After too much time away from the stage, comedian Maz Jobrani is beyond excited to be traveling again with his Things Are Looking Bright tour and especially to return to Las Vegas to perform at the Laugh Factory at Tropicana Las Vegas, Sept. 3-5. The Iranian-born comic, who has appeared in TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Last Man Standing, managed to stay productive during a difficult year by focusing on his educational podcast Back to School and pushing forward with big-time TV projects. But now it’s time to let the laughs take over and interact with a live audience again.

Plenty of comedians were able to stay busy over the last year and a half and you did some virtual and drive-in shows before returning to the stand-up stage. What were those experiences like?

I remember when (the pandemic) first hit and I started doing some Instagram Live shows, and it wasn’t really a show. It was just me yapping away about whatever was going on that day and people would comment or put heart emojis. I was quickly reminded that as comedians, we need to hear laughs because it affects the rhythm of how we talk. This was not stand-up comedy, it was just me kind of yelling at my phone and talking about life. I remember seeing John Legend or Chris Martin doing a set by their piano at home and I was so jealous that they don’t need to hear any claps or laughter, they can just play and move on to the next song. The drive-in shows were interesting because you do a show and it’s projected on a screen behind you, and people are in their cars so you can’t hear them laughing, but I realized the key was telling the audience if they like the joke, to honk their horns. That really helped.

Did you get a feel for how badly audiences needed comedy during those first few shows back?

I flew to Arizona where the lockdown wasn’t as intense and they were doing limited capacity shows, and I was there a week after the election so I knew it would be a divided audience and I’d have that to deal with. Also, half the audience had masks on and the other half was eating. Some people were uncomfortable, but for the most part, everybody really just wanted to laugh because it had been such a stressful year.

Do you think these odd performing experiences changed the way you perform?

I think it’s always in your mind that you’ve got to get in the trenches to be good at those. Comedians that are worth their weight really put in the time, show up and perform everywhere they can. You hear stories about starting out in the side room of a strip club, then you go to the side room of a coffee shop, and when you get to the punchline, the barista is making a cappuccino and you can hear the foam over the punchline. So this reminded me of my beginnings in that way.

You’ve played the landmark Laugh Factory at the Trop a few times before. What do you love about this Vegas venue?

It’s a great club and people just seem to find it. Harry Basil runs that club and he has a green room with a karaoke machine, and it’s kind of like the bat signal because he puts the word out to other performers around town to come back there after their shows. I think one time I found myself backstage with George Wallace, Brian Regan and Brian Scolaro doing karaoke. But just for the ordinary comedy fan, it’s a great place.

What’s new with Back to School?

I was leaning into that a lot during the pandemic, and that was something that started when my kids would ask me questions I didn’t have the answers to, so rather than Googling everything, I’m bringing in experts and learning. It’s a great excuse to talk to interesting people, a cave diver who goes underneath caves to find different organisms, a guy who helped land the rover on Mars. It continues to be a big focus but I’ve also been developing things for TV, an animation project I’m trying to find a home for (that’s) based on an immigrant family that loves America but America doesn’t love them back. It’s still a comedy. I’ve been lucky to tour all over and have people from different backgrounds learn about my (background), so doing a TV show based on that would be great.

Tropicana Las Vegas, Sept. 3-5, 18+. ticketmaster.com

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