Ryan: So, Nidhal, how's your week going?

Nidhal: My week's been fine, why do you ask?

Maybe you didn't hear, someone fitting your description was allegedly behind a shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas last week. I'm curious about the impact it's made on you.

Oh, right. I heard about that. Well, as the details started to emerge and it turned out that the shooter was a thirtysomething Palestinian-American named Nidal, I thought I might be in for it. And I'd like to note there are some pretty big differences between us. For one thing, he's a murderer. For another, he suffers from mental illness, and, worse, male pattern baldness.

But yeah, you'd think people would have harassed me or at the very least teased me about the similarities, but that hasn't happened. I'm certainly less self-conscious than I have been at other times during my time stateside.

What's your experience as a Palestinian-American over this past decade?

Well, in terms of me suffering any kind of backlash...I just haven't had that happen. My first reaction on 9/11 was probably the same as most peoples'- a mixture of shock, horror and anger. My second reaction was to put an American flag on my door. Seriously. Just in case anyone was thinking of tarring and feathering me.

I really thought it was going to be a nightmare, and I'm sure for some people it was, but I had no problems. What I remember most is that I must have had twenty of my American friends call to check in on me to make sure I was ok and that nobody had bothered me. 

You actually had more concern and support after 9/11?

Yeah, and I think that's important to note because that was my experience, and I think it speaks well of, if not all of America, at least my circle of friends. And taking a broader view, since 9/11, it seems like things have gone the opposite direction than what I would have expected. For example, pre-9/11, there were almost no representations of Arabs in popular entertainment, and any that existed were without exception negative caricatures. Since then, there have been many more positive, or at least nuanced, portrayals of Arabs in pop culture. And that's a good thing for humanity and world harmony. Far more importantly, it's potentially a great thing for my career prospects.

Why do think things went that way?

Well, it might just be me Monday morning quarterbacking, but my guess is that all of a sudden this country was forced to engage and acknowledge that part of the world. I recently watched a show on Showtime called Nurse Jackie and one of the series regulars is this gay nurse named Mohammed. It's not commented on at all - he's just a gay guy who happens to be named Mohammed. That just never would have happened ten years ago on a major TV show, a regular cast member who was Arab. And you see Middle Eastern characters popping up all over the place on TV.

Let's go back. What brought you to America?

Freedom. Really, at the risk of sounding like a Lee Greenwood song, that was the main draw. I attended American curriculum schools overseas from kindergarten on and so I grew up pretty Americanized from the start. I remember reading in US history books about free speech, "all men are created equal," "government for the people by the people" - all that good stuff. And I thought, "Makes sense to me. Where do I sign up?" So from a relatively early age I wanted to come over here. I didn't like being somewhere where you had to watch what you said. Where the government blatantly censors expression and there's no such thing as civil rights.

You came to the United States because it's a place where you don't have to watch what you say. And here you are, a comedian. Did you experience any racism when you came here?

Sometimes people would jokingly say, "Oh, are you a terrorist?" That was their big joke. I object to this not so much because it's offensive, but because it's hacky. It's just not that funny a joke, people. Everybody's done it. 

There were a couple of other instances so minor as to not be worth mentioning. My experience here has been overwhelmingly positive. My fellow Americans have been very good to me.

You've made your cultural background a central part of your act. Tell me about that.

Well, I just talk about it because as a comedian your strongest asset is your point of view. And I'm lucky in that most people haven't heard one like mine. I'm Palestinian, but I say in my act that I consider myself a citizen of the world, and I really do. I guess I think it's important for that POV to be represented, because most of the Middle Eastern comics I've seen do very obvious, lowest common denominator kind of comedy. For that matter, it seems that's the way it is with most race-based comics, whether Arab or Asian or whatever. Most of it is not real intelligent stuff. As opposed to my stuff, which is BRILLIANT.  Please note that I'm being self-mocking there, mmmkay?

Noted. Is there an underlying message to your act? Any point you're trying to get across to people?

God, I'm loath to say there's a message to it because the primary directive of stand-up is "be funny." If you wanna send a message, use Western Union and all that. But I do hope that my world view is reflected in my stand-up. And part of that world view is people matter more than where they're from or what superstitions they practice.

I tell a story in my act about when the first Gulf War was about to start. I was in social studies class in Seattle and the teacher decided to do an impromptu poll. He gave us two possible outcomes to choose from. He said in both cases the American/coalition forces emerge victorious - only the casualty rate would differ. In Scenario A, we lose 100 Americans and the Iraqis lose 100,000 people. In Scenario B, we lose 10,000 and the Iraqis lose 20,000 people. And who prefers Scenario A? I think every person in the class raised their hand. Who prefers Scenario B? No hands. And that was a real eye opener for me. That's when I realized, "Man, Americans really are bad at math." 

I just don't think you can be patriotic without implicitly being bigoted. How can you be proud to be an American or Palestinian or whatever without implying other nationalities are lesser? I'm not proud to be an American. I'm very, very glad to be an American, but I'm not proud. What would I be proud of exactly? I didn't have a hand in writing the Constitution. I didn't fight in the Revolutionary War. If I was proud of those things, then I'd also have to be ashamed that black people were bought and sold in this country. And I'm not ashamed, because I didn't have anything to do with that either. I'll take credit and blame for my own actions, thanks.

So, yeah, that's the world view that I hope is reflected in my act. But, you know, funnier than I just put it.

When you heard about Fort Hood, what did it make you think about or feel?