tell you, Iran has the most different, the most different in the sense that you cannot compare the Muslims of

Iran with the Muslims of Pakistan and Indonesia. They're all wonderful and they're all their own sort of culture and presentation of that religion. Beyond Sunni Shia, it's cultural extract of adaptation of faith. But here we're talking about politics and religion. If the topic was just religion and there was no politics involved, then what you do at home, whether you pray, to, you know, this statue here or this, whatever you've chosen to do it in your own place for your own faith, and it's not affecting anybody. That is your business.

But I think it's politics, using religion to guide and tell people what to do. And that's the problem that we're facing. I believe education is the solution. If you educate people and they understand their way of living and their lifestyle has to be something extremely personal and their religion is something personal. And then when you open your door to greed your neighbor,

it should be about love and acceptance, not about forcing your ideology, then everybody will live in harmony and everybody will be curious and would appreciate what your faith is because they're not threatened by it. Is your perspective on what we're living through? Does it make you feel like, oh boy, I know where this leads?

Or is it you people think you have problems? This is nothing compared to what I learned growing up in Iran. How do you see it? I think we're talking about a mentality, a government, a country that is so manipulative. In Iran? In Iran. and they're so good at it.

They're so, I feel like they're better at their propaganda and the design of all those ideologies than the Americans. People are saying about that, that about us now, though. I mean, look what's happened to the Olympics. You know, you talk about, you know, funny shit that you can't make up, you know what I mean? Like, the truth is more funny

than any joke you can make about it, where they're saying people holding up signs, saying we're sorry for what we're doing as Americans, we'll figure it out. Olympians, not since the 60s. When they were raising the fist in solidarity of a suffrage movement, they're saying, yeah, it's hard for me. I don't really represent Trump and the administration.

People see this administration is not that different, other than the abject killing, not yet anyway, of its own people, that these people lie when the truth is a better story. Do you see it that way? or do you have different perspective because of what you know about the malignancy of the regime? I see these connected. I see both connected. I see Black Lives Matter, pro-Palestine, all of these big humanitarian efforts,

all these people that came out and said, we stand by humanity. There's multi-layered plans of propaganda, and it's very scary. because they don't mean what they're actually saying. And I think you saw the protests that happened in the universities, and all the kids came out and they protested. And all of those were designed by the IRGC here in the U.S. campuses. So this is why I say the existence of this government is a direct threat for us over here,

because nowadays we're living on social media. Social media is beyond powerful, and I think people underestimate how powerful their team of social media, whatever they're, you know, whoever is the mastermind behind these strategies. They're utilizing the only, the most affordable tool

that is actually giving a massive result to them. Why should we in America, have this massive divide on this topic because of the social media disease that they have infiltrated into our system. So if Americans realize, I mean, America, to me, is a very special country because if you have, two people can have two different opinions,

but you sit down, you talk, and you accept, you know, that I don't agree with you, I agree to disagree. That's what the philosophy's people. used to be. Yes, but nowadays it's not like that anymore. And that's a bad culture. That's a dangerous culture. And how has this developed? It's developed by people creating a divide. Yeah, by saying this person is evil and it's never going to be a positive. Yes, the politicians want to win votes. So when it's an election, the Democrats go against the Republicans. But to what degree, Today the competition and this sort of rivalry has become so dangerous for us, for the citizen of this country.

You know, this, you know, they make each side make each other massively evil. You know, the kids are not going to benefit from this. They go to school, you're sitting in your class, and this is what you hear at home, and these kids have to suffer from it in public. I think it's dangerous, I think it's unhealthy. And when we talk about these lies, you know, on either side, we have to realize there's a massive consequence. And the concept...

They're thinking advantage, one side over the other, but you've lived and studied how much deeper it can go. I think they're thinking in the moment. They're thinking now. They're not looking at how this is going to affect them, you know, 10 years, 20 years from now. Support comes from superpower. Now, wellness is about two things, and they both begin with D, discipline, and data. And really, it starts with the data. You have to know what's going on in your blood. And they can do more with blood draw, phlebotomy, and understanding biomarkers than ever. And that's what's going on in your blood. And that's what you're what the superpower is all about.

One simple blood draw, over 100 biomarkers, way more than you usually get with any of the blood test that they run at the doctor's office. The app includes detailed information on your heart, liver, thyroid, hormones, metabolism, vitamin and mineral levels, and even environmental toxins. So what? Disease prevention?

Understanding your deficiencies and what supplements you actually need, maybe helping you understand some of your symptoms, brain fog, being dead in the middle of the day, tired, that kind of stuff. What kinds of workouts may work better for you? It's all in the blood. Superpower is the most comprehensive and advanced system out there. Make this the year that you stop guessing about your health and use superpower. Not only did superpower reduce their price, but for a limited time, my listeners will get an additional 20 bucks off if they use the code. Cuomo. Head to superpower.com, use the code Cuomo. Tell them I sent you. Please support my show so I can keep supporting you. Let me ask you something as you're starting to come into, well, most people who analyze your world and tradecraft believe is you, you're coming into full flower, bigger venues, everybody, you know, it's, it's working, it's working. The dream,

you're going to be, when people are watching this, you will, have been on stage at Madison Square Garden, which is like, you know, which is like the high church of comedy, right? From a kid who was hearing death to America in class of wondering if it was about him, now you're going to be hearing thousands and thousands of people cheering. Did you ever imagine someday, someday, that's where I'll be. I never did. I never imagined I'm going to play Madison Square Garden because I didn't even know that Madison Square Garden exists for comedians.

