Mitra Jouhari
⤏ IN CONVERSATION WITH CORIE JOHNSON
⤏ PHOTOS BY ALIX SPENCE | HAIR & MAKE-UP BY MARITZA BARLEY | STYLING BY LINDSEY HARTMAN | SPECIAL THANK YOU TO FLAMES VINTAGE
⤏ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 2019
Not only is Mitra a skillful writer, actress, and online personality, she’s also a brilliant comedian that uses absurdist comedy to tackle important topics. Mitra just started writing for Big Mouth on Netflix, and previously wrote for Miracle Workers on TBS, High Maintenance on HBO, The President Show on Comedy Central — for which she was nominated for a WGA award. She is also one-third of the comedy trio “Three Busy Debras” who just filmed a pilot for Adult Swim. I could write all of her credits, but it would take days and who has the time?
Mitra uses her platform to speak out on marginalized perspectives, politics and really, REALLY wanting to be an extra in the new movie adaptation of Cats: The Musical. Which yes, Jason Derulo stars in. On top of firing on all cylinders, Mitra still finds time to take care of herself and others.
Welcome to a new era of comedy that’s based in empathy.
Mitra Jouhari is ushering it in.
CORIE: Tell me about when the whole comedy thing started.
MITRA: At first I went to college planning to be a doctor or a lawyer. The declared thing was neuroscience, but I started doing comedy in college and that felt really good. I felt really motivated. I stopped trying to do anything else, and then I started doing internships and eventually dropped out of school — but simultaneously had no expectations. In retrospect, I feel like it’s a really good mindset to go into it with.
C: You just moved to Los Angeles, but you were bicoastal for a while before that. How did you handle traveling so much, and what did you do to stay sane?
M: I was bouncing around from city to city, which is really fun and really exciting, but it’s also very physically exhausting and I’m not a person who travels well. I don’t have my to-go bag or whatever. Every single time I travel it’s a nightmare. I figured out little things I can do, like using face masks. I have a whole skin care routine and it just makes me feel more in control.
C: Your comedy trio, Three Busy Debras, is getting quite the buzz right now. Explain the Debras to me.
M: It’s a trio of women who do surreal, absurdist comedy. The Debras specifically are like Stepford housewives. The show itself takes place in Lemon Curd, Connecticut, I made up a fake Connecticut suburb. We want to be silly and fun, but inherently it’s talking about womanhood and wealth and whiteness and sexuality. Using absurdist humor to take those things to the extreme. We shot a pilot for Debras that was really exciting. It was really scary and really fulfilling at the same time. We’re still in progress with Adult Swim, I don’t have concrete answers on anything. But, we got to see a play that we wrote for fun in early 2015 become a TV show.
C: You three sold out Carnegie Hall! What was that like?
“Talking to any other marginalized person about what I’m feeling makes the feeling more valid...”
M: It was a one-night only, two hour long show that we wrote, made original music for, and choreographed. It was really scary because we sort of just made the Kickstarter as a joke. We were like, “It’s dumb, but is it dumb in the way that people will donate, or in the way that people will not donate?” It was so expensive to use tech at Carnegie that we had to write a completely new show. We were all also working full-time jobs at this point. The day before the show we were all panicking and crying, posting pictures of ourselves crying to try to get people to be there on time so we weren’t charged for overtime. Our families came, all of our friends were there. So many of our friends did the show with us. It was really, really special.
C: Your credits are stacked. You just started writing for Big Mouth on Netflix, congrats on that! You’re constantly working. What’s your self care routine? How do you get the nagging voice out of your head when you start to doubt yourself?
M: Part of it is just talking to other people who are like me, but you know depending on what room I’m in that could mean a variety of things. Talking to any other marginalized person about what I’m feeling makes the feeling more valid and it makes me feel less crazy for feeling how I feel. I think the biggest thing is just using a support system. I joined a nice gym so that I would have a gym close to me wherever I was, so I could do one thing that felt consistent.
C: You’ve done so many things that people work their whole lives to achieve. How does that make you feel?
M: It feels…good [laughs.] I think it’s the balance between, like, being present in the moment and enjoying the great things that are happening, and letting myself believe that they’re great and enjoy the fact that they’re great. It goes away a little more with every job, and I think also going to therapy has been a huge part of me believing that I have earned the things that I’ve received.
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⤏ CORIE JOHNSON (SHE/HER) IS A COMEDIAN AND WRITER CURRENTLY LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY. THAT’S LITERALLY IT.