Maysoon Zayid is Showing Us Misfits How to Keep Shining Even When Things Get Dark

TUP EP 067

Maysoon: [: 00:00:00

along the way. [00:00:15]

in victory. I've only known [: 00:00:30

To me, she's the perfect example of the power of mind over matter.

dian, a best selling author, [: 00:01:00

And I have to say, as the [00:01:15] mom of a shiny misfit, and I may cry again just talking about this because I'm not as funny as Ms. Noon, but this book, which is by, for, and about shiny misfits and uplifters. [00:01:30] had a huge effect on me and though my kids read graphic novels, somehow I had never read one. Oh my gosh.

w, I was so surprised by how [: 00:01:45

Maysoon: Okay. Like super old parents.

Aransas: My grandparents raised me. Okay, cool. And so I like missed all the things that cool kids got. Yeah.

Maysoon: You had like a [: 00:02:00

No, we had an eight track player. Yes. Big fat eight track. So first of all, I want to tell your listeners that a graphic novel doesn't mean it's graphic. Like there's no graphic nudity, there's no [00:02:15] graphic violence. Graphic novel, I always say it's like the publisher's way of getting parents to buy comic books.

Scholastic approached me, a [: 00:02:30

Like I had a great Vaping joke. And they were like, Yeah, no, your 10 year olds can't vape. I'm like, But it's a joke. It's funny, funny. And they're like, or you're sponsoring smoking [00:03:00] illicit drug use in a middle grade novel. And that's a big no. But then I have a scene in the graphic novel. I'm not giving away anything where they add in the main characters contemplating whether she should stay or if she should bounce [00:03:15] from school.

line is, If I go, I might be [: 00:03:30

And it's like your last chance to change things. And I was reading the galley and I was Oh my god, the dismembered hyena joke made it into the middle grade novel. I'm gonna give kids nightmares for [00:04:00] decades. And it was like this cool Lion King shout out. It was amazing like being able to not just write a book.

So many people ask me, what would you tell your 10 year old self?

Aransas: And

Maysoon: shining [: 00:04:15

Aransas: And what a gift now to give it to all the shiny misfits out there. And I think to your point about the hyena, that's the beauty of this story is that it isn't

: It's not precious. There's [: 00:04:45

She's vague because I wanted her to be like, 5th to 7th grade, but she's [00:05:00] disabled, she has cerebral palsy, and Shadia Amin, my illustrator, who's a Colombian Palestinian, so just like, woo, firecracker, lives in Atlanta, Georgia, like, amazing, has a dog named Danny DeVito, like, there's so much to love about [00:05:15] her.

every picture, Bayan, either [: 00:05:30

Like, it never stops. That's, like, who I am. However, I think all of the misfits [00:05:45] have their own disabilities. It's very obvious to me that Michelle has ADHD. And like, I have a character named A. B. Matt, who is this very empathetic boy character. And like, I [00:06:00] wanted to have like a really strong masculine boy character, whatever that means.

ys. I mean, some of them are [: 00:06:15

[00:06:30] And I really wanted to leave that open to the misfit reading the book too, like, is the cat magical? Is the cat, [00:06:45] an imaginary friend. Is it Bayanne's inner monologue? And she's like working through stuff with this cat. Is it Dave Matthews? Because he's who voices the cat on the audiobook, which I thought was Which is so cool.

And [: 00:07:00

And then you just get this like sultry 60 year old rock star. I probably shouldn't have said this age, but like rock [00:07:30] stars like voice, you know, and And it's paired with my voice as a cartoon, which is so good. It's so funny. It's subversive. And it's my own stuff. So like I recorded [00:07:45] with him. But while I was recording with him, I was just like, I'm recording with Dave Matthews.

o the book, I was like, This [: 00:08:00

This is really happening So when I heard it back, I was like, oh my gosh But in addition to that, I'm an old soap fan, right? I love General Hospital. I grew up on General Hospital. I was on General Hospital. [00:08:30] What? What haven't you done? Made enough money to pay my rent and my health insurance.

b as like the color reporter [: 00:08:45

She was Brenda on General Hospital. She was Gina on 90210. She was amazing on Las Vegas with, you know, with, uh, Michael Kahn and, uh, and Josh Duhamel. And [00:09:15] she does all the audio descriptions. So, Shiny Misfits is a graphic novel, right? So when we did the audio version so that, you know, blind and low vision and intellectually disabled and ESL and just people who [00:09:30] don't want to read could listen along, we needed to make sure that we described all the pictures, right?

hour [: 00:09:45

And one of the beautiful things that he told us was it was bad to compare skin tones to food. So, like, I've always been a cinnamon girl, you know, Prince has an amazing song called Cinnamon Girl, I'm a cinnamon [00:10:30] girl. But he was like, don't compare people to food. So I was like, okay, this is a world with no borders, right?

