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SETH OLENICK
A ziz Ansari's life is pretty crazy these
days. For example, here's how he says
he spent Election Night '08: "I was at
a pool party at Joe Biden's house. He
booked the Rock-a-fire Explosion, the anima-
tronic band from Showbiz Pizza, to play the
party and they rocked it. Fatz Geronimo, the
gorilla/keyboard player, unfortunately dkt a
super long keg stand after Obama won and
ended up puking in the hot tub, but other
than that, it was a blast!"
OK, even if things aren't quite that crazy
(neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Geronimo could be
reached for comment), the 25-year-old come
dian has a lot going on. He's just completed
the second season of MTV's sketch comedy
show "Human Giant"; he's acting in Judd
Apatow's upcoming movie, Funny People; and
he was the first person cast in a situation
comedy, to debut next year, produced by the
folks behind the American version of "The
Office." To top it off, Ansari is performing
standup comedy nationwide with his "Glow in
the Dark" tour, coming to the 40 Watt Dec. 11.
It seems strange to say about someone
so young, but Ansari is a grizzled veteran of
New York's standup scene. He was 18 and a
student at NYU when he emerged as a comedy
phenom. In one of his earliest recorded per
formances, the Eugene Mirman/ Bobby Tisdale
collaboration "Invite Them Up," the emcee
dubbed Ansari the "baby Einstein of comedy."
Not long after, Rolling Stone named him the
"Hot Standup" of 2005. Only after he had
established himself did TV come calling.
"Human Giant" is that rarest of creatures,
the YouTube sensation that spawned its own
TV franchise. Rob Heubel and Paul Scheer
recruited Ansari to help create the show. In a
recurring sketch, "Shutterbugs," Ansari plays
a ruthless talent agent for child actors who
dreams up a project called "Lil' 9/11," featur
ing four-year-old actors playing George W.
Bush and Osama Bin Laden. A critic from the
New York Times has called it the "smartest,
funniest take on post-9/11 America in the
mainstream media."
Ansari contractually isn't allowed to say
too much about his upcoming sitcom for
now, other than his costars will be Rashida
Jones and Amy Poehler. But he has a meta
phor he likes. "I've taken to describing it like
this—remember when McDonald's debuted
the McGriddle? That's how it's gonna be. Mike
Schur and Greg Daniels, the executive produc
ers, have done the TV equivalent of injecting
syrup into an Egg McMuffiin."
Not many people have found the success
in all three forms of comedy—standup, sketch
and dramatic—that Ansari has, but the come
dian himself is nonchalant about it. "Standup
is a totally different animal than acting," he
admits, "but my approach to acting isn't ter
ribly different between -sketch, sitcoms and
movies. What's interesting with the new show
is the opportunity to really develop a charac
ter that I'll play a lot, as opposed to a one-off
character in a sketch or a small character in a
movie or TV show."
Because of his Indian ancestry and
name, many people are surprised to discover
that Ansari is a nice Southern boy from
Columbia, SC. "I lived in New York eight
years, so I feel like I can call myself a New
Yorker to an extent, but I like grits, biscuits
and fried chicken too much to let go of my
Southernness. The main culture shock from
moving to New York from South Carolina was
the stunning discovery that sweet tea was
unavailable outside of the South. This is an
outrage that I hope to one day see rectified in
my lifetime. Barack, let's get on it!"
At his show you're more likely to hear
Ansari enthusing on the new Kanye West
album than talking about his ethnicity. The
man's a music geek: "Some stuff I've been
listening to recently—Deerhunter, TV on the
Radio, Aphex Twin, Jay Reatard, The Dutchess
and the Duke, James Murphy's FabricLive Mix,
Dr. Dre ..." He's also equally comfortable per
forming at a tiny bar at 1:30 in the morning
or at Bonaroo in the middle of the day. In that
sense, he's similar to his boyhood idol, Chris
Rock. "When I was in high school, I knew
(and still know) every single word in Briny the
Pain and Bigger and Blacker," he says of Rock's
megaselling standup CDs.
Life on the road for any standup comic
has its rough moments. Of course, if you're
Aziz Ansari, your definition of "rough" may
be a little different. "One night after a show,
I went out to a bar near the venue. There
was a group of eight really attractive women
who had been at the show. I went up to them
and dropped 15 key cards to my suite at the
Courtyard Marriott on their table and said, 'If
you can find find seven friends, maybe you
eight ladies can come back to my room for a
16-some.' Unfortunately, later in the evening,
when all 16 of us went back to get to my
hotel room, we exceeded the elevator's weight
limit and got stuck for four hours. There sim
ply wasn't enough room in the tiny elevator
for all of us to have sex at the same time,
and by the time we got out of the elevator,
we were all too tired and ended up going to
sleep. It was a huge bummer."
That's probably a joke. Then again, with
the way things are rolling for Ansari these
days, maybe it isn't.
Pete McBrayer
f \
WHO: Aziz Ansari
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, Oec. 11
HOW MUCH: $10 advance ($12 door)
V ’ )
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DECEMBER 10, 2008 • FLAGPOLE.COM 13