Max Amini Might Be the Biggest Comedian You Haven’t Heard Of | Whiskey Ginger
59m 44s
Max Samini, a 24-year veteran comedian, reflects on his journey from being a standalone act in a conservative Persian family to building a global fan base across diverse cultures. His audience has evolved, with strong followings from Filipino, Mexican, and African-American communities, each bringing unique energy to his shows. Central to his current work is the premiere of his new film, *James the Second*, a deeply personal coming-of-age drama about a 13-year-old boy who cannot feel pain, which he wrote and stars in after years of delays due to the pandemic and industry stagnation. The film, premiering at a Chinese theater and later available on VOD, marks a pivotal moment in his creative life. Max also shares insights into his cultural background, where family support allowed him to pursue comedy independently, contrasting with traditional expectations. He emphasizes authenticity, noting that black audiences respond most strongly to bold, unfiltered humor. Running a full production company, Max manages tours, marketing, and content creation, while maintaining personal routines like morning workouts, basketball, and short getaways with friends to maintain balance. His success is rooted not just in performance, but in resilience, cultural awareness, and the ability to adapt to a shifting entertainment industry.
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Here we pour whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to whiskey ginger. My guest today is one of my favorite
people on earth. I say it wrong. My guest is going to meet him once again today. It's Max
Samini.
Hey, the guy has a name built for entertainment. It's Max Samini on the podcast. Thank you
for coming to the show.
Thanks for having me.
You're the man, dude.
One of my favorite comedians.
I've known you for so long. It's so funny. And to see your, your rise has been, um, it's
hard to say without sounding condescending, but I'm proud, proud, happy for some people.
There's some people that you go good. Some people blow up and you go bad. Some people
blow up and you go good, dude. He's the man. I love to see that, dude.
Thanks, bud.
Life is good right now for you.
Life is, life is good. I'm always an optimistic person. I'm always happy. I'm not, I'm not
the depressing. I mean, you know, you, you're down, but I'm not the guy who likes to complain.
I'm always grateful in that sense. I was grateful when I played 200 seater theaters. I'm grateful
now playing these arenas. I'm happy for, for what's happening, but I got to tell you, and
you understand this, um, everything that we, we dream for is, it's not as easy as it looks
from the outside.
So, so it's, it's a lot of work that goes into this.
You put in a lot of work. You've been in the game for how many years? Uh, 74, right?
24 years.
24 years you've been in the game.
Yep.
And you're what, and you're 16 years old? How old are you now?
I'm 16.
He's the next Matt Reif, this handsome.
Listen, I'm the youngest 44. That's how I feel.
You are.
I really honestly feel 32 years old, max.
But your audience, what's the age range of your audience? Like, do you find that you're
getting people in their forties?
Massive.
And above?
The bulk of it is 25 to 35.
The bulk of it, the bulk of it is 25, 35. I have, um, and, and the age range has changed.
Um, my audience has changed so much, Andrew, in the last two years. It's unbelievable.
Really?
Yeah.
What, a lot of fat people? A lot of skinny people? What are we talking about?
All good looking. Sexy.
You do have sexy people on your show.
I swear you come to my show. The women, I'm not looking at the guys so much.
Right.
But I tell you the women looking good.
No Persian women, no Persian women.
A lot of Persian women.
I would say today, all my Persian audience still comes, shows up to the theater, but
the capacity has changed so much. Now they make maybe 10% of the audience.
Wow.
But they're all there.
But it used to be the core.
It used to be like 90% Persian.
Right.
And that 10% was the husband, the boyfriend, and the girlfriend.
So was it mostly the girlfriends that brought the boyfriends?
Yep.
Because the girlfriends were attracted to you?
Yep. Yep.
And the boyfriends hated you?
They were like, this sexy, we got to go see this sexy dude. The girlfriend sold it as,
we got to go see this very funny guy. And the guys show up, they go, this motherfucker.
This motherfucker.
I know this piece of shit.
Okay, fine. I laugh for two minutes.
Yeah. I will laugh with him, but you will go home with me.
Yep. Yep.
But that's great, dude. And you're killing. You said you're going, before the show we
started, you said you're going to premiere of a movie tonight.
Yeah, buddy.
This will be out obviously after that, but.
So this is a movie, I made this movie six, seven years ago.
Yeah.
And I'm premiering.
Seven years ago?
Yeah. I'm premiering it tonight. So it's, I can't tell you, it's an emotional roller
coaster with this film.
Um, the movie hit the pandemic, so we shot it and the pandemic happened. So my movie
post-production sort of sat for a couple of years and then we started post-production
and then the, uh, one thing to another, then the strike happened and, you know, film festivals
were off. Finally, we, we finished a movie, we gave it to a sales agent, kept it for three
and a half years.
So we just got the movie back.
Trying to sell it. The offers were horrible. He kept saying, Oh,
you know, business is getting better. Right now is the worst time to sell. Let's wait another
year. We just lost so much time. And now I got the movie back. So I'm thinking everybody's
releasing their films on YouTube. Every, all these self-distributions doing so well.
There's a lot of that. Yeah.
My audience has grown. I'm like, look, this is a time to premiere this and go out with
it and share it with the world.
That's great.
So that's the idea.
Yeah. What was it? A story you wrote or you're starring in it?
No, it's a story someone else wrote and I rewrote it with him.
Okay.
Uh, it's a drama. It's a coming of age story. It's a serious movie. Um, and, uh, it's an
indie film. The one liner of the film is it's a story about a 13 year old boy that cannot
feel pain or emotion.
Oh, wow.
And when I read the script the whole time, I was like, it's better be a good story. It
was New Year's Eve. I was laying in bed. I'm like, my girlfriend was sick. I'm like, fuck,
we didn't go out. This better be a good story. By the end I was crying and I kind of felt
like.
Loveless wish for no pain. And then when I finished the script, I realized, man, without
pain, this life doesn't even have any meaning.
Sure.
It's great. It was, it was, and I said, this is a great story for me to make. I was looking
for a comedy script. And then I was like, look, I'm, I'm in love with the script. I
want to make this.
But pain is funny too, though. You know what I mean? Like pain is funny.
Yeah, it's funny.
I mean, we put in part of our act and there's a lot of painful stuff that's very funny,
right? First time your dad ever hit you through a drywall and made you fix it. I mean, that's
painful. That's funny. That's very funny.
A hundred percent. So the movie.
You don't play the 13 year old boy, I hope.
I am. I play the 13 year old.
I mean, dude, you look good for your age.
I felt very young.
But I don't know about 13, brother.
No, I casted these super talented 13 year olds who are now adults and they are, their
careers are phenomenal. They're doing amazing. And I'm excited to just to get this movie
out now.
