Maysoon is an actress and professional stand-up comedian who has appeared in some of New York City’s top comedy clubs including Caroline’s Gotham and Stand Up NY. Zayid has been featured on MTV and ABC’s “20/20.” She performs extensively in the United States and abroad and was co-chair of last years sold out Arab American Comedy Festival in New York City. She is co-host of “Fen Mejnoon with Dean and Maysoon,” a monthly radio show on New York’s WBAI focusing on Arab Americans in the arts. She also runs an arts program for disabled and wounded refugee children for three months annually in Palestine.

Shems: Where were you born?

I was born in Englewood, New Jersey.

Shems: What led you to comedy?

I’m a classically trained actress. I had graduated college and had been acting on a soap opera for about two and a half years. However, as an extra I couldn’t get any lines, which frustrated me. I asked my acting coach what she thought I should do, and she immediately said: “you know! you’re hysterical, I think you should do comedy and approach it like it’s a one-woman show’. So I went to do comedy, and during the first show I ever did in my life, I met Dean Obeidallah. The rest is history.

Shems: Does your background in acting help your comedy?

Yes, because I’m very comfortable on stage. I know how to tell a story, because of the acting, but more than anything, it has helped me because I am comfortable on stage. I don’t get nervous, I just get up there and do it, and that comes from years of being on stage.

Shems: In your shows, you poke quite a bit of fun in your own personal life. Is that difficult to do?

Maysoon: Yes, it is, especially as my comedy is becoming more high profile. But I feel like one of the things, and Dean and I talk about this a lot, that makes my comedy effective is because I am very truthful. The truth can be funny and the truth can be painful. I just come at it from the angle of it being funny. But, when I’m in front of one thousand two hundred and fifty Arabs saying I am single, and I’m disabled, it does make me vulnerable.

Shems: You have Cerebral Palsy. Does that make your job more difficult?

Very much so. I think of it as triple discrimination. I am a woman; it is very hard to be a female in comedy, as it is male dominated. I am Palestinian; so I am Arab on top of that. In addition, I’m disabled. Thses days, you just do not see disabled entertainers. I have also found that as a comedian, I’ve had to always address my disability because one of the things that makes comedy funny is that people need to be comfortable. If I don’t explain why I shake, it looks like I am nervous, and that makes people feel uneasy. So I am always forced to address it just to put them at ease.

Shems: You do a lot of voluntary work in Palestine. Could you tell our readers a little bit about what you do?

Three and a half years ago, I decided to start an art program for disabled and wounded refugee children, and engate them in art projects, such as puppetry, beadwork, and sculpture. I work with children that are deaf, mentally disabled, have neurological disorders or blind, and I also work in orphanages. I do theater with at risk boys, which I define as boys who would normally be throwing rocks and getting shot. Every year I choose a different camp. I go two months in the winter and two months in the summer during the off seasons of comedy. I run my programs completely from donations from my friends, their family, ADC chapters, and also from my comedy work. I pay for everything myself. I don’t take grants or anything. The reason I do this is because I want a direct line. I want to know exactly where every dime is going and I don’t want to have to go through a foundation to get a piece of scotch tape. I just buy it.

Shems: How can people help?

The most important things that we need are supplies and donations. The idea is to have enough funds so that I can continually be sending supplies to the people that are there, so they can keep running the program while I’m gone. Right now I am physically carrying everything each year, myself. We need a push.

Shems: A final word to our Arab American readers

Please support the Arab arts. We are a young community. I feel like we are coming to the forefront with an amazing Arab American theater collective made up by many talents. We need support because we’re a voice that helps send our communities voice out so loud. And we need everybody’s support. We’re not conventional; we’re not engineers or doctors, but we want people to support their children becoming artists because it is a good route. Finally, please don’t forget to laugh at yourself. I think that we watch the news, and we see what is going on, and we get so down and so serious and so bitter, that we are not fun anymore. Just step back, and take a minute to laugh at yourself.

To learn more about Maysoon, log on to: www.maysoon.com