“The immediate feeling is, it’s a huge, huge relief,” says Max Amini. The Iranian-American comedian is Zooming in from his home in Los Angeles the day after news broke that Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Iran — that “a whole civilization would die tonight” — would not come to pass, and that the United States would attempt (ultimately unsuccessful) negotiations with the country it began bombing at the end of February.
Although he was born in Tucson, Ariz., Amini, 45, is the son of Persian parents who immigrated to the states after the 1979 revolution. When he was 8, they returned to Iran until Amini was 17. The family later moved to Southern California, where Amini attended high school and then college at UCLA. “I’m very Iranian and I’m very American depending on different situations in life.” When it comes to family? “I’m very Iranian,” he says. Dating and lifestyle? “Very American.”
“Regardless of the politics, it would be extremely excruciating to see bombs dropped on a country that I’m emotionally connected to,” Amini says on Zoom. “Last night, when we heard the news, we were like, “Thank god, there’s an opportunity for a different, more effective way of change than, as [Trump] said, taking Iran off of planet Earth.”
Near the end of his latest YouTube special, Double Threat, which was released in late 2025, Amini tells the audience, “I come from two countries that are sworn enemies — Iran and America. All they want is to kill each other. But personally, I have inner peace. I have love.”
Amini has had success, too, although not the overnight kind. He’s been at it since the late 1990s, but last year saw him break through in a big way. According to a 2026 report (based on first-party data from native platform analytics) that was provided by his representation, another comedy special, Randomly Selected, which he produced through his Abstraction Media company, was the No. 1 most-viewed comedy special across all digital platforms in 2025, and the ninth most-viewed special of all time on YouTube, with 17.6 million and counting. His all-time views on Instagram and YouTube top 9 billion, and he has 27.8 million total social followers, including 7.4 million on his MaxxPersian Instagram channel, where he performs stand-up in Farsi. He’s got live game, too. According to that same report, he performed in 60 cities in 19 countries on his 2025 world tour and sold more than 200,000 tickets. This year, he sold out his February performance at Madison Square Garden as well as upcoming shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. and the Netflix Is Joke Festival in L.A.
Amini describes his comedy as “observational, authentic and inspirational,” and his sweet spot is comparing and contrasting the mores of the two cultures he straddles. He has even coined a guttural, made-up term, “huh-hucch” that’s a catch-all for the Persian way.
In Double Threat, he talks about the difficulties of dating the kind of “good girl” that his family prefers. After weeks of pursuing one who qualifies, Amini makes his move, only to find “a lockbox with a code on it” securing her undergarment. “What is the code?” he pleads. “She goes, ‘I don’t know. My father has it.’”
Max Amini
Courtesy of UTA
In that same special, which was shot before the attack on Iran, Amini tells his audience, “There’s only one element that can end this disaster we have in the world. It’s love,” adding, “I hope we realize that we’re all one race, and that’s the human race.”
That said, Amini explains on the Zoom call that he’s aware, “People are coming to the theater because I’m Max Amini, not Tony Robbins.”
I have a friend in Iran who, when he can skirt the Internet ban, trades messages with me. When the U.S. attacks first started, he told me there was a lot of optimism there that regime change would follow. But the last time we texted, he wrote that with that goal off the table, Iran’s brutal oppression of its people will only get worse once this conflict ends.
I absolutely agree. As an Iranian, you only wish for a better life, and a better life means a country that takes the resources of that country and invests it in the country’s economy, education, health and other sectors. What we’ve experienced in the last 47 years with this regime is that they believe in investing in Hezbollah, in the terrorist groups of Syria and surrounding countries. Through this war, we understand how many billions of dollars were invested to build these defense mechanisms that have allowed [Iran] to stand pretty strong so far.
The regime is staying.
This regime is staying. It’s very sad. God knows how many more years it will take to rebuild all these military defense systems. The ideology is the issue. In Iran, you live with a very dark, very extreme mentality. It’s a very religious mentality, and nothing against religion, but my personal belief is that it is not a way to govern a nation. The young people of Iran need to discover who they are, discover art, discover humanity — have the chance to make mistakes to find what the right path is for them. These are things that we have in America; things that Europeans have been blessed with. When you say “freedom” here, some Americans reply sarcastically, “Freedom? What freedom?” We should never take it for granted. For example, a gay person could never have remotely a life in the Middle East.
You spent some formative years in Iran. You’ve experienced those restrictions.
I don’t take any day of my life here for granted, and not necessarily because of comparisons to Iran. I travel the world, and I still find America very, very special no matter what a lot of people think. The opportunity to work hard and to live with your family in a decent environment is still available and a blessing.
Do you honestly think the current ideological rulers of Iran will ever loosen their grip?
I think so, and it has. It think of it as water and oil. The ideology hasn’t been able to penetrate a culture that people there have had in their DNA for centuries. Go back to the attacks of the Mongols, to the Arabs to the Greeks and so on. These different ideologies and invasions have affected the country and the people and the culture. But the foundation cannot be destroyed. Iranians’ whole being — the essence, the soul of their survival and celebration and family orientation — is based on the poetry of Rumi, Nowruz [the start of the Persian new year], music. It’s impossible to swipe this away. The minute young Iranians get an opportunity to show themselves, I think the world will see a very friendly, kind and enthusiastic nation who likes to smile. Iranian culture works and lives for joy, for family, for gatherings. Look, despite 47 years of this Islamic republic mentality, every household still has their parties and gatherings. They have art shows, and man, the music they listen to — they’re so openminded. You have social media and the younger generation are moderates. Over time, I think it’s going to de-escalate. When I was in Iran, you were not allowed to have a cassette tape, and you would get arrested for listening to music. Today, the same regime allows concerts — obviously with a lot of guidelines — but that progression has happened. It’s inevitable.
