Omid Djalili on The Paul Reiser Show: "I Don't Think I Fit In at All — I Think I Ruin the Show and I'd Like to Apologize to the Whole of America"

Omid Djalili said it plainly: "I don't think I fit in at all. I think I ruin the show and I'd like to apologize to the whole of America — because I'm w…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Omid Djalili stars in Paul Reiser's new NBC comedy The Paul Reiser Show as Habib, a sweet-natured friend of Paul who runs a business selling "slightly damaged" goods. In an interview with Daedrian McNaughton of Premier Guide Miami, the British-Iranian comedian discussed his start in comedy, a memorable Mel Brooks line, and crossing the pond to work on the show, airing Thursdays (8:30–9 p.m. ET) on NBC.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: How did your start in the world of comedy?

OMID DJALILI: I fell into it by accident. I was always doing "bits" at weddings, at friends' parties. "Hey, could you get up and do your bit about how actors take a bow?" I had this bit about how certain unaware actors would bow at the end of a show — like the really bad actor who thinks he's done a Lawrence Olivier. I'd get the audience to applaud very weakly and I'd stand there taking the applause. I always had bits just to entertain, but some people said, "You should try standup comedy." A lot of people are encouraged to do it and they go up there and crash. I was just lucky — I was one in a thousand people who try it. It's like literally the sperm that hit the egg. I went up there, the chemistry was right in the room that particular time, and I got laughs. Although before I even did that, I remember being in a serious play — Edward Albee's The Zoo Story. It was a very serious piece, but people were laughing from beginning to end, and I came off very depressed and upset and angry, saying, "What were they doing laughing? This is a serious piece of theater." And someone said comedy is where you need to be. I fought against it. And I'm still unhappy about it. I still see people like Duane and Ben Shenkman and I want to be like them, but for some reason nobody can take me seriously. So I've ended up at a place which is a kind of happy medium between working and making people joyful. That was the trick — when I realized that comedy is really about joy. That's what made me think it's a happy home to be in.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What do you make of Paul Reiser and his new show?

OMID DJALILI: From a standup comedy perspective, Paul Reiser is part of a whole generation of comedians which include Jerry Seinfeld — and a comic who is very big in the UK, a guy called Rich Hall. I actually asked Paul if he'd heard of this line. I said, "What's one of your favorite lines in comedy?" And I said, "It's that line: 'I read in the newspaper that Hitler had really bad teeth. You know, the more I read about this guy, the less I like him.'" And he said, "That's Rich Hall." He said, "He's a good friend." They all started out at the Apollo in New York together. And then with Paul, there's a whole other group of comedians who are connected — Larry David, Richard Lewis. He comes from a very, very special group of standup comedians, a generation above me, who I've always looked up to. And he certainly didn't disappoint. 95% of this filming business is socializing, and I have to say he's one of the most generous and one of the funniest — and on top of that, he's the most spiritually generous actor you could work with. He wants everyone to be funny. He wants the show to be funny. He's very secure in his own funniness, so it's very good — being with a funny guy who can then encourage people to be funny around him, because that's not always the case.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What was it about your character that really made you want to play him when you first read the script?

OMID DJALILI: I traveled across time to be with Paul Reiser. What got me first of all was that I'd read a book called Couplehood by Paul Reiser, which my wife had given me. I remembered a small detail — he wrote that when guys are in the shower, why do we soap-sud our chest hairs first and then spread them across our bodies? And I remember thinking, I do that. Every time for the last eight years that I'm in the shower, I've thought of that guy Paul Reiser. So when they said Paul Reiser wants to speak to you, I said, "What?" He called me up and said, "Hi. This is Paul Reiser." And I said, "You know, I've thought about you in the shower for the last eight years every day." And he said, "Well, it's been nice talking to you." That was the main reason — it felt like a real serendipitous encounter. But second of all, it was a chance not just to play — you know, some people know me as playing a kind of Middle Eastern scumbag. I'm a Middle Eastern scumbag specialist in films like The Mummy and Gladiator. I got upgraded in Sex and the City II — I played a kind of hotelier scumbag. But this was a chance to play an LA American. And to play a character who was an Iranian-American who's been living in LA — they're a specific kind of people. A lot of LA Iranians came over just after the Iranian revolution, so they've got this kind of American but slightly Iranian accent. I've never done that before. And I was very fascinated by what Paul was trying to do — just trying to represent an LA demographic that hadn't really been dealt with in comedy before. It just excited me.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: How well do you think you fit into The Paul Reiser Show?

OMID DJALILI: I will say this — I don't think I fit in at all. I watched myself and I thought, "What the hell am I doing?" I see all these great actors — I watched the first episode and everybody's real, everybody's really grounded. And then there's bald, Tasmanian devil. I really don't know what I was doing. All I know is I had a really good time. There were some times we did that bit with the bobble head — they made me do that take where I walked out saying, "Who wants a Korean corn dog? Who wants a Chilean something?" We did about 40 takes just having a good time. I don't think I fit in at all. I think I ruin the show and I'd like to apologize to the whole of America, because I'm working with proper actors and I don't know what I'm doing. Andrew Daly is one of the funniest — I don't think people in America are quite aware of Andy Daly's pedigree as a character comedian. He's one of the funniest people I think I've ever come across. Ask Patton Oswalt, who will not leave Andy Daly alone on Twitter or his podcasts. Within the comedy industry, he is one of the most celebrated comedians.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: How similar or different is your character to your real life?

