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	Maysoon Zaid grew up in Cliffside Park New Jersey but spent every summer in Ramallah.

Maysoon is a successful stand-up comedienne in New York: quite an achievement in a city as tough as the Big Apple.

But she's also the first ever female Muslim comedienne in the States and undoubtedly the first ever female Muslim disabled comedienne, and the first person ever to perform stand-up in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

She explained to Outlook presenter Heather Payton how she grew up with cerebral palsy but was unaware of her condition.

"I didn't know I was disabled until I was 15," she said, "Which is really really funny because I was severely disabled as a child.

ÌýI would sit around with the old women in my village in Palestine - and these women would spend day and night just talking about other people - just gossiping. Ìý

"My parents decided to raise me in complete denial... I basically did everything my sisters did - so I cooked, I cleaned, I tapdanced for 25 years.

"I didn't know until I watched the video tapes how awful I was."

Her disability has had a major effect on both her professional and her personal lives.

"My aunt wouldn't let me marry my cousin," she said, "Because she didn't want him to marry a disabled person.

"This was a blessing in disguise because I would have been 18 and married to my cousin, having inbred babies - but at the time it was really horrifying."

Then when it came to selecting a career, she looked around for a profession where it was OK to be "freaky" and opted for stand-up comedy.

"Laughing about the fact that I have cerebral palsy really makes the people around me a lot more comfortable," she said, "A lot more open to asking questions and that's what I want."

But Maysoon also gets a lot of material from her Palestinian heritage.

	Said runs centres for children in the Palestinian Territories - looking after children who have been disabled or orphaned.

"I spent a really crazy life where I spent my schooldays at Cliffside Park and my summers in a warzone because I'd come back to Palestine every single summer...

"When I was younger I wasn't allowed to go out and play with the rest of the kids because they were afraid I would get hurt.

So I would sit around with the old women in my village in Palestine - and these women would spend day and night just talking about other people - just gossiping.

So I really got into gossiping and became the centre of attention or funny person because I was talking about this 60-year old woman and what she did at the market that day."

Making jokes about the Palestinian Territories though has become increasingly difficult.

"I haven't been able to tell a joke about Palestine for quite a while," she says, "Because the situation here is absolutely absolutely dire but I do have a field day with the Israelis. I do checkpoint jokes. I do airport jokes. I do soldier jokes."

Zaid runs centres for disabled and orphaned and refugee children in the Palestinian Territories.

Despite the situation in Ramallah she says that she's still able to make people laugh.

"Comedy is misery plus timing," she said, "For me it's been really important for me to find a way to find humour...

"Against it all these people are still educating themselves, still working hard.. They still have hope so I have too."

Contact Outlook