Were you thinking of a comedy career when you lived there?
I never really thought of the opportunity in Iran, but when I came back to America, the true sense of freedom — that I can do all these things that I could have never done in Iran — was the spark. Performance, acting, singing. I’m going to high school where there are boys and girls in the same school. In Iran, I never was in the same class with another girl. In America, I’m in a chorus class with girls, and we go to the gym and work out together. I was like, “Wow, I have been given a second chance at life to experience something really cool.” Performance has always been massively attractive to me. I started by singing in chorus. I came in second in my high school talent show.
What was the moment where you said, “I want to be a stand-up comedian”?
When I started college, I decided to become a theater major and pursue acting and comedy. I was very funny when I did my improvisation with my classmates. I discovered stand-up comedy through that.
To what do you attribute your popularity?
Everybody wakes up and deals with challenges. I have more energy to fight these challenges and keep growing because my vision is becoming reality. For many years, I was disappointed that the industry was not recognizing my talent. No casting director, producer, director; no projects, no comedy festivals. But I’m one of the lucky people in that social media gave me the opportunity to let the people decide who they like. I feel like the universe gave me the opportunity to build my own my character, to build confidence, integrity and understanding of the business, versus the industry taking me in and handing me all the opportunities. I had to build everything myself, but once things started happening, they snowballed.
A lot of your comedy deals with Iranian culture and your upbringing, but you also make it relatable for a broad audience.
Comedy has to relate. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to travel for my shows and meet a lot of different people and learn about their cultures and realize wow, we all have so much in common.
In Randomly Selected, you ask audience members to applaud by nationality: Persian, Greek, Arab. How would you describe the composition of the crowds that come to see you?
I have people from all over the world: Albanians, Russians, Ukrainians, Arabs, Persians, Americans, Black, Hispanic. I do [those callouts] every show because it’s important for the people in the audience to know who’s there. Like, in Chicago, every show had people from Kazakhstan, Mongolia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Greek We had a massive audience. I never had Mongolians. There’s a Mongolian population in Chicago. Who knew? I thought, what’s the message here?
What’s your conclusion?
I must have some sort of journey here to unite people. At the end of the show, I always say I hope that people understand how we laugh together, and how we’re all looking for love and happiness. Let’s walk out of this room and make the world a better place by spreading this joy and love and acceptance. To me that’s what art should be.
I watched an online clip of a teary Russian bodybuilder who said your comedy saved her life. You were very respectful, but I loved that you ended your conversation by saying, “I’ll f—k you.” You didn’t let things get sappy.
Exactly. I never want to become too cheesy. I want to stay funny first. I’m extremely aware of moments like those and how fragile people can be. I feel like I can give acknowledgement but then find comedy to turn it around and get the room up. With the bodybuilder it would have been very easy to take it to a very crude place fast. You’ve got a woman with a lot of muscles and there’s a lot of directions you can take this and get good laughs — you’re a girl, you’re a guy, whatever. That’s an easy punchline. Onstage, I’m thinking, let’s go deeper. Let’s find the humanity. Let’s make her feel special and laugh hard.
You did both of those things and she loved it.
She came back the next day again.
Do you know if people in Iran are watching your comedy?
Definitely. At this moment the internet is shut down, so they’re having a very hard time connecting. I have kept to my roots. I promised myself six or seven years ago that no matter how big my career gets as an American comedian, I will keep nourishing my Iranian roots, and I will keep my comedy alive with Iranians. That is so important to my mission. The clips in Farsi are massively viral. I am passionate about doing this because there is not really a stand-up comedian in Iran or from Iran that has my experience and platform and voice. I feel like it’s great motivation for younger generations in Iran to have that example, and to start doing standup.
Is it working?
In the last four or five years, a lot of young stand-up comedians have popped in Iran. They’re doing open mics, and they have their little comedy cafes. This didn’t [previously] exist in Iran. I feel like me hanging in there and doing standup in Farsi is going to pave the way for Iranian comedians, down the line, to be able to tour and build from there.
Given your popularity are there any Netflix or other major streaming specials in the works?
Some good talks are happening. There was a time when I was sitting on pins and needles waiting for this news. Now I know for sure it’s coming. I just want to make sure my special is special.
With this madness that’s going on with Iran and the world, this next special should have a special touch. I’m working on building that material.
You have a production company, Abstraction Media, that has done some quite serious projects — that you’ve directed — such as Diaspora: Untold Stories of American Immigrants.
Is that an avenue you’ll continue to pursue?
I started Abstraction Media in 2010 because I realized I needed to start building my own career. I went to UCLA for TV and film. I was very enthusiastic in college about directing and producing. So, it has always been a huge part of my passion. I would describe myself as a storyteller ultimately. I tell stories via stand-up, directing movies or short-form content. I’ve sold seven TV shows and produced and directed my first feature film. James the Second. I’m developing a book that I optioned. We’re not here forever, so I want to pick projects that are meaningful. I have a great team of people, and we’re going to continue to do projects like that.
What is the book you are developing?
It’s called In the Lion’s Shadow [by Abdol Hossein Sardari]. It’s about an Iranian diplomat that was in Paris during the Holocaust who saved 1,500 Jews by making fake passports. What I love about the story is that Iran has always been a multireligious country. We’ve had many different religions living in harmony. Today, we have Jewish communities and Christian communities living in Iran. When I found this true story, I said it must be told. I was a struggling artist then, but I kept renewing it — taking money from here and there, copying and pasting things together — to not lose this story. Finally, I’ve found some people who are interested in making it happen.
