Incongruent Ep 10+ with Mina Liccione

In the 10th Episode our Incongruables discussed guilty pleasures, and the secrets of their personal happiness. And in our Plus Bonus show, where we talk about our talk with someone who knows what they are talking about, Zainab and Arjun meet a very special guest - the UAE's First Lady of Comedy - Mina Liccione!



Intro music: www.bensound.com.

Transcript

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Zainab : 0:03

Welcome back to another fresh episode of Incongruent Plus! We have with us live and in stereo, tap down so, Broadway veteran, choreographer, comedienne and so much more they can then I can remember Mina Liccione Alright guys, this is Zainab. taking charge with my amazing co host or john.

Arjun : 0:36

Kaboom!

Zainab : 0:37

Thanks, dude. Alright, Mina, you are the star of our show. So let's come back to you. Time for some serious and burning questions for you. All right.

Mina : 0:47

That sounds like a not so nice rash.

Zainab : 0:51

I just meant rapid fire questions. Alright Mina, ready for your first one. Arjun Let's go.

Arjun : 1:01

Okay, so the first question, what do you do when no one else is around or you're home alone?

Mina : 1:08

I hide in the bathroom and lock the door. Because I have toddler twins and no alone time. I'm telling you, especially since quarantine happened... before, it's like, okay, we'd say goodbye. I go out and do a shoot or you know, go to a rehearsal, but now the boys - they're two. They know that I'm always in the house. They are everywhere. They are like CCTV. They know things before I even go to the kitchen they're in the kitchen, Mama, hi, Mama. So there's only one room that has a lock and it's one of the it's the guest bathroom. So I'm giving away my secret so at least every few days I'll just go in there. I'll put some headphones on. I'll watch something, I'll be like messaging with some friends. Just to have a few minutes of just quiet alone time. Yeah, and I do eat ice cream I love erm... Ah! Yeah! I have a passion for for ice cream. So sometimes I'll sneak it because I don't want I don't want them eating ice cream all the time. They have enough stuff but, but those are my two things hiding in the bathroom. And Ben and Jerry's.

Zainab : 2:37

Okay, Mina, tell me other than comedy, what would secretly be your dream job?

Mina : 2:44

My dream job would be Oprah's job. Absolutely. I would love to be a talk show host but also, um, I.... Oprah I love so much because she's so passionate about what she does, but she genuinely also wants to help people. So she uses her platform to talk about important issues to help people heal. And sometimes it's really funny sometimes it's really serious. But either way I, I... yeah. Oprah I would love that. That would be my dream job.

Zainab : 3:21

Have you tried it somehow? At home? Maybe?

Mina : 3:25

Um, yes. I actually, um, I've done some hosting. And during quarantine during quarantine, you definitely have to come up with some fun activities with your kids. So yeah, sure. We played TV show host. I also do a lot of improv. And one of the games is called TV show host so I've played around there. And maybe 10 years ago, I had went to visit my great aunt was in a senior centre And I was so sad. Everyone there was just there was so lonely and just seems so sad. And she said to me, she goes, why don't you come do a comedy show here? And I said, okay, but I wanted to it had to be a character that would be relatable for people 70 to 90 years old. So I created a character called Audrey Heartburn, and she had a huge like a big yellow like wig. Kind of like a Golden Girls. If you guys ever saw the show The Golden Girls and she's still had like a roller in her hair. She has big glasses very, very loud outfits and she was seventy years old. And I the whole structure of the show was kind of like an Ellen type of show where she did funny segments, audience participation. We did "Sweat-in with the oldies" so that they they got to sit in their wheelchairs and do some fitness. We did a baking segment, but I said why bake it when why bake it when you can buy it. And so that was kind of living the dream, though through this character. But the funny thing is the Audrey Heartburn show - this is right before I moved to Dubai - we ended up going on tour. 25 senior centres throughout New York State, because the word got out that the show was so much fun and it was making the residents laugh that we got 25 we went on tour Who would have thought. So, yeah, that was my there was no TV there. But we pretended and I... you know.

Arjun : 5:51

So my next question to Mina is like, what are your top three biggest pet peeves?

