Personal Info
- Country of residence: United States
Information
Mohammed "Mo" Amer (born July 24, 1981) is an American stand-up comedian and writer of Palestinian descent. He is best known as one third of comedy trio Allah Made Me Funny. Amer is of Palestinian descent, and the youngest of six children. Amer's father worked for a telecommunications engineer for the Kuwaiti Oil Co. In October 1990, at the age of nine, Amer, his sister, Haifa, his brother, Amer, and mother fled his birth country of Kuwait during the Gulf War. They emigrated to the United States and settled in Houston, Texas.
Amer's elder brother took him to see Bill Cosby perform at the Houston Astrodome when he was 10 years old. At the age of 14, Amer discovered stand-up comedy at a Texas rodeo.
After the death of his father, Amer started playing truant and taking unsanctioned trips to Mexico with his friends. An English teacher made a deal with Amer that if he performed a monologue from William Shakespeare in front of her class, she would reinstate his grade before his truancy began and allow him to try comedy in front of the class every Friday. Amer graduated and focused on his passion. He then participated in and had leading roles in high school theatre, and started performing stand-up comedy by impersonating family members and developed it over a few years in the comedy club scene. Amer performed at Houston's comedy clubs as often as possible to refine his act while working a day job at a flag manufacturing company owned by a family friend.
In June 1999, Amer entered Houston's Funniest Person Contest and made the finals. There another comedian directed him to The Comedy Showcase as the best guided comedy room. The owner of The Comedy Showcase, Danny Martinez, mentored and taught him about stand-up. At the age of 19, he was being flown out to play to US troops stationed abroad. Becoming the first and only Arab-American refugee comic to perform for US and coalition troops overseas.
Amer has performed tours in over 27 countries on five continents, including Germany, Italy, Sicily, Japan, Korea and Bahrain, as well as with other Muslim comedians Preacher Moss and Azhar Usman in the Allah Made Me Funny comedy tour since 2006.
In 2004, he performed at The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In April 2007, he performed at the Islamic Relief Evening of Inspiration event at the Royal Albert Hall organised by Islamic Relief.
In July 2008, he performed at the Islam Expo in Olympia, London. In October 2008, he performed at the Global Peace and Unity Event in the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London organised by Islam Channel. Amer's work promotes art and understanding between the diverse cultures of the world, and his ethnic and family background situates him to speak about the problems of religion, terror, and the politics of our age—through the lens of personal stories about his family and himself. He talks about his Palestinian background, family histories and growing up American.
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