The question I keep asking myself was, is Aziz Ansari worth my $24? We all know money is hard to come by these days so I guess it doesn’t surprise me that the show didn’t sell out—although at Cornell, Northwestern, and Stony Brook they did…
For those of you that don’t know, Aziz Ansari is a stand-up comedian who came to BU Friday night. Ansari is known for his role as Tom Haverford on the TV show Parks and Recreation, and has appeared in the movies I Love You, Man and Funny People. In 2010, he also hosted the MTV movie awards. This was where I first heard of Ansari and said, “who the heck is that?”
To start off the show, comedian, Dan Levy, provided the opening act, which in my opinion just wasn’t all that funny. Perhaps it was the fact that I was stuck in the bleachers (I was fashionably late, of course) and didn’t hear what he was saying half of the time, but I really didn’t find myself laughing very often. Let me tell you, I laugh at the most ridiculous things, so this is saying a lot. At least I wasn’t the only one that thought this about Dan Levy.
BU sophomore, Kathy Oleszek said, “[Aziz] was definitely better than the first performer.”
Also, my friend next to me even made a comment at how she was going to fall asleep. I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s never a good sign, especially at a comedy show.
Finally, out Aziz Ansari came on stage, to my relief. He started off by allowing the crowd to take pictures of him pretending to be mid-joke, which I thought was a nice gesture. So me along with many others decided to ignore the “No Cameras” policy, and eagerly snapped away. Unfortunately, I was too far away to get a good one.
Ansari’s jokes ranged topics from typical relationship problems to his extremely amusing cousin Harris who always seems to provide Ansari with fresh material. And for those of you who have seen some of his other performances, what’s an Aziz Ansari show without his cousin Harris? Harris is Ansari’s “chubby little cousin,” who is apparently not so chubby anymore and getting ready to go to college. Ansari took out a piece of paper and read what was apparently Harris’s college essay. I can’t even begin to do it justice, but Harris was so literal, it was simply hysterical. Harris’s brother, Darwish, is pretty funny too. For those of you that have heard of the feud between Darwish and Kanye West, you know what I mean. For those of you that don’t, check it out here: http://azizisbored.tumblr.com/post/91295682/darwish-vs-kanye-what-happens-when-one-of-hip.
Another staple of Ansari’s performances is Kanye West and R. Kelly. Ansari left these characters for his encore, and they did not disappoint. He told the crowd how Kanye West suddenly started wearing suits like it was this unheard of thing. Businessmen don’t wear suits everyday or anything. R. Kelly, Ansari continued, has a song called “Echo” that came out in 2009, and for his fans, he so graciously put a video on YouTube defining what an echo is. Really R. Kelly?
I’ve decided that Aziz Ansari was definitely worth seeing. Despite the mediocre opening act, the show was a success.
BU sophomore, Andrew Dobry agreed saying, “I thought Aziz was great. I was laughing the entire time.”