Mina : 5:59

Oh, wow. pet peeves. Oh gosh, there's a list, I think. Okay, one of them. A pet peeve of mine is when people do not read anything. So say you send an email, and you're like, Okay, I'll see you tomorrow 12 noon. You know, let's just, let's just make something up, right? Say that I'm emailing you and I'll say great. I'll see you tomorrow. Caribou Coffee, Spring Souq, 12 noon, and then you reply back to me saying, so where are we meeting? It drives me nuts. It's like, just read, just read what I just wrote you. And people will do that all the time. And WhatsApp groups are my second pet peeve. When people add you to like these groups that you're just like, I don't even know any of these people and why am I in this group and then there's like all these notifications and then you're like, do I leave the group? Am I gonna offend somebody? Okay, can I just like not have notifications? I always tend to leave the group if it's an unnecessary group but yeah, people have stopped adding me because I've asked them to. My family "please don't have you anywhere like that groups - it's my private number". That'd be number two. Um, another pet peeve of mine. This one's actually a more serious one... is when... I'm just gonna say it when big companies, large corporations, especially during COVID-19, who weren't really affected their business, some of their businesses actually thrived when they ask artists to perform for free when the artists are deeply, deeply affected and many of us are out of work for months at a time. That was definitely a deeper pet peeve on many, many different levels. I had had one big company that our employees are really depressed, they're at home. You know, many of them, you know, in their pent houses, they have nothing to do you do a show for them. And I was like, Yeah, what's the budget? Well, you know, during these difficult times, we don't have a budget. I'm like, no, no, no, no no! You gotta pay the artists you got to pay the artists that's like me going to the doctors and being like: "Hey, man, come on. Come on, man. I'll pay you next time you give me this one and, you know, let's work together. Let's collaborate on the surgery."

Arjun : 8:57

Okay. So Mina, pick a TV or movie character that represents you.

Mina : 9:06

Oh my goodness. Oh, wow, that's a hard. Well, the thing is, I'm going to tell you lately many, many and the thing is I haven't seen this show. So it's funny that I'm going to choose this character that I haven't even seen yet. But everyone I'm talking like, hundreds of people have been like Mina you need to watch the Marvellous, Mrs. Maissel. Everybody keeps telling me that Oh my God, this character you're gonna she reminds me so much of you. Oh, you have to watch this show. So according to everybody else, that would be it. According to me, I don't know maybe. That's a good question. That's a hard one. Probably a cartoon character. Maybe a cartoon character. One with big hair and allowed nasaly voice I don't know I'm thinking The Simpsons. I think they could make me a character on The Simpsons that doesn't exist yet. Like maybe Marge has a cousin. Because her sisters smoke too much and they're too angry so it wouldn't be one of them. So maybe Marge's artistic creative comedian cousin and we'll just name her Mina that would be awesome.

Arjun : 10:31

Right

Zainab : 10:32

Mina - pick one pineapple on pizza or not?

Mina : 10:36

God no harram! Are you kidding me? Get out. The interview is over the interviews over people Are you gonna do you're gonna be no sauce, gravy, whatever.

Zainab : 10:53

So, tell us about the favourite show that you have done. That I have been in, my favourite show. Oh wow. Um I have to I have two sides of the coin. I have two sides of the coin I think younger Mina, my favourite show was Stomp. Hands down. Stomp was my my dream show I had started taking dance class when I was three. And I trained really, really hard to... my dream was to get on Broadway and and when I saw Stomp as a teenager I was like this is it. This... it had dance, it had music, it had comedy it had acting ... the fashion. It was just like, you know people from the streets, you know what I mean? It was like, it was so cool. And it was on Broadway. And it was amazing and I wanted so hard to be in that show. And I got there. So that for me, it was life changing. And I got I got paid to do what I loved. I got health insurance, I got to tour the world with a show that every single day I walked on that stage like, I can't believe I get to do this. And people would, you know, save up money to buy a ticket to go to that sho. People would wait after afterwards and kids, you know, can I get my picture with you? Can you show me how to drum this. It's.. it was the first time that I really felt the power and the impact of art on that level. And then years later, my favourite show for a very different, different, different different reason was clowning in a hospital I had gone through very, very, very difficult injury I had crushed all of my ribs. And a lot.. my lung collapsed. I had internal bleeding, I was told I would probably never dance again, never perform again to that level as an athlete. And I was so depressed I was like, "Oh my gosh, what's going to happen?" And then kind of stumbled across you know, like using using your art to help people in hospitals. And I went from like, performing to sold out theatres of thousands of people to performing for one little boy, who was battling leukaemia and his mom to try to make them laugh. And that changed my whole life. My whole everything, the way I look at comedy, The way I look at the performing arts, because before Yeah, I loved it, but there was an ego in it. You have to To have ego to be a performer you have to that it you know you have to have a to a certain level you have to have confidence you have to really love it and because it's very demanding, but then to be able to have this real connection.. this pure, honest connection and realise the higher purpose of your God given talents.. that .. that for me changed everything. And now, everything I perform every gig I take every big project, the classes I teach. We started with Clowns who Care, which is basically to bring joy to those in need from refugee camp tours to orphanages, to centres for children and adults with determination. That is, is really where my art has evolved to, though. Two sides, very different sides of the coin for two very, very different reasons. But once you, you get a little bit older and you you realise "Wow", I can have much more of an impact now that I have this this foundation what do I want to do with it?