OMID DJALILI: I'm British for a start, so the character could not be further removed. I think the character I'm playing is not particularly educated, whereas I have a very high level of articulation and education. He's got no sense of irony. I'm also very aware of the Iranian community and how you can get lost in it, and Habib is someone who is lost in the Iranian community. Paul told me he should be Jewish as well, and that hasn't been touched on yet — I'd like to see where Paul wants to develop that. The character Habib is very different from me in probably every aspect. The only thing we share is the same shaped head and the big pot belly, which is inevitable. That's about the same, I'd say.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Do you have a favorite of Habib's things?

OMID DJALILI: Yes. He provides secondhand children that don't speak in movie theaters. That's a specialized thing. Do you know this is based on a true character? All of our characters are based on friends of Paul Reiser's who are very much on the outskirts of society. And there is a real-life Habib who literally owns this and is very proud to ascertain literally anything you want. You know, like the internet can provide any website — if you stick the word "lace" into Google, you'll get hundreds of websites from doilies to porn sites. He is the real live version of that. You want anything, just say it and he will get it — and it has to be secondhand. It's based on a very specific Iranian trait, which is to always get a good deal. Even if you're a millionaire. We have the Phoenician spirit of tradesmen. I remember Benny Hill — he used to delight in getting tinned food from World War II ships that had been sunk for years. He'd open them up and eat them and say, "Yes. It was free. I got this stuff — it was old stuff." I told an Iranian guy that and he goes, "Really? That's a great market, you know. Ships that have been sunk for 30 years." So I think Paul's very clever in representing that particular aspect of LA life.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?

OMID DJALILI: Oh, I do a hell of a lot. The first thing I do, I blame India and China for most of the economic waste — I've become very racist; my percentage of anti-Chinese and anti-Indian jokes are up by about 10%. I'm also very eco-friendly. I do have food waste, which is very important. And I drive an electric car, so you can't get better than that. There was one time I was considering not washing my underwear. I used to get them sent away — that was also something that wasn't particularly eco-friendly. I always think I'm doing the right thing. You know, like that guy Reverend Terry Jones who wanted to burn copies of the Qur'an — well, in protest, I went to a mosque and started cradling copies of the Qur'an. It turned out that was just as offensive, so I stopped doing that. Nobody understands me. That's the problem. No one gets me.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What do you consider good comedy?

OMID DJALILI: For me, any good comedy show has a simple premise — like when I did the film The Infidel. The premise was: it's a Muslim who finds out he's a Jew. Simple idea. And here, it's not even about an ex-Hollywood star — it's a simple thing about fatherhood. A bunch of fathers. I know Chris Rock used to have a routine about being the guy who stands around at BBQs saying, "The way to get to work is to take the 405 North..." — just the sheer enormity of guys hanging around and the things they do, trying to find the comedy of fatherhood. And it's fatherhood and the randomness of the friends you end up with. I like the idea of Paul being a very conscious, savvy person surrounded by people who are not particularly aware — and how they impact on his life. Good comedies always come from a very simple place. And from a good place as well, because there's a trend for a lot of mean comedy, whereas this show is very much in a good place. I don't think Paul Reiser has a mean bone in his body. The comedy's not there to denigrate or upset anyone. It's just funny. It comes from a good place and has a very simple concept.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: The Paul Reiser Show is a single-camera comedy. How is it for you not getting any feedback from a live audience?

OMID DJALILI: What's interesting is when I did Whoopi Goldberg's sitcom a few years ago, I learned about what canned laughter is. On the night, the laughs are sometimes so big there's no time to put them all in — so they shorten the laugh and put a fake laugh on it just for time. That was the birth of canned laughter: shows being too funny. We had reactions from crew members, but they'd have to muffle the laugh because you couldn't do it. But when we did have screenings of the show, the laughs coming from the crowd were almost like a multi-camera sitcom. I remember going to see Curb Your Enthusiasm at the Aspen Comedy Festival — I think 2004 — and they played it to a room of a thousand-plus audience for the first time. It played like a multi-camera sitcom. The laughs were just as big. So I think even though it's a different medium, it's just as satisfactory, especially when you see it played back with an audience. It's a science. Reiser is watching every scene — he's not the kind of star who disappears. There was a scene where me and Duane are alone where he's teaching me about calories and food, and Reiser was there the whole time, coming in and giving us notes and fine-tuning things. You have the truth of the scene, but what is it that actually creates that involuntary reaction of laughter? It's scientific almost. And all of us — me and Duane can feel it, and then Paul will give us a note and we shoot the scene. Bang. Then we do a few more for fun. I asked Paul, "Why are you making us do so many takes?" He just said, "It's fun. Come on. We are having a great time watching this on the monitor." It's science plus fun.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Mel Brooks was a guest star — what did he say?

OMID DJALILI: Mel Brooks went in to say, "By the way, I only do one emotion — which is angry cat." But apparently different emotions.

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