What's it called? Say what it's called.
James the Second.
James the Second.
James the Second.
Is it going to be in theaters, Netflix, HBO, streaming? Who knows?
Today we're premiering at a Chinese theater, but then I think we're going to go all VOD.
Careful, careful. Asian American theater. My God.
I know. I know you have a sensitive spot for Asians.
It is called Man's Chinese.
Yep.
And the food downstairs is just as good. Chinese theater tonight. And then where does it go?
And then we're going to do VOD, like all the, you know, Amazon and YouTube.
Streaming platforms, buy it everywhere.
Exactly.
James the Second.
Yep.
And obviously that's named after the son because his father was James the First.
Yep. Exactly.
That's right.
Now, talking about this whole movie business, Andrew, I don't know if you ever talked about
this on your podcast. I don't know if all your fans know how much of a actor you've been.
Me?
Yes.
No, I'm an actress, first of all.
Actress.
I'm an actress first.
That's extra talented. Not only he acts, but he can act the opposite sex.
I've been saying that for years. I'm an actress and people now, now it's popular. Now it's cool. I've been doing it for years. I've said I'm a beautiful actress.
That's the only way to get cast.
I'm the prettiest redheaded actress out there right now.
Yep.
There's nobody cuter than me.
I believe you. I believe you.
Thank you. That's nice. No, I love, I love the world. I think it's just, it's different
for us now, you know? So now comedy podcast, that's been our, you know, our breadwinners.
Like it's been the thing that we love the most. And it doesn't, you know, there is no
strike in acting. I mean, I mean in, in, in comedy.
I remember, I remember.
There was.
You were in New York for a long time, right? For some time you were in New York.
I bopped around to every, I've been everywhere. I've been everywhere.
Okay.
Everywhere we were, man.
Did you, did you stay in New York because of acting or was it for standup?
No, no, no. I, most of my acting happened in LA, which is kind of funny. Like almost
all my acting happened in Los Angeles because once you get on one thing in LA, pilots and
that whole thing, this is where all of it happens. So I did way, West Coast dominated
my entire career because you would come out here, you do one thing and then they're like,
they want you for this other thing. And then you go do it, it fails. And they go, will
you come try again to this other thing?
And the thing is, um, not a lot.
A lot of standups are great actors. Not a lot of standups are into acting the same way.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no one, I think being a great
actors tough in general i don't think anybody i mean like every count on my hands how many people
i've seen that i'm like wow that's a great actor most people are serviceable yep what they used to
call plumber actors you know like that's a i think steve martin talked about that in his book
about his father being a plumber actor meaning like he was good he got by he was like a plumber
it's like you call the plumber your house you know he's not a genius but he's gonna fix the pipes
you know what i mean like it's gonna the poop is gonna flow out at some point and was he inspired
by the plumber actor i think i think i think he steve talked about it as if i remember right did
he always say that right he said it's part of his plumber's joke yeah yeah right i think that i think
the idea was um you know look there's a lot of serviceable people in our industry and it takes a
lot to get to the next level and he wanted to break to the next level he didn't just want to like kind
of be a worked actor he wanted to be something else i remember there was an audition for a
cosmopolitan something pilot or or the
and
sure
you were you were uh i was the guy yeah you were the guy later on later on saw the project
for a short period of time i might be the guy what was the project i don't do you remember
there's a mixology oh mixology it was called mixology we did it we did it we got it off the
ground yeah it was we did one season guys go watch that on uh on abc streaming i don't even
know if you can see it anymore it was a it was a show um uh scott and moore um uh they wrote the
first draft of the hangover kind of crazy they wrote the very first draft of that's crazy yeah
and they cast you in the wrong project only buy it you can only buy it now so don't don't buy it don't
give them any more money no but the the two guys that wrote uh lucas and more the guys that wrote
the original first draft of the hangover the one that we know now as this masterpiece um they wrote
this pilot idea in a bar in one night in manhattan uh the whole season took place over the course of
one night in a bar which was a bold concept and people were kind of like no chance and troy and
miller directed it great so like it was it had all the inner workings of being like this could
be genius because it was different but america was like nah give us friends and then it's gotten
worse since my acting yes you're right it's gotten significantly worse since no no it's the movie
business and the business has changed tremendously tv is just you know at least back then people were
watching the pilots or you know you had some sort of now it's so hard to get anybody to watch
anything i know well but
it's look at okay let's talk about your growth let's talk about me who gives a shit about me
i you know i met you for the first time i think i met you at the factory yeah i had to meet you at
the factory 100 and you you were a stronghold of that place jamie loved you dearly and respected
you tremendously um and i do think like watching your rise as someone that put in all of the work
and all the hours that's really where the payoff is is like you grew an audience you grew grew your
own little you know your own little atrium of fans which is it's really
difficult to do so like the business is going on without us no matter what but you grew this thing
totally on your own i mean 100 you can't really point to one thing that goes this it's like well
you did year if somebody said how to max crack i'd be like i don't know man a long time of work
i think you're right i think it's just you hang in there long enough and they get and then they
love you somehow the universe you know makes it crack like it just makes it fall in place yeah
it's like it's like a chiropractor that just finds a spot and finally just take me like wow there it is
it was that kind of thing for me i feel like uh you know doing it for so long and finally social
media somehow this algorithm finally got out there in a way that more people got to see me
and that just sort of snowball snowballed yeah it did it did what'd you start you started in la
yeah yeah you did always yeah that's so 20 23 years old i started in la um now were your
your parents and family were they supportive very
even though i'm persian everybody goes how does your persian parents are okay with it i answered
this way my dad my dad was a huge fan of me following my dreams like i want you to do something
you love i said okay dad i love my acting class and and so i became an acting you know major at
ucla but at the same time we we were not the typical persian family where you know i i lived
in my parents house till i was 25 supported by them i was on my own since i was 16 17 years old
just my family was a family dynamic you guys weren't like that it wasn't your style yeah
you know i was on my own um my dad wasn't my dad didn't have a lot of money so
it was never a financial relationship it was it was a true sort of like my dad would sit down and
have these good conversations and he would say this is what i think but i i did whatever i wanted
to do and so it wasn't like um it wasn't so much his permission but the fact that he was supportive
with the idea today i was like i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this
it was so refreshing that my father was like yeah do what you love you're gonna be great and frankly
when you start stand-up you don't know if you're great or not it takes you so many years to even
prove to yourself do i have it or not yeah so that part was great but it wasn't the typical persian
families they want you to become a doctor engineer or this or that a lawyer and and you know they're
talking about it since you're 13 years old they're taking care of you till you're 40 years old it
doesn't matter so that's the part where i was like yeah i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this i'm gonna