Arjun : 15:11

So if I'm not wrong, back into 2017 you had your first televised stand up comedy debut right?

Mina : 15:19

Yes Araby By Nature was... that was my first one our comedy special. That was that was kind of okay. Wow, you guys are you you don't know you're opening up here his can of worms. Guys are better journalists than you even thought Hmm. Well, yes, that was funny enough. I had just found out that I was pregnant and nobody knew. And I said to my husband and I said I want to film my one hour special now. It has to happen now. Before I ... I, before I became a mom, because there was a lot that I wanted to say, there was 10 years of material. And it was time, it was time to do a special and put everything together. And I was so happy at that time, because I had that secret. And I knew it was ahead. So it was kind of like the marking of an end of a chapter for me. And but it was such that one hour show was so special. It was called special for a reason because it's special, but my whole heart, a whole heart. I put on that stage I put into those jokes, but there was a lot of, you know, I talked about a lot of different topics and a lot of stereotypes and some were funny and some I'm going to make you laugh, but now I'm going to make you think and then I end with a song and dance because I love you know, I'm still a Broadway baby. But that show.. I still get emotional when I think of "Araby by Nature" because it was, it was a very, you know, I, I always tell my husband I said one day these boys are gonna watch that special and I'm gonna say that's you in there, but no one knew. No one knew. Yeah. And then later on, I had filmed for Comedy Central. And I was eight months pregnant, and no one knew that it was twins. Only our parents knew yes. So you there's an episode of me. I look like I'm about to like pop at any second. Any second. Even the people in the audience are like, "Wow, she looks really big." And I gave her two weeks later, two weeks after that filming. So I'm like those boys better thank me. They got they got stage credit. They got TV credit before they were even born. These boys.. come on, they can say.. while technically I was on Comedy Central Arabia twice on TV ... At what age? Erm.. negative... negative one month but yeah though that was a very, very, very special and precious time that I hold very, very, very close to my heart. Araby by Nature. Yeah.

Zainab : 18:26

So what what exactly drew you to comedy?

Mina : 18:33

Another big question. Hmm. See comedy, it's a very big word with a lot of big meanings to it because comedy. You know, you have stand up comedy you have improv, you have physical comedy, you have clowning, you have comedy series. You have comedy films. You have comedy writing. You have joke writing, joke telling. There's so much that goes into it. Um, comedy for me is a way of life. It's my culture. It's how I was raised. It's a sense of humour. My dad. My dad is hilarious. He has this huge personality. Hey, what are you talking about? Hey, Come Here! literally talks like this "Whattarya talking about Ey? I coulda been on TV, but they told me I had a better face for radio. Oh!" You know, he's amazing. He's always telling jokes and creating characters. So growing up ... my dad was boxing promoter so he worked at night and my mom worked during the day so I remember spending all afternoon with my dad just making up characters and doing voices and laughing and, and you know, so I.. it's a way of life and I remember... Always too you know, you get to this point where if something bad there's always gonna be bad times. There's always gonna be bad times. But my family were able to see the humour in it quicker than maybe some other of my friends maybe. So I always kind of found myself doing that like pain in time is comedy. Pain in time is definitely comedy and the quicker you can make a joke about it, the quicker you heal about it, you know, and and that definitely got me through this quarantine. So comedy found me, I, I did nothing. It was it was the way I was raised and you know, I my parents put me in tap dance class when I was three because I was always dancing around the house and and i they said I was very musical. So they want it and I was shy. I was very shy kids. So they put me in dance class and I said, I haven't shut up since that's the that's the story they tell me.

Arjun : 21:06

You should actually have a sort of a university degree for comedy, right?

