The ABCD of Comedy: Aziz Ansari

(L-R) Ansari as Tom Haverford, Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, Chris Pratt as Andy in season five of Parks and Recreation. Photo: Collen Hayes/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

A few days ago, he gave the fresh set its first proper test run, at Queens College. During the performance, Ansari scouts the audience for a person who has recently met someone they are romantically interested in. He takes the person’s phone and goes through the texts between him and the person he is interested in. “You have this very strange record that you’ve never had before; it’s such a clear, single romantic back and forth between these two people, and you can read it out loud and watch the ebb and flow of the rela­tionship. To me, it’s the most fascinating thing in the world. To take something very private like that and discuss it with a large audience, and have everyone kind of bond over these frustra­tions. It’s really funny.”

He goes on to assert the fatuous nature of such dialogues by way of an example. “I saw this guy just saying dumb things like, ”˜Ooh, that biology test was really hard!’, or ”˜What are you up to?’ Never once like, ”˜Hey, do you want to go out?’ So I was like, ”˜Hey, let’s write a text right now, like what’s something you’d want to do with her? And just ask her and see what happens.’” This ex­ercise had a “beautiful ending”. When Ansari checked in with the guy later, he found out that the girl had agreed.

Ansari finds that the laughs he gets to this kind of audience-aided material are more satisfying. He is forming a profound­er, more meaningful relationship with his audience. “I think, for me as a performer, it’s less gratifying if someone just comes up and says, ”˜Oh, that was an interesting observation about shampoo.’ That’s not that mean­ingful to me. But if someone says, ”˜Holy shit! That was really funny, I went through that same thing. I felt the same way.’ That’s amazing to me, to have that connection with someone is, like, way deep­er, and to hit someone at that level is way more interesting.” Ansari has been a professional comedian for about 12 years now, and he is still discovering and developing new facets of his co­medic craft. He seems to have found his sea legs in a slightly new terrain, long-form storytell­ing with a thematic nucleus that is informed by his own fears and convictions. While seeking to en­tertain others, he is also exploring his own values and debat­ing conflicting theories.

“With the first two specials, I was much younger as a per­former. I think the difference between 7 years in and 10 years in, is huge, so I think I am definitely a much better come­dian than I was. I think this special that I recorded and the next one I am working on are way better than the first two. Not that I think the first two are garbage, but I think people will see these new ones as like, well, this is much better,” he says.

At times, Ansari even slips into a hilariously an­noying Bugs Bunny-esque tonality, or a strong nasal falsetto (especially when he breaks into an R. Kelly number). His comedic style is charged by the amusing cadence of his vocal delivery. Even when he spits out some steely aggression, it’s akin to the teeth-grinding sincerity of a five year old. His excitable leaps, deft footwork and other on-stage theatrics when doing impressions, such as those of R. Kelly and Randy, is where the suaveness of 007 meets the slapstick of the Looney Tunes franchise. Ansari can pull off the best physical affectation of multiple-italicised-emboldened-exclamations (!!!). “I guess I have a decent amount of energy on stage, but it’s not like the Randy character, where it’s total mayhem. That’s really inspired by a hip-hop attitude. Randy’s character is like, ”˜What if Soulja Boy did stand-up.’” He speaks with stressed in­flections as his voice catches Randy’s slightly aggressive tone. Randy featured as an encore in his last special, Dangerously Delicious (2012), but as Ansari embarks on a different phase of his comedic drift, some characters become a thing of the past. “I really just left everything behind. I don’t see any point in doing old stuff, you know. You want to evolve as a performer; you don’t want to keep doing the same thing,” he says.