How do I describe them? So, [: 00:10:45

Bayonne is rose gold, Davy is baked clay, you know, Ali Mack is amber. He's like the villain and he's like this gorgeous, like amber. And we went back and used all these elements. Her [00:11:15] dad is desert sand. Her mom is porcelain doll because my parents are Palestinian. My dad looks African. My mom looks like the Crusaders forgot her.

you know, and so I wanted to [: 00:11:30

All of this stuff exists in this borderless world, so I don't think [00:12:00] that having equality means erasing differences. It means celebrating them and sometimes hating them. Yeah, and that's like you're not supposed to read reviews. I read my reviews all the time. So if [00:12:15] anyone wants to reach any misfits and go to Good Reads and redeem me, I would love it.

re's this great line in a TV [: 00:12:30

Aransas: Hmm.

Maysoon: Beyanne is not everybody's cup of tea but I feel like she's every kid's cup of tea.

se I feel like if you're not [: 00:12:45

So there are people who are like, I don't get it. She dances, but she uses a stairlift. You're right. You don't get it. [00:13:15] You know, you don't get it because the idea that you could have an ambulatory wheelchair user who could dance but can't stand up is not on your radar. And then I have people saying like, I couldn't even [00:13:30] like the disabled character.

tween trying to get what she [: 00:13:45

They were like, I didn't know till page 50 what her disability was. I was [00:14:00] like, mm hmm, because I wanted autistic kids to think maybe she was stimming. And I wanted kids who survived limb amputations to think maybe it was a prosthetic. And maybe you could just [00:14:15] identify with whatever that manifestation of Sometimes I feel like, you know, I always say Bayanne is visibly disabled, but she also has an invisible disability.

s neurodivergent. She's very [: 00:14:30

And she said, only the people [00:15:00] around me. And I was like, no, dude, it hurts. Like I shake all day long. It's exhausting. I have chronic pain. Most kids with CP have chronic pain. And we've been taught you suck it up. [00:15:15] You pretend like there's nothing wrong with that. And this character, Bayon, sometimes is like, I am done being disabled.

ke, I want something. And my [: 00:15:30

They didn't understand her having like days where she's so tired, she can't get out of bed and days where she's so tired. tap dancing on stage. And that's why when people say, is it [00:16:00] autobiographical? No, I didn't grow up with the internet. I'm the youngest of four girls. This character is an only child. Yes, my cat does speak to me in rhymes.

BI, ET, Steven Spielberg, we [: 00:16:15

So if I'm run down and sad and scared, it's harder for me to physically stand up without someone [00:16:45] helping me. I might use my wheelchair that day. If I just got like done floating for four days in the dead sea and I'm feeling buoyant, I might actually run down a flight of stairs, fall flat on my face, bounce back up because I do [00:17:00] yoga and be like, look, I'm rubbery because I've been falling down since I was six, you know, when I finally stood up.

s. So many people were like, [: 00:17:15

at any time. [00:17:45] It intersects with every community. And so when people are like, Oh, you were playing DEI lottery. I was like, or I was reflecting the community I live in.

that the criticisms of this [: 00:18:00

Maysoon: So my dream in life was to become an actor, right? But this is like 25 years ago. I was kind of [00:18:15] one of the trailblazers of like, just visibly disabled. People should play visibly disabled on screen because what was happening was when I was auditioning, they weren't casting disabled people for anything. In fact, the plum roll for like the guy or gal, [00:18:30] that why best actor was to play disabled on screen and then be magically healed on the red carpet.

who was a comic of color and [: 00:18:45

And I was like, Oh, okay. If you don't look like Jennifer Aniston, this is how you get in. This This is how you get the dream job, host. And from like day one, I was like, I'm going to become a comedian. I'm going to sit on the view. Like I knew [00:19:15] it did not happen, but we'll talk about that later. So I started doing comedy nine months before 9 11.

