Comedy and Activism
During her early acting experiences, she found her disability and ethnicity repeatedly limiting to her advancement. Zayid then turned to stand-up and began appearing at New York's top clubs, including Caroline's, Gotham, and Stand Up NY, where she takes on serious topics such as terrorism and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
She co-founded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival in 2003 with comedian Dean Obeidallah. This highly acclaimed, first-of-its-kind festival has received national and international media coverage. It is held annually in New York City and showcases Arab-American comics, actors, playwrights and filmmakers.
She usually tours by herself or as a special guest on the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. She also co-hosts the radio show "Fann Majnoon" (Arabic: فن مجنون) (Crazy Art) with Obeidallah.
Maysoon can also be seen in the upcoming documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, which features a group of Muslim American stand up comedians touring the United States in an effort to counter Islamophobia. The film also features various celebrities including Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Maddow and others.
She appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann several times and on the Melissa Harris-Perry end-of-2012 wrap-up show on December 30, as part of a panel of comedian commentators.
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Famous quotes containing the word comedy:
“The difference between tragedy and comedy is the difference between experience and intuition. In the experience we strive against every condition of our animal life: against death, against the frustration of ambition, against the instability of human love. In the intuition we trust the arduous eccentricities we’re born to, and see the oddness of a creature who has never got acclimatized to being created.”
—Christopher Fry (b. 1907)