it's it's a little different in that sense but they were supportive my mom didn't really have
much of an opinion about it it wasn't like i'm for it or not for it's like what are you doing i'm
doing this oh okay and and here i am not like a typical run though for people that don't have any
persian friends at all for people that don't live in los angeles that's not this that's not the
typical goal a lot of times it's you're shunned you're the black sheep of the family exactly if
you don't go do the thing that the mommy and daddy want you to do let me tell you another thing it's
never asked me when are you getting married when will you get the man are you gonna have kids
never ever never she never said anything really never do you have brothers and sisters two younger
sisters do they have kids no none of us have kids wow really cracking that persian code dude
really cracking that persian code dude no but she's so they don't care it's not their life
she's she's you know and i asked her i'm like why you never put any pressure she goes why would i
want you to be happy do what you i mean you guys are smart my mom usually says you guys are smart
you know what you're doing i'm like why would i want you to be happy do what you i mean you
um and your mom's like i had kids and i hated them look at look she goes she did she's like i
had these look i got married i had a terrible fucking marriage i didn't like it i didn't want
you to suffer too oh my no but that is it is it is very like antithetical to many persian cultural
things i grew up in here in my young 20s when i first came out here every kid i knew that was
persian it was like dude you got it was a very patterned you better do you better fall in line
so where did you grow up exactly well chicago when i moved but i moved out here when i was
21 years old for the first time okay and the first kid i lived with uh was persian yeah he was
the first kid i lived with that's la i was about to say his name but i don't want to i don't want
to say his name but i'll tell you off camera but the name is you'd go yeah dude he was the first
kid i lived with me him and two other roommates and um i learned his the way of his life because
he was kind of the outcast of his family right he kind of cracked and wanted to be in the business
and do his own thing and really yeah i think there were a little he went to ucla grad school
and i think they were a little like hoping that he would get back into something more dominant but
he loved entertainment like really badly wanted to be in there did he stay in there he he is on
the fringes of it yeah he never was on camera he was the other side he wanted to produce okay you
know he wanted to make make stuff represent people he wanted to kind of be a um curator
which is great it's amazing yeah yeah especially today that's really respected and that's amazing
and then he got into the game do you remember the game neil strauss the book the game do you know
yeah of course
about how to pick up chicks dude he got embroiled in this world he would read this book i never
forget he read this book and it was his bible then him and these other two guys he was friends
would come over to the house and they'd go out looking for chicks and they'd be like come out
and party with us i was like i gotta go do spots i was doing you know i'm like i gotta do open
mics man like i can't i don't have the time to go fishing right now so i'd go do spots they'd go
on the hunt for women and shockingly it worked to a degree that was unfathomable these guys would
get girls so far out of their league because they use this
tenets of this book which was like nagging and it worked oh dude it worked all time they worked
constantly it was a lot of nagging a lot of like being being coy or mean to girls that you find out
of your league to bring them down to your level that was like part of the philosophy of the book
i do not recommend this damn i don't but this was like a revolution for a long guys i bet you that
book is canceled today yeah i'm sure dude a lot of incels read that book and got a lot of lift from
it but no he they lived and died by this thing it was fascinating to me but he was again he was kind
of like the guy who was like i don't know what to do with this thing i don't know what to do with
the bad boy of his family like a persian kid who went against the grains and kind of like
you know he didn't want to do the typical shit and kudos to him for doing it because i do remember
him getting anxious if his parents were going to come visit it was like a very heavy lift you know
like he had to lie a lot you know yeah which stinks you know i mean like i remember when i
was a kid i grew up with a kid whose mom was so strict um that he would have two changes of clothes
he would wear clothes to school and have a change in his backpack of clothes he wanted to wear but
parents would make him leave the house and something and then he would change at school
and then when he went home he would change back before they would see him and what he wore it's
it's such an important topic because first of all i think the world has gotten better the younger
generation parents now they're a lot more open i think social media has made the business people
that want to be into entertainment or influencers people don't want to be even artists anymore they
and when i talk about influencers not even like uh influencers that specialize in something and
influencers said
look at my dinner look i'm in mykonos right now look at my dinner look at my rims
you know just like that's the influencing sort of uh topic and and people are supportive of it now
sure it's working who cares my son has 200 000 followers you're like good for your son that's
the world has changed whatever works works i don't know i mean yeah my my parents generation
our parents are probably similar in age that doesn't fly with them dude we got a different
that's a different it's just a you know it's going to change as time goes on which is good but you
know yeah do you talk about any of this stuff in this you got his news my young my young friend
here has a new special coming out it's not going to be out until 2027 it's going to be on the big
n the big red n as it were the death star netflix uh 20 you have a date a release date no not yet
nothing huh not yet okay good it's coming they gave me the offer i'm excited yeah that's great
isn't that cool is that a good call really it's really cool it sort of you know puts the stamp
of approval yeah it's the north star of comedy it's kind of like okay we put in our time now
you're gonna you know have your special here um i'm excited about it and i think my fans are going
to be very excited about good so good that's awesome yeah where'd you shoot it here in la
i shot it in toronto why um i have a massive fan base there you do and when i shoot specials
i sort of learned that um the more shows i play the better special will come out sure
so i'm
i played this casino called the the great the great something casino the great canadian casino
4800 seats almost 5000 seats right i played four shows wow two nights in a row it's great and then
we shot all four shows wow we picked one and it feels good that's good yeah i don't know if you've
ever shot a special then you go oh man i thought it was much better but now i'm watching it i've
had a few of those this one i shot it it felt good you know i was watching it and i was like
watch the rough cut i go this is it i'm happy with this every time i shoot a special and i
watch it i go can somebody else replace me in this can you just can you overlay someone else
doing other jokes in this stupid fucking thing in here we pour whiskey welcome to your most
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and louisiana ginger i like gingers you know we played when we did toronto we did massey hall
which was beautiful that's a great theater venue we had we had an opera singer come out is that what
it was yes it was incredible it was because it was built for like operatic theater like it was
very like get an opera singer like open for you uh kind of closed for us so to speak he came out
and closed the show yeah he just sang songs with me and bobby lee really it was incredible i don't
know how we found that guy uh from the audience really yeah yeah
that's incredible qr code qr code yeah oh so it was random on the spot yeah we bring people when