. Suddenly, like, we [: 00:19:30

And I'm going to teach people what the difference is, [00:20:00] because Arabs can be every faith and any faith or no faith. And Muslims can be any race, any nationality, any culture, any anything, you know. And so I partnered with Dean Obeidallah, an incredible, [00:20:15] incredible Jersey boy comedian who is now a host on Sirius XM Progress 127.

y Festival. Why? Because the [: 00:20:30

It's a nightmare. Anyway, we're in our [00:20:45] 20th year now. And we never ever thought that 20 years later, we would be battling the same hate and racism. So a part of what Shining Misfits is doing is taking away the stigma and the fear of [00:21:00] disability. So that when you have a disabled child, instead of pining for the perfect child you lost, you appreciate the disabled child, the misfit child that you have.

eaknesses. And hopefully you [: 00:21:15

And someone comes up to you and is like, no, seriously, I would just absolutely end it [00:21:45] if I was you. And that's because we have made it seem. That it's better to be dead than disabled. We have a whole genre of movies where disabled characters are killed and their families lives are [00:22:00] better than me before you, million dollar baby, so on, Philadelphia, so on and so forth.

o in Shiny Misfits is create [: 00:22:15

And like when she gets defeated by her arch nemesis, she gets defeated the way that I do by mediocre men that somehow have more opportunities than I ever will. And people are [00:22:45] like, how are you teaching 10 year olds that they can be defeated by mediocrity? And I'm like, I'm preparing them. Yeah. She can't bake.

She's not a magical unicorn. [: 00:23:00

Aransas: I was once told that the most important piece of advice I could give my children as [00:23:15] a parent was You'll be disappointing, and you will be disappointed.

Yeah. Life is not a fairy tale. And there's a lot of magic that can be found in reality.

really hard for me because I [: 00:23:30

Sit down, figure out your finances. Make sure nobody's going to jail. Like let's work on things differently. However, I must tell you, I've had a lot of fairy tale in my life. So I don't know [00:24:00] what to tell you. Like God or, or the light, whatever you believe in. gave me like the perfect dad, God rest his soul.

was raised by like the king [: 00:24:15

Aransas: For the

Maysoon: [: 00:24:45

I'm. Seeing Bayan in real life and there's nothing I can do to save them [00:25:15] and protect them in this like beautiful borderless world I've created where our skin tones are natural elements instead of divisive borders is just that. It's a dream, a fairy tale, in a [00:25:30] chaotic, nightmarish world. And I'm just trying so desperately hard to inspire one person to be better.

ot think the world is better [: 00:25:45

I'm also really just praying for a world where [00:26:15] I'm writing and kids aren't being murdered like on the daily. Like it's very hard. So I try to lean into the fairy tale. I lean into the love. I lean into like my publicist, Danielle [00:26:30] Flowers, who brought me to you, like the most unlikely connection and how today has felt like, yeah, maybe we can do something.

e taking someone like me who [: 00:26:45

But also, let me tell you [00:27:15] something, loving the time of genocide, girl. Oh my gosh. I'm a hundred and seventy five years old. I've never been in love. I fell in love like six months ago, and I was like, I think like you have to. I think if life [00:27:30] is that intense, you have to. But don't worry, I plan to break up with them right after New Year's Eve.

, New Year's Eve hello kiss, [: 00:27:45

Aransas: It's all of it at once. It's all of it though, and I do feel like Sometimes life does feel like a tornado and all these little carefully [00:28:00] constructed pieces and ideas and structures that we've built through with such care, right?

d just kind of comes through [: 00:28:15

Maysoon: So I like to call it an earthquake though, because I shake it, shake it, shake it like Taylor Swift.

he earthquake instead of the [: 00:28:30

Aransas: That's it.

Maysoon: But I miss wearing makeup. I know this is so shallow. I love makeup. I'm like the lost It's not shallow, by the way.

Aransas: Oh my

Maysoon: God,

Aransas: it

, want what you want. I love [: 00:29:00

And since the genocide started, I don't wear [00:29:15] makeup. And it's like, it's such an, it's like an old Mediterranean woman thing. It's like the crux of not wearing makeup when you're in mourning is that you'll cry and it will like beetle juice down your face. [00:29:30] But it's also like the idea of dressing up and looking stunning is impossible to me when I'm watching these women not have access to basic feminine hygiene [00:29:45] products, when I know that there's moms giving birth to kids with cerebral palsy because they don't have prenatal care.

like hurt or save anyone in [: 00:30:00

And then I walk, I limp off stage and I immediately send WhatsApp messages to my family. And I wait to [00:30:45] see if the blue checkmark appears and it's red. Because I don't need an answer, I just need to know they're alive. Know you're okay, yeah. And it's literally like, that's, that's the game. So it's like, I go to a school in [00:31:00] Atlanta, and I have a marching band.

ly unequivocally exist. I've [: 00:31:15

Like, how do I save my country? How do I save the healthcare rights of women? And how do I. [00:31:30] Fight for any sort of decency or charity or love or light when everything I see is the opposite. And I think it's what you're doing, right? We make fun of podcasts. I make fun of podcasts [00:31:45] all the time, but there's this amazing line about light expunges darkness.

