Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Born in Iran, Maz moved to the US with his parents at the age of six and grew up in the San Francisco Bay area of California attending University College Berkeley to study political science.
He said: "I began performing in plays at school when I was 12 and I loved the theatre and dreamed of going into it professionally but my parents wanted me to be a lawyer ... they didn't think I would ever make a living as a performer so I went to college to study political science.
"I went to Italy and studied with a professor and decided that might be the life for me but when I came back to UC Berkeley I found myself sneaking off to take part in the theatre programme.
"Ten years ago, at the age of 26 I was working in an advertising agency and I had decided to wait until I was 30 to save money so I could try to launch myself as a professional performer when I met an older guy in his 60s who said to me: 'When I was in my 20s there was so much I wanted to do but I waited until it was too late. If you really want to do it, do it now.'
"That was a light bulb moment for me. I enrolled to study comedy and met a woman who taught stand up and it took off from there.
"I performed in lots of small venues until I ended up with a regular slot at the Comedy Store, a world famous comedy venue here in LA (which has launched the likes of Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg).
"Back in 2000, Mtizi Shore, who runs the Comedy Store was watching the news coming out of the Middle East and the latest Intefada from the Palestinians when she said there was going to be a need for a positive voice for the Middle East.
"She had previously run exclusively female shows and shows with all African American performers and she put together the Arabian Knights.
"I was the only regular Middle Eastern performer then working at the Comedy Store so she brought me on board. She had seen Ahmed Ahmed and I knew the work of Aron Kader and there were a bunch of others who also got involved and we initially performed together, but it seemed that everyone who wasn't either African American or Mexican was part of the group so the three of us, who actually did have Middle East connections, decided to take the show on the road touring as the Arabian Knights."
And their brand of irreverent humour holding the 'Arab' stereotype up to ridicule with jokes about terrorism and the like went down a storm.
"We were selling out three nights a week at a small 250-seat venue in Washington DC but they would not give us a weekend booking," said Maz. "So we decided to take the plunge ourselves and booked a 1,400-seat theatre.
"At the same time we decided to adopt the name Axis of Evil (which President George Bush used to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea after 9/11). We knew we had something that people wanted to see.
"Middle Easterners in America had been waiting for something like this where they could have a chance both to laugh at themselves and at the same time present a very positive idea of the Middle East.
"And Americans also came too, lots of them were curious, knowing that the world is not black and white the way President Bush would have us believe."
Last March the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour was presented on US television station Comedy Central - "probably the first time four Middle Eastern guys have ever taken the stage like that on national TV," said Maz.
And from there performances in the Middle East followed in Egypt, Abu Dhabi and Dubai with a tour organised by Showtime Arabia.
At the same time they were spotted by Salah Janahi, managing director of SJ Media Group, Bahrain, who thought they would be ideal for the island.
Mr Janahi said: "I love stand-up comedy and have been a fan for a very long time. I booked Axis of Evil for a big event in Qatar and then went out to spend time with them in the States and we have become good friends.
"I thought they would be great for Bahrain and it's going to be a major event as it's something so different. We have concerts but not something like this so it should be a really good show."
And the Bahrain show, at Al Ahli Club, Zinj, which will feature both Maz and Ahmed, will also give some up and coming local talent the chance to perform in support.
Maz said: "Comedy translates into any language, laughter is international and we're really looking forward to coming to Bahrain and meeting some of the local talent."
The hunt is now on for stand-up acts to take on a supporting role.
If you think you could be one of them visit the Bahrain comedy event page on Facebook, email AOE@sjmediagroup.com or call 17297040 for more information.