we did the bad friends tour we put a qr code up and you could scan it with your phone you could
submit if you had a hidden talent or something secret that you wanted to share we kind of left
it open for the audience to have fun and we had a few really good hidden talents there was a woman
there was a woman who could queef the star-spangled banner uh in denver shout out to that girl she was
incredible she could queef the star-spangled banner did a good job i think she played uh
a simple man by leonard skinner as well how did you guys mic her uh
she was self-mic'd yeah she was self-mic'd yeah the lav was way up there with the speaker
yeah we boomed it oh my god no we had some crazy hidden talents but that one was this guy was like
i'm an opera singer and we were like bullshit and came out in blue it was incredible and yeah
so shout out to toronto wow shout out to the six it's a great city it was every time we go up there
it's a great crowd i really love that city and it's always i've always had my biggest crowd
in in toronto who do what what city doesn't support you
what's the hardest city for for amini to sell i would say in generally speaking midwest for me is
is smaller that's right you guys and keep that up come see me don't see him he doesn't need some more
he sells 20 000 fucking seats in toronto don't worry about him come see me midwest the midwest
doesn't like you for some reason it just doesn't do it doesn't like me the population that comes
and sees me yeah it's not the midwest i just played um i just played uh uh kansas city i had
100 people come up yeah but i play anywhere else theaters are much bigger minimum 5 000 so 1500 in
comparison kansas city that's that's a you know a small draw but i love it i love it because the
crowd is different right and and in a way my difference like like uh it's it's more the
midwest crowd white yeah yeah and i don't get a chance to play that often so it's extra fun for me
yeah and i feel like it also opens up that sort of um crowd for me so so
you share that kind of material then it's going to reach to that audience yeah then hopefully that
audience gets bigger you want them to retain what's the name of this new special do we have
a name yet i forgot to tell you that's the name of the special i forgot to tell you it's really good
yeah yeah it's listen it's good it's my life story um i ran that material for for about a year and a
half on tour it was it was it was perfect you know it was ready when i got to toronto and i said this
i feel i feel like the next i'm already on my next hour which is hard because now i feel like
this hour is even funnier than that hour that's a good place to be yeah yeah yeah if you're only
getting better that's good the stories the stories you know i'm i do a lot of crowd work and then i
do my storytelling so the combination sometimes you know usually you have that night it just boom
it's magic clicks yeah yeah oh that's what you want to yeah you want it to click i don't know
if you want me to talk about it but i did say on the way out he's got he's got the he's got the
wrapped cyber truck i don't know if you care to share with the band it's so funny to see dude
because it's what is what's the colorway on that thing it's it's uh it changes color it's like a
chameleon yeah chameleon it's fucking huge i don't know what's it called but the wrap was very rare
and i and i when you look at the car the shape is so you know awkward yeah it's weird as fuck i was
like put a solid color in this car it's extra awkward you know so i i when i saw the wrap i
was going through it i go this is great this kind of
makes makes you makes it more you know gives it some dimension easy to look at right it gives
so dimension yeah so we i wrapped it i love this car and i tell you what you do you like it fun i
love it it's a big point of contention a lot of people who love cars or hate it and the people
that love it they love it i love this car and it drives you know teslas they all they have the
self-drive yeah yeah right that's right auto drive no i don't i don't own a tesla i don't drive it
oh it just drives me i'm on the phone i'm doing my thing and the car today like right now i had
a full time i'm eating my lunch the car's coming it's amazing you don't have to worry about it and
if you do hit someone they will die because that's very big it's like no it's it's it's eight times
safer than humans driving eight times safer eight times safer wow when you get in the car first
everybody i tell them they go oh man i don't feel comfortable i don't trust it you watch the car
drive and you go shit this is way better than me and it's not slow it doesn't make you feel like
it's you know it the car moves fast and it's very safe
it's efficient very and and and i hate driving because i feel like i drive in la i get home and
take a nap i'm tired already yeah it's a heavy lift yeah it's just it's you know so that's why
i love this car yeah well did you okay you said like tesla should fucking sponsor me for this
well tell him go ahead sponsor your boy dude yeah what are you waiting for i i uh if elon has uh any
plug into this world because he does like comedy he does why don't you watch uh i forgot to tell
check write him a sponsorship check i should just roll you know roll on stage next you know
next special with the cyber truck that's very funny can you imagine the crowd who you kevin
hart they're like get out of here what are you doing dude he would do that he'd roll it on a
fucking on a tesla cyber truck what's up what's up out of the trunk and shit this episode is
brought to you by chat gpt hey it's bill simmons from the bill simmons podcast have you guys heard
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hank joined bj's wholesale club the day he became a father of 30. i coach football now coach hank
saves up to 25 off grocery store prices 30 pounds of pasta three cases of protein bars 75 sports
drinks and that's just pre-game he knows teamwork and bj's knows savings this is your home coach
home of the save join for just 20 at bjs.com mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six
months open soon limited time offer new members only bj's home of the save yeah did you ever grow
up by the way though the person shot i have to take you did you ever grow up with a white beamer
mercedes i did i had my white convertible bmw you have to have bmw yep yeah you have to have any
persian isn't a persian until one member of their family has a white beamer or a white benzo you
what is that is that it's like it's in your code it's like in your dna well and and then uh the next
level is g-wagon yeah right g-wagon graduate to yeah that's what that's that's real persian money
as soon as you get that raise you got to get the g-wagon you have to go g-wagon the history of
g-wagon the whole the whole love the persians have mercedes-benz is because the shah of iran
is the designer uh behind the g-wagon oh is that right it was his idea no he he had this idea he
sketched the idea he said this is the design i want send it to mercedes and the first g-wagon was
designed for the shah of iran no way and they sent it there and then after that the car just becomes
an interesting uh mercedes never thought the jeep looking sort of thing is going to be theirs no it
blew up and now it became one of their popular models literally i've never heard the story to me
it looked like a nazi tank i always thought that was like world war ii i thought mercedes was like
something to cut through all of the soldiers what is it he ordered 20 000. 20 000 g-wagons
the shah of iran yeah you got him yeah and he got 20 000 of them yeah for the army isn't that crazy
well so it wasn't and then he he had one for himself yeah of course he drove i hope beautiful
luxury dude 20 000 is crazy i didn't i didn't know that i didn't know i just i knew he had
one and that's what that's why iranians fell in love with mercedes-benz brand you know from that
you know from that on but they do man and white beamer is for the younger persian it's for
armenians right armenians are obsessed with bmws persians obsessed with mercedes now armenians also
love being but but you know the um the stereotype is i would say the white bmw is for the armenians
and the white mercedes for the persian so why'd you have a white beamer you broke the code i wanted
to be more armenian they got the hook up for everything they really do they know a guy who
knows a guy man
they always got a boy dude they always do they they you know you talk to an armenian they always