You know, it was always the last. Carolines. I'm going to be a Caroline. Yes. This is a new thing where comedians play stadiums. The first stadium I played, I saw at the forum in Los Angeles, and it was magnificent. And when I went on stage,

I just personally in my own head, I just wanted to truly be in the moment and receive that energy. And it was magnificent. And since I've played a bunch of stadiums, now I sort of understand it, so I'm excited for Madison Square Garden. But Chris, the things that I didn't imagine,

and I'm so blessed by it, is the diversity of my fans. I never thought that I'll be on stage and people from every country you can imagine will be in the audience. I have probably the most diverse audience of any comedians that I know. Why do you think?

The reason behind it is social media, but really what's making them to love my brand of comedy is that they relate to me. It's just this authentic connection. And they really relate to my comedy. And it's fascinating. I mean, I have a big fan, a massive fan base in Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Albania, Greece.

I'm talking about massive numbers. I have a huge audience of Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs. Of all nationality, when I'm on stage, the first 20, 30 minutes, I just go, who's here from this place, and you just hear these big, big number of people in the audience. It may celebrate, not knowing that you're about to smack them right in the notice, but something about who they are now. But that part, Chris, is something I never imagined. Yeah.

And it's the biggest gift I think the universe has given me. I'm very grateful for that. And days like this, I come and see you and talk about Iran. And I'm not really a political comedian. But I have to stand by the people of my country. I have to stand by humanity. I have to stand and do everything I can to shed the light on a really, you know, bad situation that has happened.

So this is a blessing. This is a blessing that I can come and, as an Iranian, all my fans who are not Iranians, they can also learn about what's going on. It's such a beautiful thing that I can bring awareness to the people that are not Iranians. You are not a political comic, true. But this has transcended and become existential. Yeah.

You use the word humanity, a service to humanity. Yeah, we've never needed it more. I tell all my creatives in my life, my friends. To be honest, I don't have that many because I do this. You know what I mean? But, and this is like the least creative thing in the world that I do. It's just like, well, what's right in front of your face? But I tell the creatives, we need the storytelling right now.

We need the movies right now. We need the entertainment right now. And sometimes you guys will say, well, look, I also don't want to distract it. No, no, no. You're not distracting. You're reminding there's a difference. Distracting is saying, you know, I'm from Iran. It doesn't matter.

Yeah. That's distracting. Iran's not the problem. It's Ohio. So, you know, that's a distraction. What you're doing is reminding that there is something about people there and people here that is exactly the same, that matters the same way. It has to be embraced. That has to be fought for.

And you, through really circumstance, you check a lot of boxes that gives you an ability to speak about things that everybody else is kind of speaking out of school. Kind of guessing. You're not. And I don't think what you're doing, I think, I don't believe in luck, but it is good fortune that you are coming into full flour at the same time we happen to need it most. You know what I mean? It could have been carrot top that was peaking right now. You know, it wouldn't have been as beneficial to what we're trying to message here

and what we want to be reminded. So it's like, right guy, right time. I think about that. I think about that. Being carrot top. I see a lot of similarities in the comments. But he's a little bit more. Exactly.

I need to go to the gym more. I think about that all the time, Chris, and all I can think is, I hope that I can deliver what it's meant to be for me in the best possible way into the potential that it's deserved to be.

So I think about that all the time. And I like the way you're doing it too. I'll say this. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Break a leg. I can't, I'm going to love watching and just keep seeing the ascendance and know that not only are you funny as fuck, but it's the right kind of funny for the right reasons, right message.

I wish you all good things. Thank you so much. Max is a beautiful example of being a critical thinker, bringing all of his experience. And this is why I'm selling the merch is to inculcate that as a. a real virtue that you want a message, you want to wear your independence. You're a critical thinker, you're not some mouth-breather, partisan patsy. You're different. You're a free agent. Very cool. That's why roses come out with all the merch. And the money that comes into it, trying to keep as much American-made as I can, why? Put the money together and then we'll give it

to things that I'll tell you about that we could all feel good about, right? Doing something good and getting something cool in the process. Good materials, great message. Check out the shop. Let me know what you think. Thank you for checking me out on News Nation, 8p, midnight, every weekday night. In the morning, SXM Radio 124, 7 to 9 drive time. Very cool conversations, really driven by the drivers, by the people who are trying to get where they're trying to go. And we're all discussing our collective fate, our collective destination, what matters, what doesn't, when is the trend your friend, when isn't it? That's what we're all about. That's what the Chris Cuomo project is. We're working on something here, and we're doing it together, so let's get after it.