Mina : 21:10

But there is a college in New England, in the States that does have a Comedy Studies degree, and yeah, and also in Chicago, their second city that have linked up with one of the universities in Chicago to do an overlap programme where it's theatre and comedy and improv together. And then in San Francisco right before I had moved here, we did a bridge programme with new college California, and the circus centre and it was the very first physical comedy and theatrical circus degree, which was crazy at the time, so there are already small programmes. It's just not very common, you have to really search for them. But there are these these golden nuggets that arepopping out it's and the one right now the comedy studies one is where Jay Leno graduated. It's the college where he graduated. So you have to Google that later I want to say Amherst, but it's not that it's at Emory or I forget. But so many comedy writers were studying writing at that school that finally they were like they kept pitching it they're like, "Come on, let's do a comedy studies. There's so many writers and you know, people doing pilots and different shows" and they finally agreed to it, which is super exciting, but only a few years old.

Arjun : 22:47

What and who was the motivation for you to start up the organisation Dubomedy as a comedy school for goats in the in the region.

Mina : 22:59

Well Dubomedy is Dubai plus comedy basically that is that's kind of how the name is. And the school. Well, I think I had come here in the summer of 2007 as a performer I was booked. I was hired to come perform. And then it kept getting extended. It was like supposed to be two weeks, then it was three weeks. And then was a month and then it was a month and a half. Because I kept getting booked to teach workshops to perform stand up to emcee to perform this or this or that. And it was like everyone I met kept saying, gosh, it would be great if we had a local comedy scene here. We really need more comedy. At the time they were only flying comedians in like myself and there was importing so I had spoke with a couple of people and at the time there was DUCTAC. And they said you will give space if you wanted to come back and maybe start a comedy and urban art school. And then at the same time New York Film Academy was in talks of opening up in Abu Dhabi. So I spoke with them and they were like, well, we can also... we need an improv teacher, and a voice in movement. I was like, okay, all the arrows were pointing here. Anything sustainable... I think the cornerstone of anything sustainable is education. So it made sense that how are we going to build a comedy community when no one's ever performed comedy here? So I did a workshop. I wanted to start doing the workshops to kind of like help them learn how to write jokes, how to structure things, how to do public speaking, physical comedy, timing, delivery, you know, coach him up, basically what people do for years and open mic nights. Right? Here, it's like okay, let's let's give them a workshop in a very supportive environment because people were really nervous especially over here, "oh we have stand up comedy. Oh gosh, it's gonna be it's gonna be dirty. It's gonna be vulgar. It's gonna be inappropriate." So we kind of had to teach people like, "No, no, it's your own voice is your voice." So it made sense to start with the workshops, and we're still doing them now. And I had met my husband a few months after I moved here, and he was he had the same passion. He wanted to build the community. So we kind of, you know it, Ali and I kind of joined forces. We launched the school. And we still have classes. We still have classes every Saturday for 12 years now. And then I think you're thinking of Funny Girls. Funny Girls is one of the projects under Dubomedy which was the first and only all female stand up comedy troupe, and that was awesome. And every year yeah, we still wait for every year we'd like to link up with breast cancer awareness month. Because it's so important and passionate for all of us to use to use our comedy for good, but to also really encourage women to get tested who might be really scared or uncomfortable, you know about it and to encourage men to talk to their moms and say, mom I love you. I love you, mom. We have got to talk about this hard stuff. Just go go get tested mom. So and you know, we have improv troupes. We've done festivals, we have Clowns who Care projects under there, which all started with that one performance for that one boy in the hospital. So I think no matter what your career is, there's going to be these little little moments where you're like, wow, this is this is a life changing moment. And it could be something so tiny, but if all the arrows are pointing in one direction, you're like, I just have to keep going with it. So I didn't know I had no if someone would have told me that I'd be living the middle I married an Arab Muslim man, I have twins running a comedy school being the only I'm pretty much the only female ... full time professional, female comedian in the UAE... I would have said no, you're crazy. I never ever in a million years, would have guessed that. So, honestly, you just have to look for signs and take that leap of faith when it feels right. I didn't really plan it. It kind of happened on its own. And I said, You know what, this is needed. This is important. And you know what, I have an opportunity to create something that that that's gonna help make other people laugh. And, and kind of like heal. So, you know, I don't know it wasn't planned at all.

Zainab : 27:51

Mina, if I remember correctly, you did organise, a show, local show to promote, you know, artists during the COVID pandemic. So are you working on a new soon?