go what do you need just just tell me like what do you do don't worry what i do i hook you up just
tell me what you need they always have a hookup they do you know you'll find they'll find yourself
on a discount plane service that you've never heard of before you're like shakra air what the
they're like just go you're like i don't know dude it's just gonna get us there
i tell you a great story about a persian armenian we're at the laugh factory i'm performing this is by
the way left factory is uh where uh all the persians and armenians they go that's the house
that's the house that's right i had this really great show on the weekend show finishes this i'm
talking there's three girls after the show beautiful and they're like hey come out with
us let's hang out and as comics we're at the comedy club and then you know we hang out and
we go home it's work and i'm like look i'm not going to go to club and the girls are insisting
come on it's going to be fun and i'm like god good gracious the girls are so hot i'm like fine i'll go
out for a little bit where where they're going hide right around the side like two blocks you
know right uh two blocks away so we walk we walk to hide there is a line around the block people
standing to get in the three girls just we just walk in the front i'm with the girls and this big
ginormous you know bouncer black guy opens the rope the three girls get in as soon as i'm about
to go and he closes the rope and the whole everybody's watching and and i'm standing there
together and the girl's like oh he's with us can you come and then he goes nope and the girl was
like why we have a table he goes your table is full it's occupied that's it he can't get in
and i'm just and i'm just i'm about to melt away i'm so embarrassed and the girl was like oh sorry
bye they walk in and all of a sudden i hear from behind me max max i turn there's a police officer
in the uniform with his car standing in the lot
and he goes can i take a picture it was like everybody in line is like who is this the seas
parted that it was it was a it was the most magical timing life it ever brought me i walked down
hey what's up man he goes i love your work gives me a dab we take a picture he goes thanks man
i walk right back to the club the bouncer opens the rope i walk in bro perfect like the most
insane club experience i've ever had in my life and then you spent two more hours going what
what yeah no yes one more i just i had i had the best time i walked in and the girl's like oh you
got it i'm like yes but i'm hanging out over here yeah no thanks to you exactly kick me outside
are you single now what are you doing i'm single now single good for you i'm single now buddy and
and i'm very happy about it i'm not i'm not um i'm in such a transition career-wise i feel like i'm
better off single good for you that makes sense yeah whatever works for you man yeah yeah i'm
married dude are you married yeah i'm married to this guy to this guy he's my everything yeah yeah
we live and die with each other yeah i kind of remember you got married recently about a couple
of years no no it's been a long long time i think i got married well you're actually very single
i'm just kidding i got married in 1948. no yeah no you know what's so funny is i don't
i don't envy any of my single friends i really don't like i know it i know
how long you've been married 10 years god damn yeah you didn't get a wedding invitation did you
we said that back then i don't think we've been friends for 10 years no we no we didn't no we uh
no kids we couldn't have kids we tried and then we said you know what probably better off that we
don't have them good for you because we like to live a little bit is she in the business she's not
dude one head shot per household that's the rule one head shot per household al madrigal shout out
to al madrigal he said that yeah one headshot dude i agree yeah i think it's tough when two
people are doing this game
yep this is already we can't have two children in the house one has to be a grown-up yep yep
we're gonna be kids for the rest of our lives someone has to be a responsible adult right
yeah but everybody when people ask me why are you not married i said look our lifestyle is not easy
it's this hard but then here you we have andrew 10 years married well and you know my wife lives
in russia so she it's a it's good because she's far far away no you can make it you know you can
make relationships work in this business it is very very difficult i think the biggest thing is you
find your you find your happiness in in the center of it all because it's very distracting you're on
the road all the time you're gone a lot you have to focus on the business so you're being so selfish
in the game it's hard dude it's but if but if you can meet someone who shares um the love of your
drive that you have like that really wants to like support the drive god bless dude well it's
hard it's really hard we you know we have a lot of friends how often she comes on the road with you
you know dude i'm not touring this year i haven't toured this was kind of crazy and last year she
came out a little bit but it's like once in a while she'll come out if there's a city that she
wants to go to she's not going to topeka you know what i mean like there's places where i'm like yeah
yeah but we'll go to major city right okay you go to new york we go to boston we go to philly we go
to those places she wants to go along for the ride that's nice but you know but touring is so hard
and it's work i'm not we're not like the most pleasant people when we're on the road when i'm
on stage it's the most fun yep but the hotels the flights the transfers the blah blah yeah i saw you
remember i saw you uh at the airport where were we we were going well uh we were going to dc you
and bobby had a show yeah i had a show in dc dc that's exactly right we we played um constitution
hall constitution hall yes yes yes yes i remember i remember i said were you guys playing yeah you're
playing constitution hall fun show right oh my god dude so upside down that place
well dc throws you for a loop because you don't really know who the audience is going to be
like you're like who lives here who is this it's like who's in dc yeah because so many
people that live in the direct world are in the world of politics but you get so many people from
the outside world that come in you know like yeah a lot of virginia people coming i feel like it's
like la yeah yeah and it's a smart crowd um oh it's a super smart crowd yeah smarter than the
people on stage so what like majority of your crowd is who is it a white crowd no we kick out
the whites we're not into the whites because i feel like the whites are into uh who matt rife yeah
okay max bobby bobby but the whites come from bobby no the white no we get a lot of we got a
lot of asian a lot of filipino a lot of asian uh but we get a pretty good mix i feel like i get
um filipino we do get a lot of filipinos they're great comedy audience yeah man they like to laugh
like you know but they're good comedy audience because they can take it uh mexicans we get a ton
of mexicans west coast especially dude we're mexican audience is huge we love mexicans i with mexicans the hardest
these are some of the best people who know how to laugh at the who like that we're weird
the reason the reason i think filipinos are so good
is because, look, Bobby is not Filipino.
No.
Right?
No.
He's got a big Filipino following.
Joe Coy was, you know,
got the initial big bang from the Filipinos.
I have a massive Filipino audience.
So that means they're comedy lovers.
They love comedy.
I'm Persian.
Joe Coy, Filipino.
None of you guys Filipino.
Yeah, well, he dated a Filipino.
That's why.
Oh, I remember her.
He had a Filipino.
He had his, Kalilah was from the Philippines
and her family still lives with Bobby.
So he's kind of supportive of the Filipino culture.
So they supported him in return.
Ah, okay, okay, okay, okay.
We get it all.
I didn't, I didn't, okay, okay.
And then the audience always is a never-ending argument
that I get more black fans than he does.
He fought me on it, but it's very true.
How?
How do you think?
Why do I get more black fans?
It was the dick jokes that you guys had on the podcast?
Yeah, black, no, black guys like white, offset whites.
That's what I always say.
They like a white that doesn't look like a normal white.
No, but you have, you have,
you're the white guy with black energy.
Okay.
You do.
You say it.
