This is Talk Easy. I'm Samfrogoso. Welcome to the show.

Today, I'm joined by comedian, actor, and director, Rami Yusuf. He's the creator and star of the titular Emmy-nominated series, Rami. If you haven't seen the show, it's based on Rami's experiences as a

first-generation Egyptian-American Muslim on a spiritual journey through a politically divided New Jersey neighborhood.

I should also add, in case it wasn't clear by my overly serious description, the show is

really, really funny. You'll hear why, in this conversation that I had with Rami, which covers

the Israel-Palestine episode in season three, his jersey upbringing

and early forays into film, the politics of his stand-up comedy, and how, as a first-generation

Egyptian-American, he's redefining what the American dream looks like. I want to recommend

season three of Rami.

It's now available to stream on Hulu.

It's one of my favorite shows of the last couple years,

and it was an absolute joy and thrill

to sit with the one and only.

Rami Yusuf.

Rami Yusuf. Yeah. A pleasure to meet you. So good to meet you. How are you feeling? I'm really happy to be here. A lot of stuff happened already off pod. There's a lot of good snacks outside and great coffee. Do you have any idea how many things I go to that are completely snackless? There's just not a single offering of anything. Maybe water. And you can tell it's tap. But here, I mean, this shit is filtered. Thank you. Is this material for your new stand-up special? I express myself in sometimes things that sound like they could be bits, but I'm not a tester. I don't test my material in conversation. If I think something's a bit, I keep it to myself. I'll try it on stage. Because you don't want to give ideas away for free. It feels cheap. It feels like I'm using a lunch to further my career when I'm just trying to have lunch with my friend. Well, you're on a podcast. So if you want to try stuff out, you're more than welcome to you here. This is a gray area area but i will say it falls a bit into the lunch

category because of the snack quality that you offered do pop tarts constitute a lunch for you so there's

this bag here of mini pop tarts that is blowing my mind because i never want to commit to a whole

pop tart of course and and i feel bad that they figured out the product outside of my prime of

eating it. You know what's unbelievable? People always say about our show that we really talk about

these big, weighty subjects, but really, we can talk pop tarts. Get me going on gushers, and it'll get

deep. I am kind of afraid to get you going on

gushers. I feel like we'll never get anywhere. I do want to start with something that's just

...