The ABCD of Comedy: Aziz Ansari

Ansari has attracted many labels. He has been often referred to as a ”˜hip-hop comic’, and not for his stylistic sensibilities and love of rap music alone. Kanye West and Ansari get along fa­mously, he had a cameo in the music video of Jay Z and West’s collaboration Otis, he redid a bunch of iconic rap album cov­ers with his face on it and he had a brief stint recording a joke rap mix-tape with Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio). His epicure­an fancies have earned him the tag of a foodie. And, his online presence and engagement with social media is much talked about in the press. While he acknowledges these as being pre­dilections, he is uncomfortable when they come to acquire the legitimacy of labels. He likes food, “listens to rap music” and is “just as addicted to the internet as anybody else”.

About a decade ago, before he became a prominent face at the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy theatre and co-created Human Giant, Ansari was ma­joring in marketing at New YorkUniversity’s Stern School of Busi­ness. “I definitely remember sit­ting in school one day and having the thought that I’ll do something with comedy. I’d rather do that than be at a desk somewhere, so I checked out of school and still got decent enough grades because business school’s pretty easy. But I never fathomed getting to do theatre tours and all this stuff,” he says.

Ansari is part of a group of comics from his generation ”” Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill are other examples ”” who have en­joyed early recognition and suc­cess. In 2005, Rolling Stone recognised a then just 22-year-old Ansari as a ”˜Hot stand-up’. In 2011, he was celebrated as the fun­niest man under 30, and earlier this year he was ranked num­ber 13 (between Larry David and Will Ferrell) on the maga­zine’s definitive list of the 50 funniest people now. Ansari seems to have dodged the long waiting period which many comedians have to tenaciously persevere through. When I bring comedi­an Louis CK up by way of an example, Ansari is respectful of CK’s journey. “I mean, he’s been doing stand-up about as long as I’ve been a human being.” But he also justifies the trajectory of his own career with admirable honesty. “I reject the notion that like, ”˜Oh, I just got on a TV show and then I started doing theatres or whatever.’ People that come to my shows, they know my stand-up, and I might have not been doing it for 30 years but it’s been 12 years now, so that’s not nothing. I would put my work ethic up against anybody’s. But yeah, I definitely did get lucky; to have two-hour specials at my age is not normal. That’s why I think the ones that are coming out are going to be better ones.”

Earlier this year, an amusing picture of Ansari and his par­ents with Kanye West surfaced on the internet and was trend­ing on the social media circuit and various pop culture blogs. He tells me it was taken at an after-party following his maid­en performance at Carnegie Hall, in 2010. “They (his parents) never see me do any of these shows, and like, it kind of hit me, how this stuff happens so fast and everything builds on top of itself. You kind of lose track of how crazy it is that this is hap­pening and how lucky you are to get to do this.”

When his parents attended the show, it seemed to put things into perspective again. “I was like, wow, this must be crazy for them, to see these many people who paid all this money to come and see me talk for an hour and a half. It’s pretty in­sane. It was something I didn’t really even think about, and then I brought them out and I’m like, ”˜I am so glad I did this, I almost didn’t do it.’ It was kind of like an afterthought to fly them out. It would be a pretty crazy thing to not see your son do Carnegie hall. Like: ”˜Hey, what happened?’ ”˜Your son did Carn­egie Hall.’ ”˜Oh, we were just at home watching a movie on ABC Family.’”

This story appeared in the July 2013 issue of ROLLING STONE India.