You do.
You heard that?
He does.
That's exactly right.
He's got, he's got that loud, like fucking,
I don't give a shit.
I don't give a shit.
Let's go.
It's as real as it gets right here.
You know?
It's true.
So yeah, black people like real shit.
Listen, if you're not authentic,
then nobody wants to fucking connect with you,
especially black people.
Yeah, yeah.
You gotta be, they see the bullshit.
They don't, they like comic set up some confidence in them.
Yeah, they're not into like,
I'm trying to think of a name or something.
I'm trying to be like, who would they not like?
You know, I don't see,
there's some people that just wouldn't cater to those audiences
because that's not their style.
But yes, they want someone that's got a little bravado.
They want someone that's got that thing.
Where whites can sit through anything.
Yeah.
The whites will sit through anybody, dude.
But no, they want a little bit,
they want a little sauce in there.
Who's the best comedy audience to you?
Like where in the country?
No, no, just from all the different nationalities.
Who's the best comedy audience?
I like this.
I like this.
I like this.
Let me, let me isolate one.
Let me piss off.
The other ones.
I would say,
I would still say Mexicans are our best fans.
I think when we play like the West,
when we play LA or we play the West coast,
dude, Mexicans go fucking off.
Arizona, Texas,
anywhere in the Southwest where the Mexican contingency is high,
they go the most nuts.
I think the Mexicans fans that we have
were like the Irish fans when we went to Dublin.
They were fucking so much fun.
They couldn't wait to party.
We played London and London was fine.
They were great, but the energy wasn't the same.
Yeah.
No, because London was polite.
They were like,
it's actually interesting to say that because I landed in London.
Matt Reif was playing the O2.
I was playing the O2 a few days later.
Yeah.
So, um, we have the same agent.
He said, he said, I'm at the O2, Matt's playing.
I said, shit, I'm going to come right now.
So I went, I watched Matt play and after the show, I saw him.
I said, Matt fucking, it was great.
How do you feel?
He goes, man, I fucking hated the audience.
He's a comedian.
And I said, I said, why?
He said, dude, I just, the energy.
I'm not in, you know, London, they're so polite and they're very nice.
I'm not getting that crazy vibe that I, and I said, buddy, I watched the show.
It was, it was amazing.
And it was great, but absolutely right.
That's a, that it's a, it's a cultural thing.
Cause Americans, you know, they make fun of us over there, you know, that we're
these rowdy pigs, but like, I like rowdy pigs, dude, and mild and they're, they,
they appreciate well-written jokes and it's great, but like, give me a fucking.
Give me some fun.
Yeah.
When we're on the road, give us some fun.
I don't have the biggest black audience, but I think they told you, but the,
the best, the best comedy audience is, is always going to be the African-Americans,
not like American.
And, and, and when they laugh, man, the whole body, they laugh with their whole
body, the fucking, you feel like that's a different feel.
You, you, you know, you're performing in the audience.
Like, you know, when you play chocolate Sundays, I don't know if you played.
Or Mo' Better Mondays.
Mo' Better Mondays.
The audience just moves.
And if you're really funny, they'll start hitting themselves and be like, fuck.
If you're extra funny, they'll beat each other like, ah, fuck it.
And you feel like a rock star playing that show.
But if you're not funny.
If you're not funny, bro.
If you're not funny in a black room, if you're, if you're not funny in a white room, it's fine.
Yeah.
You're not funny in a black room.
You got to take off a week.
You got to let them know you got to go.
Lick your wounds for a little bit.
They'll tell you.
You need to see your psychologist the next day.
They'll tell you.
I like, nah, nah.
I've heard that.
Nah.
And you're like, god damn, dude.
Nah hurts.
Nah hurts your feelings.
But now you're out of place now.
You've cultivated such a big fan base.
It doesn't even matter.
You're good.
You've got who you need and you keep, just keep growing.
And that's all that matters.
And I don't care who shows up.
I've always said that.
I don't care where they see us from, whether it's the podcast space or TV or film or blah,
I don't give a fuck.
As long as you're coming to have a good time.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Are you on the road right now?
Are you touring or not?
Yeah.
I'm about to leave to Australia this Saturday.
Bro, Bobby's going what?
In like two weeks?
On Monday.
Yeah, bro.
Really?
You guys are going to overlap.
I'm leaving on Saturday.
He's going to be there.
He's going to Perth.
No, no, no.
No, sorry.
He's doing Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland.
I'm playing all those cities plus Perth, Adelaide.
Yeah.
We did Perth.
The last trip we did, we did it together.
We did Perth.
We did Brisbane, Adelaide.
We did all of them.
He doesn't want to go to the West Coast.
He's touring.
Him and Carlos are going to go out there and have some fun together.
Australia's insane.
It's insane.
These people are the best.
They're awesome comedy fans, dude.
They are fucking comedy lovers.
Yeah, because they're happy you came so far.
They're like, dude, this is a long ride.
Thanks for coming down.
Especially Perth.
You get to Australia.
It takes you forever to get to Australia.
And then you're like, where's Perth?
Oh, another flight for six hours south.
Like, fuck.
It's insane.
It's far.
But Perth, shout out to Perth.
They treated us very well.
That was such a great city.
I'm glad we didn't skip it.
They were like, are you going to make it?
Because our original plan was to play Perth first and then head back east.
That's what we wanted to do, was go that way, just go that way.
We went down, up, and then there, and then all the way back.
And I thought, damn, are we going to even make that show?
For a second, I thought we were going to cancel it.
And I'm glad we went, because they were amazing.
They're amazing.
Have you been out there to Perth?
Yeah.
There's a little place, a little Rottnest Island.
It's off the coast.
If you get a chance, take a boat, go out there.
They have these things called the quokkas.
They're these little, tiny, what are they, like squirrels?
Yeah, that's what they're most like.
Quokkas is what they're called.
Really?
Go take a boat to Rottnest.
I'm not kidding.
You won't regret it.
It's so beautiful.
Outside of Perth?
West of Perth.
It's off the western coast of Perth.
It's like a little, tiny island.
It took us, I don't even know, like maybe a 45-minute boat, something like that?
If that.
Yeah, a 30-minute ferry.
It's a ferry, yeah.
But go out there.
I'm going to see, because my schedule is so tight with this tour.
This is my, I've been playing Australia for 10 years, maybe longer.
Okay.
I used to go out there.
I had a big Persian community I used to play.
Now, this is the first time I'm going back.
This is the biggest tour I've ever had.
I've ever had in Australia.
Awesome.
This is like, I've never played Australia like this.
And because it was overwhelming, the response, it surprised us.
The days that I thought I have off, we ended up booking those days.
