Latest news with #MoAmer
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Auckland's best hummus? Comedian Mo Amer fails to get Gemmayze St hummus into Australia
Palestinian-American stand-up comedian Mo Amer told Australian television viewers the hummus he ate in Auckland was one of the smoothest he'd eaten. Chickpeas or a spreadable paste? Either way, a jar of hummus from an Auckland restaurant has won the highest possible praise from an international comedic connoisseur – even if he couldn't get it on to the next leg of his tour. Mo Amer, Palestinian-American stand-up comedian and Netflix television
Chicago Tribune
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
What to do in Chicago: ‘Queer Eye' live, Yuridia in concert and the Joffrey Ballet
Mo Amer: The stand-up comedian and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning Netflix show 'Mo' — a semi-autobiographical take on being a Palestinian refugee in Texas — appears at The Chicago Theatre. In a recent appearance on 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart heaped praise on Amer: 'The thing about art that you did so well was, you told your story. It's just one story, but boy, is it resonant.' 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; tickets at 'Queer Eye: The Fab Five Live': If you can't wait for Season 10 of the Emmy-winning 'Queer Eye,' you're in luck. A December live show featuring Karamo Brown, Jeremiah Brent, Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness has been rescheduled for this weekend. Expect audience participation. 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; tickets $53.50-$103 at Yuridia: Mexican pop star Yuridia brings her 'Sin Llorar' tour to the Rosemont Theatre. Nicknamed 'La voz de un ángel,' the singer will showcase songs from her previous seven albums as well as the forthcoming 'Pa' luego es tarde Vol. 2.' 8 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont; tickets $39-$139 at Frequency Festival: Constellation offers a lineup of contemporary and experimental musicians, including the Mivos Quartet, Welsh violinist Angharad Davies, the U.S. debut of UK turntablist Mariam Rezaei and pianist Pat Thomas, and Chicago's Ensemble Dal Niente. 'Circus Quixote': After a yearlong pause, the Lookingglass Theatre has reopened with a 'truly splendiferous' new lobby, according to a Tribune review, and 'a rich, circus-infused show designed to remind everyone of its crucial historical role in the Chicago theater aesthetic.' Through March 30 at Lookingglass Theatre in the Water Tower Water Works, 163 E. Pearson St.; tickets $35-$80 at 'The Uncanny Attic — Chapters A-D': LookOut, Steppenwolf Theatre's series presenting the work of local artists, continues with an absurdist dark comedy inspired by Edward Gorey. The performance will feature a morbid dose of puppetry, clowning, dance, live music and stop-motion animation. 8 p.m. Feb. 21-22 in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted St.; tickets $5-$35 at West Loop Contemporary Fine Art Expo: Forty-three fine artists will offer their work for sale. From cityscapes to abstract collage, see what you can snag. Art shipping services will be available. Through Feb. 23 in Stephen M. Bailey Auditorium, Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington Blvd.; tickets $20-$60 at 'Golden Hour': Featuring a world premiere of 'Andante,' a new piece by 'Anna Karenina' choreographer Yuri Possokhov and the audience favorite 'Under the Trees' Voices' by Nicolas Blanc, the Joffrey Ballet presents 'Golden Hour.' Dani Rowe's 'Princess and the Pea' and Cathy Marston's 'Heimat' also will be performed. Through March 2 at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive; tickets $36-$192 at St. Charles Singers: The chamber choir will host its second annual 'Choral Connections,' a community outreach project that draws together mixed-voice vocal ensembles from six suburban high schools to perform along with the St. Charles Singers. Batavia, Fremd and St. Charles North high schools will perform on Feb. 21, and West Aurora, Kaneland and Glenbard North high schools will perform Feb. 22. Each choir will sing a set of their own, and then the concerts will conclude with joint performances of Elaine Hagenberg's 'Measure Me, Sky!' and Shawn Kirchner's 'I'll Be on My Way.' 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21-22 at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; tickets $12-$25 at 'Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv': This 2001 video artwork opens on the fourth floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art this weekend for a run through the end of summer. Rist transformed digital video she took during a month-long trip to Japan into a dream-like presentation accompanied by an ambient electronic soundtrack, made in collaboration with composer Anders Guggisberg. Through Sept. 14 in the Turner Gallery at MCA Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; 312-280-2660 and
CBC
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The series finale of Mo brings its titular character home to the West Bank
Mo is a dramedy series created by the stand-up comedian Mo Amer. It premiered on Netflix in 2022. The series ran for two seasons, and it's loosely based on Amer's life. Amer stars in it as himself — that is, a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Houston, Texas. Given today's political climate, it's difficult to separate the realities of Gaza in 2025 from the fictional world of the show while watching the final episode of Mo, which is set in the West Bank. Today on Commotion, TV critic Saloni Gajjar talks about the series finale of Mo, and why it was so powerful to see the titular character return to his homeland. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube (this segment begins at 15:45):
Gulf Weekly
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Weekly
A story of struggle
THE final season of comedy-drama series Mo is out now on Netflix. Starring Mo Amer, who is the show's co-creator alongside stand-up comedian Ramy Youssef, the production follows a Palestinian refugee living in Houston, Texas, who is seeking asylum and citizenship in the United States. Picking up from the first episode's finale, the latest season is set to follow Mo being stranded across the border, due to being mistakenly transported to Mexico in the back of a truck driven by thieves, leaving him stranded and struggling to return to Houston before his family's asylum hearing due to being a stateless refugee without a passport. The series has received critical acclaim for being one of the first major American television shows to portray a Palestinian-American refugee as the protagonist and highlighting the ethnic diversity within Houston, and currently holds a 100 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 'I'm thankful to continue to tell a universal story of struggle that relates to so many refugees and millions of underrepresented humans trying to be seen around the globe,' Mo, who became a US citizen in 2009 after a 20-year wait, said in an interview . 'It takes a tremendous amount of patience and it is gruelling. It's emotionally, physically, mentally gruelling to go through such a thing,' he added. Writer and executive producer Harris Danow stated that the crew behind the series have decided to not tackle the genocidal acts on Palestine that were caused by the October 7 attacks in 2023, which were only recently put to an end by a ceasefire announcement, believing that it will distract from humanising and representing Palestinian individuals and their rich culture. 'The Israel-Palestine of it all is something we intentionally avoided in season one,' Harris said. 'Not because of the politics, but because the only thing people really know about Palestinians from the outside is their relationship to Israel and the occupation,' he added.
