- Ansari's new special will stream on Netflix
- He's released his material via different methods
- Ansari says fans come for his comedy, not because he's on a hit show
(CNN) -- Aziz Ansari's never pulls punches in his stand-up, but there is a joke in his new comedy special that really pushes the envelope (forget worrying about a spoiler; we couldn't tell it here if we wanted to). Let's just say it involves child molestation, and the audience loves it.
The "Parks and Recreation" star said he doesn't worry about getting caught on the wrong side of the politically correct crew as has happened to some comedians.
"I think you have to take that all case by case to see if it makes sense," he said.
His new special, "Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive," will debut on November 1 on Netflix. The comic is known for being innovative in getting his comedy to fans and said the online streaming service made sense to him.
"I think people now just like to watch stuff, whatever they want and watching whenever," he said during a conference call about his new project. "I've done every kind of method, like releasing my stuff for $5."
One clip from the special that has been making the rounds on YouTube features Ansari poking fun at the institution of marriage and family, life events a few of the 30-year-old's friends are experiencing now.
"I write stand-up about whatever is kind of going on in my life, whatever is in my head," he said. "And I ended up writing the special mostly about that."
Ansari prowls the stage at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia, where the special was filmed, dressed in a suit with a flower on his lapel. His jokes cover a lot of ground, from the aforementioned pedophilia to marriage equality. On the controversy surrounding the Chick-fil-A boycott, he said it was a bit of a conundrum: "Obviously I'm very pro gay marriage, but I'm also very pro delicious chicken sandwich."
Ansari also takes on those in his generation and how different they are from those of past generations, who, to Ansari, seem more elegant.
"If those generations could be a font, they would be Times New Roman," he said. "I look at my generation, we're f***ing Comic Sans! You can't take us seriously, we're Comic Sans!"
Yes, he's getting older, but Ansari said he doesn't miss being in his 20s, other than "being able to say you're in your 20s." Ansari, who started doing standup while a student at New York University, said today's aspiring comics should focus on their material.
"(Young comedians) are like, 'Oh, I got to start making videos and I got to maintain a Twitter thread on this site,'" he said. "I think that is probably doing more harm than good, because all I really cared about was being really good at stand-up."
And while he is aware that his TV show, "Parks and Recreation," has some rabid fans, he said he thinks his stand-up fans aren't necessarily there because he's on the NBC comedy.
"Whenever I do stand-up, I feel like those are people that know my stand-up," he said. "There might be some overlap with 'Parks' fans, but when I did my first theater tour, if I mentioned my cousin Harris or something, everyone would respond, so I think that means that they've seen the stand-up. I don't feel there are many people that are seeing 'Parks' and then they're like, 'Oh, let me spend X amount of dollars to see this guy do stand-up. Maybe he's funny.' "
31 Oct, 2013
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Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/edition_entertainment/~3/V3lJ7jBRvzY/index.html
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