Oh, well, that's a good problem to have.
So, the wiggle room between, it's like I hardly have, I think I have one travel day between
every show.
What are you doing for yourself, then?
What's Max doing for himself?
Nothing in Australia.
What are you doing here?
What's your break time?
What's your getaway from the machine?
Because all I know of you is work.
Well, I tell you, but that is my life.
You don't have anything for you, just your little hidden getaway?
I'll tell you.
I'll give you a little bit of a day of Maximini.
The best time for me is the morning.
I get up, I work out.
That's like my two, three hours of the gym.
And I try to be extremely consistent on this, right?
And the only sports I play, and I stay consistent playing, is basketball.
So, twice a week, I play basketball.
Wednesdays and Sundays.
And my friend has a court.
We get a bunch of the same people.
Safe game.
Good game.
I can be very competitive.
That's the only sort of fun I can recall.
But it doesn't mean that, but we love what we do.
I love my work.
I love when I'm performing.
I love my dinners with my friends.
That's all I do.
Go to dinner, see a friend, catch up.
But my days are busy.
I mean, I wake up in the morning.
I wake up in the morning.
I do my workout.
I go to my office.
I have 40 employees.
Four-zero.
Four-zero.
How?
I've had this production company since 2010.
So, 2010, I opened this production company.
And I started with like six, seven people.
And it grew little at a time.
And now, at its peak, it's really heavy because I have three departments.
I have a marketing department that markets all my tours.
I have a touring department.
I have six people working in the touring department.
And then I have my. I have my editors for social media.
So, when I perform, I come back.
The editors cut my stuff.
And then, you know, the content gets ready.
You know, we have a social media person that posts it.
So, this whole thing just keep growing.
And the pressure keeps, you know, increasing.
And that is probably the heaviest part of my routine.
Wow.
That is probably. I would say. People say, my God, your touring schedule is so heavy.
You must be tired.
I'm like, shit, you don't understand.
The touring is actually. I love it.
It's a break from the life here.
Yeah, I enjoy. Exactly.
I get out.
I love the touring.
I love the show.
The traveling is hard, but the tour, the shows are amazing.
Yeah.
But running a business. I mean, today's entertainment has changed.
Like, you can relate.
I mean, look at this beautiful studio you have.
You have your own team.
You have your own editors.
You got to get this content.
People don't realize how much we have to be involved in the creative process of aftermath of the shoots.
And the great fun stuff.
I feel like, to me, that's my least fun.
fun sort of thing in my life i mean it's it's it's painful it's heavy it's it's it's it's annoying but
you got to do it you got to have the work ethic and do it otherwise this side you can you know
you cannot enjoy the play yeah no no well you you have to have as much fun as you're doing work
though that's what i mean you got to take more time for yourself too do some do some mac stuff
do something i have whatever whatever tickles your fancy do whether it's making pottery at night you
know what i mean like you got to do something that like does a thing for you i'm always telling
my comedy friends because a lot of times you're going to get a lot of fame and success and it's
going to be great and it's also like what else too what what moves max you know what i mean
and i think i think you're going to fish for something soon because you're working like a dog
yeah and you're on top and that basketball is probably fun but let's get max to do something
else we're going to find something for you i'm not going to golf i'm not going to go i'm not
too persian for the golf do persians not going let me ask you this what is it what is your thing
is it golf no or i disappear with like on boys trips with friends like go we'll go do stuff like
go to little disappear boys trips something like that and a lot of times that is golf but it doesn't
always have to be a lot of times just getting together with guys and going to fucking disappear
from the world of this how long a couple days four or five days i do that okay that's good so
tail end of my tour i take a few days go on vacation with a couple boys exactly there's
a few cities i've you know every city we all have good friends because we've been going
to these cities yeah you see so many people and so there's certain cities when i go to at the end
of the tour my crew goes back i stay a few days and that's just my few days two or three days
disappear yeah just just with the same people that i people that i love you don't have to think
you just you're just there and and you just you know pick on each other and talk bullshit and
you're happy no matter where you at yeah just hanging out yeah yeah i do that that's good
that's what you need yeah because i'm going to see max go up and up and up and up i'm gonna go max
max i'm up here i'm busy no i'm with you it happened but i think i'm very conscious of my um
i prioritize me in the sense of like i don't get my i'm not unaware of how much heat and how much
work is on my shoulder sure i sort of i know when i'm when i'm under pressure and i give myself a
little break or come up for air yeah you need to otherwise yeah this thing breaks of course like
there's a famous story about martin lawrence right
wasn't that martin lawrence that did uh he was doing back to back to back to back to back movies
and then he didn't have like a stroke or something or something happened where he was like hospitalized
for like exhaustion i mean he like cracked himself right yeah august 1999 he worked himself a coma
yeah he worked himself into a coma well that's real shit the guy worked so hard so much he was
just go go go go go go go go go go go and i don't know who it was i want to say chapelle
that's probably wrong but dave just is a great order so he's told so many great stories but
he said someone visited him in the hospital and he was like how are you and he was like that's the
best sleep i've ever had and he was like that's not good that it took you to have a stroke to go
to sleep he was like god but it's true in the entertainment world a lot of times they're they're
you're you're running yourself as thin as they're wanting to run you too so that's how i always say
to my friends and people in the biz like people that i respect i'm always like make sure you're
doing you too yeah because if you're doing just the machine sometimes you're just gonna you kind
of fall into nothing yeah
especially this look i don't drink yeah no drink no drugs no nothing i know that you never have
because that's another thing i do enough for you by the way i'll drink and do drugs but i'm thinking
i'm thinking that i would have never been able to make these tours if after my show i was drinking
and then going to bed waking up the next day trying to go to another city and perform again
and then have fun afterwards i just don't know how their body can pull it through it's hard but
i'm doing i'm doing my best yeah that's great
job dude i'll tell you because the drugs offset the drinking is what you do you do the drugs to
get back on the drinking and no i'm getting older where i can't do it as much as i used to
but i love having a couple of pops that's my favorite thing is you know that's my part of
my connective tissue to people is sharing a bottle with somebody and chatting backstage for a couple
hours that was nothing to me well that's my my heritage after the show before the show after the
show okay i don't want to see people before the show he knows i'm gonna leave me alone before the
show me neither i don't want to see people before the show he knows i'm gonna leave me alone before
the show me neither i don't want to see people before the show he knows i'm gonna leave me alone
can we come backstage you're like yeah after the show and they're like what about before you're
like why a hundred percent come see the show have a good time and then come back i'll say hi that way
my shoulders are dropped i don't want to be backstage being like yeah man and then yeah
good to see you and then you're doing five things it's not i think people don't there's a lot going
on prior to a show and the more that you can kind of chill out right before you go on it's a lot