The Independent
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Mo season two is the best possible riposte to Donald Trump's worldview
When Palestinian -American comedian Mo Amer debuted his Netflix series, Mo, in August 2022, its semi-fictionalised depiction of an asylum seeker from the Middle East living in perpetual dread of US immigration officials (the infamous 'ICE') in Texas was undeniably newsworthy – but did not feel entirely ripped from the headlines. Three years on, all has changed – both in terms of the global profile of Palestine and of the treatment of migrants in Donald Trump 's America. Mo 's second and final season was filmed before Trump recaptured the White House and immediately declared war on the undocumented. Yet the series intersects chillingly with the Maga movement's nightmarish new normal and the unleashing of a wave of ICE raids that have left migrants in a state of ever-deepening despair. Immigrant trauma, the long shadow of conflict in the Middle East… clearly these are not the typical raw materials of a charming sitcom. But what's most impressive about Amer's provocative yet sweet comedy is that it holds a mirror up to 21st-century America while delivering belly laughs at a regular clip. Making full use of the lead's teddy bear persona, this immensely likeable chuckle-fest proves humour can bring warmth and empathy to even the bleakest scenarios. Amer – whose family fled Kuwait during the Gulf war to resettle in Texas – has serious points to get across about the plight of immigrants threatened with immediate deportation in America. He also touches on the experiences of the Palestine diaspora in the US: their frustration at watching from afar the suffering of their homeland. However, it does so with huge generosity of spirit amplified by Amer's agreeably befuddled central performance. If Mo is a reluctant outsider adrift in an increasingly hostile country, he is, above all, a confused everyman muddling through for all he is worth. He is a dude-next-door with dude-next-door problems. Chief among them are a confusing relationship with his on/off girlfriend (Teresa Ruiz), an overbearing mother (Farah Bsieso) and the abandonment he feels when best friend Nick (Tobe Nwigwe) announces he's becoming a father. Here are universal dilemmas to which everyone can relate. That remains the case even as the story turns wacky – for instance, when our hero is forced to become a part-time wrestler to pay the rent. Mo's foray into the ring is part of his desperate attempt to make a living after he accidentally ended up marooned in Mexico City at the end of series one. A complicated plan to boost his family's fledgling olive oil business had seen him accidentally kidnapped by Mexican olive tree poachers and brought south of the border. Now, he is a stateless refugee trapped in the wrong country. To that end, season two opens with him scraping a living selling tacos and donning the comic book mask of a lucha libre wrestler. Mo is one of those comedies where the humour does not flow from a firecracker script. There is little in the way of set-up-and-delivery zingers or quotable lines. Its appeal lies in how it evokes the small absurdities of everyday life. For instance, a run-in with the wife of the American ambassador to Mexico leads to a Curb Your Enthusiasm style row between Mo and the diplomat over whether Palestine and Israel are locked in a 'conflict' or an 'occupation' (Mo feels strongly that it is the latter). Finally back in Houston, he is upset that his ex, Maria, has rebounded with a smug Israeli chef named Guy. A running gag about a guy named 'Guy' may not scream comedy gold, but Amer makes it work. Much like the show's gentle giant lead, Mo 's eight episodes amble by without any great urgency before culminating in a beautifully bittersweet payoff. Yet in bringing to life the day-to-day struggles of a man who has been seeking refugee status for more than 20 years, it gives us a powerful ground-level view of how immigrants are treated in America. The series also captures the pain of a Palestinian community separated from their homeland (Mo is forever despairing about not being able to return to Palestine to visit family). Endearing, tender-hearted and quietly bingeable, this is the best possible riposte to Donald Trump's worldview. It's a comedy that reminds us that – whether we're a jilted boyfriend, a worried parent or a stressed border guard – the one thing we all have in common is our humanity.