Mina : 28:04

Oh, well, we right now we're kind of it's the tail end gosh right now it's such a weird like transitional time. Because, now things are starting to open back up. Right so this is kind of the the tiptoeing back. It's like, Oh my gosh, you know, we started getting phone calls from theatres now in venues saying, "Okay, can we set some dates" and we're like, "oh, wow." So no, I think we're probably going to not do so much online but more start transitioning into Okay, social distancing shows, you know, shows that people are very confident that they feel safe and comfortable in so I think now is it about exploring that because I think I'm not gonna lie, I have a lot of anxiety. When I go grocery shopping right now I'm still like, "Okay, wait, do I have my mask on? Do my gloves. Okay, don't touch my phone." Do this, like I'm thinking about every moment and what I have to think about every second it gives me anxiety. So just going to a restaurant, I went to a restaurant just like last week, it was my husband and I's anniversary, we went out to dinner and I was like, Oh, my gosh, is the first time I haven't even sat out and had dinner at a restaurant. So for me, I'm like, would I how would I feel going to see a live show right now? I think I'd still be a little nervous. Honestly, I'd have to take baby steps to kind of get to that place. So we try. What we're trying to do is create help create those baby steps, so that artists can feel comfortable, but also people who really want to laugh and feel inspired, also feel comfortable. So right now we're kind of focusing on healing that gap. Um, what we're doing one final we called it the Comedy Lockdown. We're doing one final one right now, actually because also a lot of comedians and artists are really afraid that oh my gosh, venues are opening up. Did I write? Did... do I have new material ready to jump on the stage. So this is kind of, we're doing our final two weeks kind of it's like an incubator, to test out.. get all the new material ready. It's like going to the gym for comedians. You got to write you got to feel confident. And people haven't been on a stage in months this is the longest. I've never, ever in my life gone this long without standing on a stage since I was three. So it's weird. It's very bizarre. It's gonna be like, Okay, alright. I'm all about supporting local talents. I always have been I am local talent. So I know, I know what, what the needs are when you just need a platform and you just need someone to believe in you and say, "Hey, you know what, I'm gonna offer you this spot to come perform your new songs." So we'll always do that. That's who I that's what I believe in. And I will always do that.

Arjun : 31:24

One last question from my side. You are a tap dancer as well as a comedian. So how do you blend the dance and the concept of dance and comedy together when you present in a stage?

Mina : 31:38

Whoo, well, I don't really perform .. I don't tap dance in stand up. I've never tapped dance as part of a stand up comedy show before. And funny enough, I was just talking to Ali saying I would love to find a way to do that. Um, so right now my tapping is always humorous because it's it's a, you know, it depends on the song or if it's acapella depends on the character. I like to do characters who tap dance and tell stories and stuff like that. With stand up, I've done dance and music like parody songs and dance jokes.

Arjun : 32:22

Yeah, I've seen that quite much.

Mina : 32:25

Yeah, I found that I was able to find a way. The thing is, is if you, if you consciously try too hard to fit two things together, it doesn't feel natural. So the dance jokes kind of happened on its own because it was physical comedy. It was literally me going to the beach in July in Dubai and literally, like, "Oh my god, it's so hot" and I was barefoot. I was literally like, I'm like, running! So that's how that became the joke. And then I thought, oh, gosh, what was how did other dance moves start. So that kind of was the catalyst to that. I sing a song about a shattaf because I went to New York and I missed it so much. I was like, oh my gosh.

Arjun : 33:12

I just saw that yesterday.

Mina : 33:14

You did?

Arjun : 33:16

I did see that song yesterday. Oh, like, oh God. I couldn't stop laughing!

Mina : 33:22

You know like, all my comedy is based on my life experience. So my next step is to naturally find a way to get tap dance into a stand up comedy show. So I'll say inshallah, to that. I would like to buy October that's one of my goals is to actually tap dance as part of a stand up show at the end, it would be like a finale or something - youare the first to know!

Zainab : 33:53

We have so many more questions that are probably left unanswered. For now, but hopefully we can we see you again in 2020 Mina at university?

Mina : 34:06

Absolutely yeah, yeah, you bettcha!

Zainab : 34:08

Joke's on hand sanitizers because that would be fun. Thank you so much Mina Um, can we have a cheer for her please? And thank you to our wonderful audience for joining us for another special show of The Incongruent. See you guys very soon