Aransas: My

light a lighter, in a cave. [: 00:32:00

So where is my dream job? Yeah, I've been doing this for 25 years. I've never gotten a stand up comedy special because they think I'm inspirational instead of funny, even though I've headlined Gotham Comedy Club for [00:32:30] like the past 25 years. I've never gotten the co hosting seat on The View, The Real, The Talk, CBS This Morning, GMA.

f, but they just do not look [: 00:32:45

You're so

t to create the proof point. [: 00:33:15

Maysoon: Scholastic took the risk on Shining Lessons, right?

Yes. [: 00:33:30

And there's no resolution between this character and her mom in this book. And there won't be. Yeah. There won't be in the nine book series because sometimes our parents are [00:34:00] not perfect and sometimes they refuse to do the right thing. And there's something, again, like I was saying, between death and life, there's disability between a great mom and an evil [00:34:15] mom.

even days a week. I can't go [: 00:34:30

Is doing what she can do, but she's not great. This is not her best [00:34:45] job my mom I love telling this story about my mom I was on 60 minutes and I said, did you see me on 60 minutes? And she said yes, your hair looked terrible and she was right and she was right I always say Hollywood can [00:35:00] never break me because they won't even come close to the criticism my mom hurled around at me.

My mom said I'm unlikable my [: 00:35:15

I teach at [00:35:30] universities, whatever university gives me insurance. I'm like, all right, Princeton, NYU Abu Dhabi, Arizona state. Where are we going? I'll go. What do you teach? So for the past five semesters, I was able to [00:35:45] create a brand new original course at Princeton. So I taught standup comedy. I taught Hollywood writing.

ld. We did a spec script for [: 00:36:00

I [00:36:15] haven't, I haven't had any jobs or like any offers since the genocide started. started because I've taken a very controversial, very dangerous position that I don't think kids should ever be murdered regardless [00:36:30] of what faith they are or no faith. And also that means ugly kids. I think that not just beautiful children should live.

children. And I'm like, the [: 00:36:45

Or they're misfits, [00:37:00] exactly. Why shiny? Why the word shiny?

n having talked to her about [: 00:37:15

And she wants to call it Not So Superheroes. And it's all about kids who are neurodivergent, who have differences, disabilities, [00:37:30] using their differences as their strengths and their superpowers. And I think she's sort of speaking to My initial read on this is that like we all have the potential to shine and be bright in our [00:37:45] uniqueness.

y hard to just be like, I am [: 00:38:00

Maysoon: hide it. Right? Don't put your light under a bushel, you shine.

don't see me sitting here on [: 00:38:15

If you're not, it's painful to pass, but sometimes we have to [00:38:45] survive. The biggest resistance is existence. The biggest resistance is staying alive. So when I say shine, I say shine, but you have to know where your danger zones are [00:39:00] and what risks you're willing to take. When I limp around a war zone, because I know that this is a mass disabling event and maybe I won't help or change anything, but not being there, I know I won't help or change anything.

I'm shining [: 00:39:15

Aransas: [00:39:45] Yes, and I think that, that to me is the whole crux of this. There's so much I don't understand about this crisis. But it's real clear to me, we shouldn't be killing children, we shouldn't be hurting each other, like Can we throw these [00:40:00] people back on

Maysoon: the battlefields? Period. Let's not kill each other. I mean, I would love us not killing each other, like that's the ultimate goal, right?

nice battlefield? Like we've [: 00:40:15

Televise it. Yeah, we iced their face. Mickey cut the eye. Like, okay, there's still violence, but it's only one person who's being permanently disabled. And you volunteered for it. Once for glory. Right, we volunteer to distribute. Like, right now we're in the Hunger Games [00:40:45] and none of us volunteered. We don't want to do any of this.

