Aziz Ansari

So cool people talking about this kind of stuff and having all the conversations about race, etc. since the show premiered. As far as Rachel (and other love interests too), we didn't set out to cast someone white and auditioned people of all ethnic backgrounds, and wanted to cast the person I seemed to have the best chemistry with to sell this huge relationship arc. In the end, Noel blew us away. And, for the writing, I'm pulling a lot from my own real current relationship, which is with a "white" person - so we can do interesting scenes like the scene in 109 (Mornings) about the parents (which many South East Asians have told me really resonated with them and they'd never seen an interracia...[Read more]

I just find the more personal and brutally honest you are, the more people connect with your material - be it standup or narrative.

One time at some old theatre somewhere I was holding a dude's phone to read his text messages and it slipped from my hand and fell through a crack in the floor and went into some deep, deep basement and broke. (I bought him a new phone).

Talking to the women in the retirement homes was really interesting. A lot of them talked about living at home with their parents when they were 20 and having no options as far as their lifestyle. They couldn't go to college, have their own careers, etc. So they basically said they got married to get out of the house and have basic adult freedoms. It made me think about how lucky all of us are to now have the "emerging adulthood" phase where you basically just have a chunk of time to dick around and have fun as an adult and not live at home. That kind of independence was something a lot of these women yearned for and didn't get.

This was elementary school, but once I fell from a swing when I was a little kid cause some bigger kid named Forrest was pushing me too hard. He had me going way too high and the chains got loose and I fell, and I landed on my head really hard. Forrest came up and said, "Are you okay?" and I said, "WHAT DO YOU THINK ASSHOLE?" But it wasn't Forrest, it was a nice teacher named Mrs. O'Tuel. Cause I was a kid, I was dumb, and never even cleared that up with her. Oh well.

Q: I saw you walking down the street one time while I had my headphones on, you were walking with someone else and looked busy so I didn't want to disturb you so I just held out my fist as I walked past offering a fist bump, not even removing my headphones. You just casually gave me that fist bump as we passed and I kept going on my way, and everyone around on the street looked really confused and looking at me thinking I was friends with you. And even had someone ask me if I knew you personally at the next crosswalk. It was hilarious and awesome. Thanks for that moment Aziz. Also you're funny as fuck. A: Haha, I love weird interactions like that. Another cool one in NYC - dude in a UPS ...[Read more]

Q: What is the best way that you used humor to defuse a potentially dangerous situation? A: Haha, not sure what you mean here bud? Do you imagine a scenario where I'm in a dangerous situation with friends getting mugged and I'm like "Guys, I got this" and start doing bits and the robbers start laughing and let us go? That would be kinda cool, but hasn't happened so far.

My brother Aniz makes me laugh harder than almost anyone.

I made the decision early on not to take roles who's sole source of humor is ethnic stereotype humor. And I think over the years, that trend of staying away from that is obviously taken off between myself, Mindy Kaling, Danny Pudi, and many others. As an Indian American, I'm proud because I don't ever remember seeing Indians represented on television or film growing up and now we are. Just think 25 years ago, Fischer Stevens PLAYED an Indian guy in Short Circuit 2!

People always ask whether I dreamed of being a comedian, but I grew up in a really small town in South Carolina and you just don't dream that big there. When you're growing up in Bennettsville, your dream is to just get out of Bennettsville.

Ben and Tom are having lunch with a drunk Joan Calamezzo who is creepily hitting on Tom and we have this exchange: Joan: I'm going to go to the bathroom and powder my nose... amongst other things. Ben: Dude, is she gonna go powder her vagina? Probably the hardest scene I've ever had to get through without breaking. Adam and I just had to skip doing it for the first few takes. It's on the blooper real I believe. Also, props to Mo Collins, who always brings it as Joan.

That proposal interview is maybe my favorite moment from the special. I did that bit every night of the tour and they were always interesting, but some were definitely more memorable than others. I was definitely worried about getting a good one for the special. I had planned on coming out after the encore and maybe doing more proposal interviews, but wow, that couple was so amazing, I knew we had it. That was the first show I believe, and we filmed two shows that night. Maybe when I do the $5 release in 6 months, I'll add the other proposal story as an extra. I also have all of them recorded from the tour on audio and could release that as a free thing if I ever get some time. One favorite...[Read more]