Amer's Netflix comedy series about his life, Mo, is now in its second season. His family is Palestinian, and fled the first Gulf War, so Amer grew up in Houston from age nine. "Palestinian culture is a folksy farmer kind of mentality and life," Amer says. "And when I came to Texas, one of the things that was really attractive to me was the country music, the folksy music, the storytelling tradition of that." Amer spoke with Dave Davies in 2022 when his series debuted. Also, Justin Chang reviews Black Bag, a new thriller from Steven Soderbergh.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Season two of the comedy series Mo is now available on Netflix. It's based on the life of Mo Amr, a comedian of Palestinian descent who grew up in Kuwait and Houston and is fluent in Arabic, Spanish, and English.
As the first season ended, Mo was trying to stop the theft of his family's olive trees from a Texas farm when he ended up trapped in the thieves' truck and transported to Mexico. As season two opens, he's stuck in Mexico City because he's undocumented. He sells falafel tacos from a vending cart and plays in a mariachi band to get by.
But he's desperate to get back to Houston, where his long-awaited asylum hearing is fast approaching. Here he's talking to a clerk at the American Embassy in Mexico where he's been seeking a travel document to get into the United States. You know me. This is like the 12th time I've seen you. I've seen your colleague like six times.
Yeah, this is like the 13th time I have to ask you, where's your passport?
I don't have a passport. Exactly. Next. No, no next. Wait, wait. Okay. Look, I got an asylum hearing coming up in Houston that I've been waiting for for 22 years. And if I get that asylum granted, I can eventually get a passport. Please, God, I've been begging for the last six months after I was kidnapped and brought to Mexico against my will, and no one's willing to help me.
Right. You were kidnapped by the Olive Tree Cartel. It was, right? But don't do that. My lawyer said if I can get a laissez-passer, I can legally cross the border. Yeah, but just come to terms with the fact. You're Mexican now. Okay? Feliz cumpleaños. I'll tell you what.
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