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'Those Clubs Gave Me Opportunities To Grow As A Comedian': Maz Jobrani On The Comedy Store & The Laugh Factory

(CBS Local)-- Stand-up comedian Maz Jobrani has performed all over the world and now he is regular at two of the biggest comedy clubs in the country in The Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

Jobrani, who has his own Netflix special called "Immigrant," was also one of the stars of CBS's "Superior Donuts." The stand-up comedian was supposed to be on tour right now, but that got cancelled due to the coronavirus global pandemic. Jobrani has come a long way since performing in church basements in the early stages of his career and one of the people he is most thankful for is Mitzi Shore, the former owner of The Comedy Store.

"Those clubs gave me several opportunities to keep going up and growing as a comedian," said Jobrani in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "Mitzi Shore, who was the owner of The Comedy Store, put together a group of comedians with Middle Eastern backgrounds and she called it The Arabian Nights. We started doing shows and eventually me and the guys went off an created our own tour called The Axis Of Evil comedy tour. Eventually, we went to the Middle East and did tours in Australia and Indonesia."

FULL INTERVIEW:

Jobrani said his big goals starting out were to become a regular at The Comedy Store & The Laugh Factory, get on the late night shows and get his own special and he's been able to do all of those. While performing on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" has been great for Jobrani, nothing will ever compare to performing at The White House during President Barack Obama's administration.

"The highlight of my career was when the Obama's were in The White House and they were celebrating Persian New Year," said Jobrani. "I think they were trying to do celebrations for all the different American communities. They had a Greek celebration and celebrations for different Arab communities. I was asked to speak and did a little bit of stand up. I got the chance to introduce Michelle Obama. That was a blow my mind moment."

Watch all of DJ Sixsmith's interviews from "The Sit-Down" series here.

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