Bassem Youssef
speaker
1,048 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2024
last heard 5 Jun
Bassem Youssef’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So middle school, 1986 was the beginning of the explosion of international schools, private schools. And these schools were relatively expensive. Of course, now with today's currency, it's ridiculous. But at that time, it's very expensive. So I went to that school. And from, there was this moment was like, you feel less right away.
I mean, of course there's the regular bullying and stuff, but it's not that. It's kind of like you always feel less. You don't have that much of like purchasing power that can allow you to go to the same outings or travel with them. And even like how you dress, it will be modest compared to them. So I was always an outsider.
I was, and I compensated with that by two things, being good at school and being good at sports. So I was not like the typical nerd who was just like that. I was like, I was playing football, basketball, field. And I was like, one of the people would like to have me on their team. So I wasn't like, kind of like, ah, he's a nerd, get him away. But I never had a girlfriend.
I never had any kind of like, it was not like, I was not boyfriend material. So that's kind of like, it leaves remnants in you that you're not good enough.
Yes, all the time. And that's why kind of like I'm more of a loner. I don't have a lot of what you call friends. I have acquaintances, people that I do stuff with, but I don't have like the people that I tell them everything. When I went to medical school, now medical school is a different animal. Medical school is where all of the people from the public schools go.
Public schools are very like, they are not, they don't have like, they don't have English language as like a strong, but they are brilliant people. So because they would mostly study in Arabic, but they are brilliant and they are very, very, very smart, very sharp. But then I'll go there. Now I am the sissy boy. from the private school that comes into medical school. Now I'm an outsider again.
And I go into residency and I pick up salsa. So now I'm a salsa teacher while being a cardiothoracic surgery resident. And I'm an outsider for the third time because in salsa, I'm kind of like the respectful doctor. And in resident, I'm the guy who is just dancing. So, and everything, of course, as a medical resident, you will mess up a lot.
So they would always like, oh, because you're a dancer, oh, because you don't care about medicine. You just like want to go there and dance with women, which is true. And so all of my life, I felt that I'm an outsider. I'm not part of the team. I'm not part of the core group. So, and I have a story that you would love.
Right before my residency, I was so much into salsa, so I had all of the money, and then you save that, and I was working in summers, and I was doing extra jobs, and I took that money, and I went to Miami in order to learn Rueda de Casino, which is the Cuban kind of like circle salsa kind of thing. And I went there in the summer of 2001. And my return ticket was 9-12, 2001.
The universe has a sense of humor, I got to tell you that. 9-12, I was supposed to be on a plane coming back to Egypt. What happens? Thank God, I ran out of money 10 days before that. It was like, all right, I changed my ticket and I came back. 9-11, I'm kind of like, my mom,
Fly at 9-12. But by the way, I was in Miami when they went to the flying school in Miami. So, I mean, I had like 9-11 written all over my face. You'd be all over the news.
And my mom was like, what?
Yeah, like, you know, samba, salsa, pachata, merengue, it's kind of like Latin dances. And it's like, you know, I don't know how you describe salsa. Couple dance on Latin beat. And I did it because... I once, I, and I talk about that in my Arabic stand-up comedy, not the English. I talk about, like, how I was, you know, I didn't have, like, really, like, a great, like, social life.
And I, my friends went there one day and I go into a place which, it was called El Gato Negro. No, no, it was called Big Fat Black Pussycat. And then I think they thought it would be, like, racist or something, so they changed it to El Gato Negro. Anyway, so...
Great, great. I know. Great decision. I know. So I went there.
We do everything for that. Even power, even money. All the wars we've been talking about. Women.
Of course. Like, I mean, that was like, that was like great. But then I, as, as a nerd, I went in so hard and now I became a salsa teacher.
And I earned more money from salsa more than I did as a doctor. I didn't know this part of you. That's hilarious. I was making a killing amount of money, like huge amount of money. And I was just like, you know, I would go finish my shift and I go to the salsa class. And sometimes I would have like 70 people in my salsa class. I had like the biggest salsa class in Egypt in the beginning of 2000.
And it was fantastic. And it was an outlet because you go there and there's the shifts and people dying. Damn.
You must have been good. I was okay. I was cool. I was fun. There were people better than me, but I have a thing about teaching. I like teaching people.
Showing 761–780 of 1,048 · page 39 of 53
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