Cyclone Rewind: Aziz Ansari Live at Madison Square Garden
March 12, 2015
Aziz Ansari is funny. There is no denying that. He is not my favorite comedian, however. His first special was decent — certainly not bad — but it was lacking something. Perhaps he just needed more big time experience.
I watched as he became more comfortable in front of the crowd on the screen, and become funnier because of it. Ansari showed he had improved with a part in “The Roast of James Franco.” His five-minute bit was the funniest I had seen from him.
I really enjoyed his “Live at Madison Square Garden” show. Whatever he was missing before he had found.
He was very comfortable on stage. I felt as though I was having a conversation with him through the screen, as he seemed to invite each audience member to join. That is how stand-up should be, not just a one-sided affair.
Ansari began his routine with a tale of his parents coming to America. He laid out his jokes on racism, as I had expected him to do as a racial minority comedian. Thankfully, he has learned to get away from expectations. He did not tell too many jokes or spend too much time on ethnicity, and I was glad to see that.
He moved on to jokes about the food industry. These jokes have been done before, but he was able to differentiate his act by giving a figurative example and then milking it until he could do so no more.
The rest of his show focused on relationships. This section was especially relatable to those audience members. Everyone has relationships and many of us have nearly identical experiences.
Ansari made fun of our generation, or rather his and also the millennials, and how we go about relationships. We are obsessed with technology, and as a result, are always connected with people.
Ansari believes this causes people to be extremely flaky when it comes to plans. It is no longer as exciting to see someone face-to-face when we are constantly connected to their lives.
Toward the end of his show, Ansari began to animate his jokes on relationships more and more. He mapped out our emotions as we go through single and in-relationship cycles. It was engaging and very funny.
To wrap things up, Ansari made a joke about his own current relationship. It was a good way to connect with the audience personally, and it was a good way to end the show.
Finally, as he ended the show, Ansari brought his parents on stage, as he credits them being the ones that got him there.