easier than afterwards even if it's nothing going on before the show something's going on i like to
i like to sit in that room they come and ask you a couple questions i want to be in my own zone
and not that as a comedian we do any uh jumping jacks or a weird warm-up or nothing you guys do
yeah i love that that sort of like a few minutes before and by the way i don't know about you i
show up five minutes before i go on but when i you know in the car i don't want anybody next to me
i like to be alone from my hotel even your openers don't ride with you no no i just
like my opener is super cool they come but i i i'm i'm in my own zone before i go on stage
i don't want to have a conversation but i really want to just i'm thinking about the city i'm
thinking about how my day went i like to open the show and sort of relate to the city i'm in
so i'm kind of reviewing you know i'm in that sort of like uh observation of what i experienced that
day what's happening or where i'm at and trying to connect with the city and i hate to have a
conversation with anybody at that moment because i'm really enjoying this this moment of discovery
uh so but then afterwards 100 yeah then you can come hang yeah we've had some good hangs after
the show carlos got himself in a lot of trouble after a couple of shows oh yeah bad boy was a
little bad boy weren't you yeah and i haven't drank uh at a show since yeah that's exactly
right i mean you and bobby go out after the shows bobby doesn't bobby's sober but i'll go out but
but he doesn't come and hang out uh sometimes it really depends on what if we go get food together
we usually go get dinners because dinners is like a family we have family dinners and the family
dinners then we it's an excuse for him to want to come out but to go out to a bar when i'm meeting
up with people to go out to a bar or something like that he's not interested in that crowd that's
he just he doesn't want drunk people near him good for him yeah good for him he goes back to the room
and uh and plays video games or what he stays up all night stays up all night yeah he plays video
games goofs around yeah listen first of all i have so much i don't drink i didn't do drugs but i have
respect for those who did it and then they sobered up after that like that's unbelievable no good we're
happy for him i mean i'm again like i'm not like i used to be but i still like to go out say hi and
have some pops especially if we're in a city and someone that i know is there can't wait man that's
like one of my favorite things in the world especially if a feature is someone i like you
know like i i tour with this guy devontre coleman who i think is a phenomenal comedian and the first
couple of nights we went out together and i said do you do you like drink when you're at home he's
no but i drink with you and i said okay dude it's not my fault no but he's he's he's an independent
man he can do whatever he wants but it is nice you know to kind of trail around into the night
with a feature a little one-on-one he's getting his features all you know alcoholic yeah it's not
my fault you know welcome welcome to the show you guys like how did your career go i was doing so
great and i started featuring you know what fucking you know can't take the heat get out the kitchen
um tell me max we're uh uh we're on tour now maximini.com is the website yes yes go see the
man uh australia you're going this will probably be out while you know you're already down there
so i the shows were great i know they were but the rest of the tour is going to continue on go
to maximini.com and go get those tickets and go see the man and then in the new year please come
support all of our friends and family of the whiskey ginger crew uh and watch uh i forgot to
tell you yeah
it's great i forgot to tell you on netflix it should be on netflix coming out in 2027 we don't
know when but keep your eyes and ears peeled uh comment down below if you own a white beamer or a
white benz uh and the year and if you want to put a photo of it in there in the comments we'd love
to see that or a cyber truck or a cyber truck i show you the rap yeah he'll show he'll post the
rap yeah we end the show the same way you look into that camera and you say one word or one
phrase it used to be uh a word uh used to be a phrase it was a word
people got you know people want to impart words of wisdom some people want to say just one singular
word but when you're ready whatever you want to say in there pussy in here we pour whiskey
you are that creature in the ginger beard sturdy and ginger like vampires the ginger gene is a curse
gingers are beautiful you owe me five dollars for the whiskey and 75 dollars for the horse
gingers are hell no this whiskey is excellent ginger
you want me five dollars for the whiskey and 75 dollars for the horse gingers are hell no this whiskey is excellent ginger
i like gingers
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Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Max Samini, a comedian with 24 years in the industry, shares his journey of growth and success amid changing audience dynamics and industry challenges.
His audience has shifted from predominantly Persian fans to a broader 25–35 age group, with strong Filipino and Mexican followings.
He is premiering a new indie drama film, *James the Second*, a coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old boy who cannot feel pain or emotion, which he personally rewrote and will star in.
The film, set to premiere at a Chinese theater and later stream on VOD platforms, reflects deep personal and emotional investment, especially due to pandemic delays and poor industry offers.
Max discusses the cultural dynamics of Persian families, contrasting traditional expectations with his own supportive, independent path.
He highlights the importance of authenticity, noting that black audiences especially respond to raw, unfiltered humor and physical comedy.
Max runs a production company with multiple departments, managing tours, marketing, and content creation, balancing high-pressure operations with personal time.
He values personal routines like morning workouts, basketball, and short getaways with friends as essential for mental well-being amid a demanding career.
Summary:
Max Samini, a 24-year veteran comedian, reflects on his journey from being a standalone act in a conservative Persian family to building a global fan base across diverse cultures. His audience has evolved, with strong followings from Filipino, Mexican, and African-American communities, each bringing unique energy to his shows. Central to his current work is the premiere of his new film, *James the Second*, a deeply personal coming-of-age drama about a 13-year-old boy who cannot feel pain, which he wrote and stars in after years of delays due to the pandemic and industry stagnation.
The film, premiering at a Chinese theater and later available on VOD, marks a pivotal moment in his creative life. Max also shares insights into his cultural background, where family support allowed him to pursue comedy independently, contrasting with traditional expectations. He emphasizes authenticity, noting that black audiences respond most strongly to bold, unfiltered humor.
Running a full production company, Max manages tours, marketing, and content creation, while maintaining personal routines like morning workouts, basketball, and short getaways with friends to maintain balance. His success is rooted not just in performance, but in resilience, cultural awareness, and the ability to adapt to a shifting entertainment industry.
FAQs
Chat GPT Work allows users to access their apps and files to create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports for multi-step projects.
You can get started at chatgpt.com by selecting the work mode, which is available on Plus and Pro plans.
The crispy chicken crunch wrap slider is back at Taco Bell, now with a spicy kick using hidden Valley Diablo ranch or crispy all-white meat nuggets.
Max Samini is opening for Dave Chappelle in Mesa, Arizona on October 18th, and tickets can be found at AndrewSantino.com.
Max Samini's new movie is called 'James the Second,' a coming-of-age drama about a 13-year-old boy who cannot feel pain or emotion.
The movie will premiere at a Chinese theater and will then be available on all VOD platforms like Amazon and YouTube.
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