You don't have to understand [: 00:41:00

The faith of those Children does not matter. So [00:41:15] as I do the work that I do, I'm always aware that disabled kids, disabled women, disabled men are more vulnerable, are more prone to facing violence, are less likely to escape [00:41:30] because of just the nature of who we are. And because we have been dehumanized, but there's hope, there's light, there's so much knowledge out there.

u have a whole generation of [: 00:41:45

Now, I'm online, and like, there was a girl named Cheryl. I [00:42:15] wish I remembered her last name, I don't right now. But she was the first person who told me about being an ambly wheelchair user. And I was like, that's lazy. You don't just sit down when you need to. And she was like, or you do sit down, you avoid injury, [00:42:30] you reserve your energy for when you need it.

life completely changed, but [: 00:42:45

I drive a car that I could throw the chair or the walker in the back of it and I could take out the walker. Or I could have, like, the love of my life just, like, holding me up and be like, look, I'm going to the prom day and night. I [00:43:15] learned that. I, who was the disability advocate, had to be taught that we were not lazy, that we were not faking it, and that it was a valid choice.

esting that the big question [: 00:43:30

You look at the worst of it and then you pick out this little piece and you're like, but there's hope. And. Both the [00:44:00] hope and the hurt are a lot to carry. And right now at this moment, I suspect you're maybe carrying more. of both than perhaps you've ever even had to carry in a life that [00:44:15] hasn't been easy or convenient.

And so the question I wanted to ask you most of all is, how are you going to take care of yourself so that you can keep going?

I need someone else to do it [: 00:44:30

My resources are completely tapped. I believe so much in the dream and in [00:44:45] what I'm doing, but like, when you look at a mass disabling event, you're like, how do I begin? What do I do? What I've chosen to do is create. Is continue to create, to continue to put beauty and [00:45:00] laughter and love and dark humor into the world.

And I was talking to people [: 00:45:15

And how you do it is I'm going to pay the salaries of 40 [00:45:30] people for six months. There you go. That's what I'm going to do. Yep. But I'm really worried about What's happening in this country. I'm really worried that me and other people who are Palestinian have just been [00:45:45] stripped of our livelihoods and it's okay, this is a weirdly acceptable discrimination and we're kind of waiting for the pendulum to swing and nothing that happens to me, nothing that happens to me compares.

I know that I keep [: 00:46:00

They can both be

Aransas: awful.

e, I feel such pain from the [: 00:46:45

But [00:47:00] also be aware of your privilege. I think that's what you see a lot of is me being very aware of my privilege. I was lucky enough to be able to, you know, go to Columbia Presbyterian and have them save my life, have an amazing [00:47:15] doctor. I'm aware of my privilege. I'm never going to pretend that like. I did it all by myself.

Salts had nothing to do with [: 00:47:30

Did she look at it? Did the 11 year old? Look at it. I keep focusing on men and boys, men and boys, men and boys, which is [00:48:00] crazy. I'm creating a movie right now in Palestine, completely women crew, not a single man. Cinematographers, a woman, gaff, a woman. It's all women, all women, everything. And people are like, Oh, is that because you're a conservative Muslim?

d I'm like, No, it's because [: 00:48:15

We don't focus on men's health. And men should count and boys should count. I always say like [00:48:45] a guy like my dad who dedicated his life to his four daughters who literally used his own feet to teach me how to walk would be not counted. He would just be erased. We only look at women and children and our [00:49:00] definition of children is violent and terrible.

So anyway, everyone should buy Shiny Misfits, especially the audio book.

you as an observation? Yes. [: 00:49:15

And. I think it's pretty profound when we let other people just be there for us. And I, I mean, I see how you do that and the way you talk about your community and the way you invite people in [00:49:45] and I don't know. When you said it, I was just like, I need to say that back to you in case maybe you need to hear it too.

d and then finally go, okay. [: 00:50:00

Yeah. And on that note, I'm going to say goodbye to you.

Aransas: It was so nice to meet you, Maysoon.

Maysoon: Let's hang out again soon. I

. Thank you for listening to [: 00:50:30

Find more from us [00:50:45] at theuplifterspodcast. com. Thank you for listening to the uplifters podcast. If you're getting a boost from these episodes, please share them with the uplifters in your life. Join us [00:51:00] in conversation over at theuplifterspodcast. com, head over to Spotify, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast and like, follow and rate our show.

ly help us connect with more [: 00:51:15

Music: Big love painted water, sunshine with rosemary. And I'm dwelling the [00:51:30] perplexing, though you find it flexing. Toss a star in half for be around best love for relish in a new prime Landry in springtime dance.

With that all hindsight, [: 00:51:45

lift you up.

Lift you up.

Lift you[: 00:52:15

lift.

Aransas: Beautiful. I cried. [: 00:52:30

Music: It's that little thing you did with your voice. Right, in the pre chorus, right? Uh huh. I was like Mommy, stop crying. Mommy, stop crying. You're disturbing the peace.