This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies and for Terry Gross, who's off this week.

My guest, Mo Amher, is a comedian who brings a unique voice to his performances,

rooted in his unusual background. Mo is short for Muhammad. He's Palestinian, but he grew up in

Kuwait, where his family enjoyed a comfortable life until he was nine when the First Gulf War forced

his family to flee to the United States in 1991. There, as he explained to Trevor Noah on the

Daily Show, things were different. I went to a really nice private British English school in

Kuwait and then we migrated to Houston, Texas in... That's a culture shock. It's a culture shock,

and they put me in ESL class, which is English is a second language class, and I was the first only

guy that spoke English in the class. I walk in, all the kids are like, Arla, do anything waewaake?

Who look? I had a hint of a British accent. I'm like, sorry? What language are you speaking?

All of a sudden this other dude just rolls up out of nowhere. He's like, you're weird, dude.

Why do you talk like that, eh? And that was my teacher, you know, it was a very good situation, right?

Mo Amher grew up in Houston, got into comedy, and well, it's worked out. He's performed in 27

countries on five continents, had two Netflix comedy specials, co-starred in the Hulu series,

Rami, and he stars in a new TV series based on his own life, which he co-created, co-produced,

and co-wrote. It's called Mo, and it premieres tomorrow on Netflix. Mo Amher, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you for having me. I gotta tell you, I struggled a little bit when I was writing your

introduction because I feel like if I describe you as Palestinian, that doesn't quite capture the

Mo Amher IC in your stuff. You kind of have more than one identity, don't you?

That's really interesting. You say that. I mean, I definitely identify as Palestinian American,

but I, you know, it's one of those things that as a refugee, as I lead America,

someone is trying to fit in and feel like I have some kind of sense of belonging. You kind of

...