Comedian Zainab Johnson on Hijabs Off, her family, and religion
ZAINAB JOHNSON never intended to be a comedian. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Harlem with her 12 siblings, she was neither the family jokester nor the class clown.
“I always considered myself a very serious person,” she says. “I’m the person that is annoyed by the class clown, and that’s what’s funny about me: The class clown is going to get on my nerves, and I’m going to tell everybody and imitate him or her.”
But around the age of 10, her mother sneaked her into Harlem’s Uptown Comedy Club to watch her…