Aziz Knees

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hether it's dinosaur rape, his stories on serial Googling or tales of cyber-tormenting his cousin Harris, Aziz Ansari's comedy transcends the stage with a singular presence, laughter-inducing matter-of-fact reliability and an innate knack to make audiences his bitch. Prior to his Monday appearances at the Lensic, the Parks and Recreation funnyman took time to chat with SFR, and from cousin murderers to green chile, no subject was off-limits.

SFR: Last time you were scheduled to be in town, the show got canceled, so you owe us. Any special bells and whistles planned for your Santa Fe appearance?


Aziz Ansari:

I’m literally bringing bells and whistles and I’m gonna throw them off the stage at everyone at the show, so everyone can have some bells and whistles. I feel really bad that we had to cancel that show; it was just, like, a scheduling thing. I’m glad that we were able to reschedule it and I really appreciate anyone that had tickets to the last one. I hope people aren’t too pissed at me. I think it’s probably better that you’re seeing the show now, because I’ve written a lot of new stuff and I think the show has gotten better.

Where does your unique brand of comedy come from?
Umm…I dunno. I don't know what my unique brand is. I guess I just kind of talk about things that are interesting to me that aren't as funny, but are interesting ideas. Making people laugh and talking funny things is one thing, but if you can make people laugh but also have them feel like, 'Holy shit! That's really cool' or 'That's something I've felt in my life or have thought about,' and after the show they're talking about it—having a conversation—that to me is more interesting that just saying a funny joke.   

That. And the loneliness you often hear comedians or other performers feel as soon as the cameras are off.

I dunno, I can’t really speak to that. I feel that if you talk to anyone long enough, you’ll find out that they’re kind of lonely deep, deep, deep down inside.

How is cousin Harris?
He's good. He's in college right now and doing well and I don't want to say anything else about him, in case the Harris murderer is reading this and trying to find out details on his whereabouts.

Any interest in renaming foods while in Santa Fe?

Oh, I don’t know. It depends on what I eat, we’ll see. I’ve heard there’s great food there, I’m excited to go. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Santa Fe before, so I’m excited to come.

It's green chile galore.

All right, I’ll keep an eye out for those green chiles.

I read that you recently compared your girlfriend, a chef, to a salad. Is that accurate?


Yeah, that was kind of taken out of context. It’s part of a bit that I do in the show and, you know, in interviews sometimes things get lost in translation. It’s kind of hard to explain without doing the whole, long bit, but if you come to the show, you will understand that analogy.

Finally, if Li'l Sebastian were still around, do you think he'd enjoy Santa Fe?

Oh, Li’l Sebastian? It seems like it’d be perfect weather for a tiny horse, right? Out on the open range, Santa Fe…I’m sure that he’d be really into green chiles, umm..yeah.

AZIZ ANSARI: LIVE
7 pm & 9:30 pm Monday, Sept. 8. $35
Lensic Performing Arts Center
211 W San Francisco St.,
988-1234

Santa Fe Reporter