Advice You Don’t Want to Hear

Maysoon Zayid is so many things. She’s an actress. She’s a comedian. She’s a writer and activist. She gave the most watched TED Talk of 2014. She was the first person ever to perform stand-up in Palestine and Jordan. She uses humor to break down barriers. She’s funny, original, and successful. She also has Cerebral Palsy. But that doesn’t slow her down. Not one bit.

Maysoon recently completed a stint as the first guest comedian-in-residence at her alma mater, Arizona State University. There, she filmed a comedic mini-web series called “Advice You Don’t Want to Hear” that she created, wrote, and starred in. Each episode is under five minutes and features four questions asked by the ASU community. At its core, the goal is to mainstream disability by placing a woman with a disability in the position of helping others. It’s uniquely awesome because we seldom see anyone with a disability helping, rather than being helped.

The show is now moving to the West Bank for season two and will (again) be open-captioned so that each episode can be enjoyed by English speakers of any ability. Maysoon’s show is filled with advice we DO want to hear and enjoy, so we’re helping her continue this project by making her this week’s grantee. With our AWB grant, Maysoon will rent cameras, sound, lighting, and editing equipment so that she can keep producing this groundbreaking, hilarious content.

You can catch up on the first season by watching it on YouTube. You can also keep up with Maysoon and all of her awesome endeavors on Facebook and Twitter. She has quite the following!