Deli Boys is a classic fish-out-of-water story about two Pakistani-American brothers whose convenience store magnate father dies, and their whole pampered world collapses. As two ‘boys’ who never really had to do anything discover their dad only had one legal business, a deli – the rest was a massive criminal operation seized by the feds. To survive, they become deli boys and get entangled in some of the other businesses… Starring Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, and Poorna Jagannathan, it was created by Abdullah Saeed, who was previously best known for producing and hosting documentaries for Vice. Saeed recently caught up with Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length]
How did you first come up with the idea for this series?
I initially wrote a sample script. It wasn’t intended to be produced. I just wanted to find a good format for jokes and explore the relationship between these two brothers.
Talk about the deli setting. We just don’t see much stuff like that anymore.
My family had franchise businesses and coffee shops throughout High School. It’s a big part of our cultural identity in the U.S. as immigrants. Like, no one wants to do that job. The convenience aspect of that is an essential part of America.
Creating that convenience for other people is a dirty job. The idea of maintaining a facade and doing whatever you need to do to keep that facade up spoke to the central conflict in the show. And, of course, the fantastical idea of a cocaine smuggling operation happening.
Do you remember Beverly Hills Cop? The art dealer was smuggling cocaine hidden under coffee grounds. Let’s talk about the road from script to screen for this.
I had just quit Vice Magazine and came to Los Angeles to pitch documentary stuff that wasn’t selling. My manager sent this script around while I was working in the cannabis world. Then I was doing stand-up. I think if this hadn’t worked out, I would’ve had to figure something else out, which is a scary thought because I’m not good at that much.
Same here. Every time there’s a fork in the road, I’m like, shit, what am I gonna do? Something’s gonna pan out.
When I wrote this pilot, many people told me it was good, and it gave me a lot of confidence. But you know, you can’t buy groceries with confidence. Jenni Konner was the only producer out of all the ones who read it who was like, “You know what? I think this can be a show.” So, we started that long, arduous process of developing a pitch together.
It was in excellent shape. Then we took it out, and everyone passed, including all the major studios and streamers. Jenni told me there was one more place she could bring it. Tara Duncan, whom Jenni worked with before, is the head of Onyx Collective. I wasn’t expecting anything, and then they bought it and started the process of doing this as a real job.
Talk about that process.
So, we shot the pilot, then waited for it to get picked up as a series, and then the strike happened. I had come so far. People were like, it’s getting a season order on a show. We did all that, and then we just hit this wall, and we don’t know if the show will still exist. We’re not really in communication with the studio or the network at the time because we are all on strike. So many shows were being canceled… It was a difficult time…
When the strike ended, we had to get right back to it. Everyone was still enthusiastic about it, so we ground it out. What it taught me is similar to the rest of my career, which has had ups and downs, significant challenges, and equally big wins. I’m thoroughly enjoying this moment of success because I know it can be fleeting.
What was it like working on set with Jenni and Michelle Nader?
I was really looking at Jenny and Michelle do their thing. It has really taught me a lot. I was like both of the deli boys, and Michelle and Jenni were like two ‘lucky’ (referring to Poorna Jagannathan as Lucky) in a way, which is a very functional dynamic. I was just taking chances, making mistakes, and learning from them, learning how to be a showrunner. That is a job I can do now.
Michelle’s whole goal was to empower my voice and channel the raw energy that I was throwing out. I saw how she does that, and I can imagine myself doing the same thing: drawing creativity out of somebody and piecing together their vision outside of their head.
Any favorite moments while making this?
I’m reposting every photo I see because this show’s behind-the-scenes are so loving and familial. People with tons of experience on many different sets said that they had never seen anything like it before, and I really reveled in that.
In the last few days of shooting, we were at Shalimar Banquets in the suburbs of Chicago. There were lots of extras at this huge wedding hall, and it became a party unto itself. There’s a photo of me and a large group of us all hugging. It was a truly underdog Philly moment, where all these guys who never got a shot in the types of roles that they have on this show were just like, we did it.
What was the casting like, and were any of the characters close to you personality-wise?
Both characters are kind of based on me. Raj is definitely more like me than Asif. I initially wanted to play Raj, but Saagar Shaikh was so perfect in the part. There are moments when you can hear his voice affectation change and sort of channel me, but then there are other moments when he is just him.
So, talk briefly about working with Onyx Collective and its importance to this show.
In my career, I have found that a lot of times, when I’m trying to express myself creatively, I have to justify it to someone who perhaps doesn’t understand my perspective at all. That’s a sort of the painful part of being a creative. When we started working with Onyx Collective, it wasn’t just that they were people of color primarily and understood what we were going for, but also that they had a very specific vision of what they wanted to see on TV.
You can see that they want to break conventions in the stuff that they’re doing. I’ve always been an aspiring maverick when it comes to content. At the heart of our partnership was this understanding that we wanted to do something different. They know there’s never been a network like this before. I know there’s never been a creator like me before. We both know there’s never been a show like this or leads like this. The intentionality behind doing something unconventional at its heart was what we jammed on.
What’s it like being on the other side of this now?
This last year has been a wild one for me. Beyond Deli Boys being completed. I lost my father-in-law (Albert S. Ruddy), who was a legendary producer and mentor to me. I turned 40, and I felt like a grownup for the first time in my life. I didn’t think it would feel different, but suddenly, I felt like an adult.
It was this feeling of being in control of my story for the first time. The people around me doing something collaboratively and stepping away from my ego is challenging for any creative person. This release is the culmination of a very epic year and a year filled with change for me. I want to think that my creative life will be different after this point, but I’ll be happy as long as I get to express myself.
Deli Boys season one is streaming on Hulu.
