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Aziz Ansari’s New Standup Tour Is a Cry Against Extreme Wokeness

Last week, in Connecticut, at a stop on the comedian Aziz Ansari’s comeback tour, ticket holders were told to lock away their electronic devices before entering the venue. At the door, ushers sealed smartphones in neoprene sleeves manufactured by a company called Yondr; a magnetic mechanism would unlock the pouches as guests departed. In recent years, various comedians have made their shows phone-free environments, aiming to keep spectators engaged and new material under wraps. (Dave Chappelle, an early proponent of Yondr, told the Times , in 2016, that the service empowered him “to be more honest and open with the audience.”) Ansari has expressed a fondness for the smartphone, once telling his audience that social media has helped to usher in “ the least lonely generation .” On Tuesday, addressing a sold-out crowd at the College Street Music Hall, in New Haven, he took a more pessimistic view. “I used to waste so much time just reading the news because there’s so much of it now,” he said. “All this stuff you’re supposed to be mad about every day.”

If there is a particular source of this new weariness, Ansari never mentions it. But his new tour, “Working Out New Material,” marks his return to public life after the #MeToo controversy that quieted his career earlier this year. In January, the Web site babe.net published a twenty-three-year-old woman’s account of a harrowing date with the comedian. The article claimed that Ansari repeatedly pressured her into having sex, ignoring her refusals until she left his apartment, teary, in a car that he called for her. The next day, after she sent him a lengthy text message explaining how uncomfortable his behavior had made her, Ansari apologized. The piece, which was written by a reporter but relied almost entirely on the accuser’s account, inspired a backlash. It seemed prurient and lazy. Some wondered whether the #MeToo movement had gone too far. Many of the comedian’s defenders at the time, among them the Times columnist Bari Weiss , pointed out that his behavior may have been aggressive or selfish but differed substantially from the abuse committed by men like Harvey Weinstein . (In a statement issued shortly after the account was published, Ansari described his interaction with the woman as “completely consensual.”)

The furor directed at Ansari, though, was not simply a consequence of his alleged misbehavior. The more complex concern was his apparent hypocrisy. Ansari had built a reputation as an ardent feminist and amateur dating guru, teaming up with a sociologist in 2015 to publish “ Modern Romance ,” a contemporary treatise on the trials of love. In a Netflix special the same year, at Madison Square Garden, he asked female audience members to raise their hands if they had ever been followed around by a “creepy dude.” (When they did, Ansari said, “Yeah, that’s way too many people. That should not be happening.”) Both his standup and his Emmy-winning Netflix series, “ Master of None ,” have sought to find room within comedy for a good-natured political correctness. In 2017, Ansari delivered the first “Saturday Night Live” monologue under President Trump, a candidate whose “vitriolic and hate-filled rhetoric” he had condemned in a Times Op-Ed published months earlier. (“It’s visceral, and scary, and it affects how people live, work and pray,” he wrote during the Presidential campaign. “It makes me afraid for my family.”) Onstage, Ansari managed to channel his fear into humor, roasting Trump as “the Chris Brown of politics” even as he urged a more earnest uprising against the “new, lowercase K.K.K. movement” in America. “Change comes from large groups of angry people,” Ansari told the crowd. “And, if Day 1 is any indication, you are part of the largest group of angry people I have ever seen.”

In his latest set, Ansari suggests that collective anger has overcorrected; now, rather than hold power to account, it targets the slightest and least consequential controversies. “Why is everyone weighing in on this shit?” Ansari asked of the Twitter users who flocked to debate whether an American teen-ager’s choice of prom dress constituted so-called cultural appropriation. “Everyone weighs in on everything. They don’t know anything. People don’t wanna just say, ‘I don’t know.’ ” The amused but progressive spirit that once informed Ansari’s commentary on current events seems to have crusted into suspicion about wokeness and its excesses. Without ever mentioning the #MeToo movement—or his own experience as one of its most disputed casualties—Ansari decries the destructive performativity of Internet activism and the fickle, ever-changing standards of political correctness. His most explicit reference to gender relations comes in the form of an extended riff about his new girlfriend, an unnamed and decidedly apolitical Danish physicist.

The comedian positions self-righteous mass outrage as one pole in a political climate built on extremes. “At least with the Trump people,” he joked, “I kinda know where they stand.” On the other side, reacting to our current Administration, are zealous and performative leftists who can’t seem to resist competing with one another in what Ansari calls “Progressive Candy Crush.” This punch line landed as a subtle, if unintentional, reference to a small group of Yale undergraduates who had congregated outside the venue earlier that evening, before the first of the night’s two performances, to protest the comedian’s appearance. “Boycott Ansari’s show,” the description of a local Facebook event read. “What he did, and what it means, cannot be forgotten.” Online, more than two hundred people had signalled their interest in attending, though only five or so showed up to demonstrate in the pouring rain, a bouncer told me. The rest of the crowd of a thousand seemed to consist mostly of twenty- and thirtysomethings who had commuted from out of town. “I think it’s ridiculous,” the bouncer said of the protest. “You might as well be standing out there protesting Tinder, or holding up a sign that says, ‘Say no to dates with expectations.’ ”

One question facing the #MeToo movement is how to rehabilitate those accused of misconduct. Should disgraced men return to the spotlight and, if so, after how much penance? Ansari’s comeback is perhaps the least controversial among a series of reappearances planned by other high-profile men, most of them facing more serious accusations. In August, nearly a year after admitting to having masturbated in front of multiple female colleagues, Louis C.K. returned with an unannounced set at New York’s Comedy Cellar. His fifteen-minute routine made no reference to his transgressions or to the ongoing reckoning, though it did include a riff about rape whistles. The surprise appearance caught many crowd members off guard. “It felt like he was being thrust upon the audience without telling them,” an anonymous woman told Vulture . Standup is an art of self-exposure, and C.K. had built his career on a veneer of candid self-laceration. His recent choice to experiment with new material, as though the past year’s events had never happened, struck many as both insensitive and uninspired—a failure of moral and artistic imagination. (The Times has reported that the controversy over C.K.’s first drop-in—and a second one, this week, during which two women walked out—prompted the Cellar to print a new disclaimer on its tickets: “If an unannounced appearance is not your cup of tea, you are free to leave . . . your check on the house.”)

In his public statement in January, Ansari made a point of affirming the #MeToo movement as “necessary and long overdue.” One might have hoped that, nearly a year later, he could find a way to reckon with one of the movement’s messiest lessons: that even men who wish to serve as allies of women can, intentionally or not, hurt them in private. Perhaps doing so might help Ansari to regain the trust of the women who feel that he has lost theirs. Instead, like other men who have reëmerged in recent months , he seems to have channelled his experience into a diffuse bitterness. An early riff in the show centered on a pizza chain that Ansari said had come under fire for arranging pepperoni slices in the shape of a swastika. He described rumors that the image of the toppings had been digitally altered, then admitted that he had made the whole story up. Hearing this, the crowd erupted in laughter at its own gullibility. “You people that are clapping,” Ansari shouted. “You’re the fucking problem.”

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Ansari issued a statement to babe.net.

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Aziz Ansari Road To Nowhere

Comedian, actor, writer and director Aziz Ansari announced the final run of his internationally sold out “Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere” stand-up tour, including a show at The Met Philadelphia on May 14. Since August 2018, Aziz has brought “Road to Nowhere” to over 50 cities in the United States and Europe with multiple sold out shows per night. On April 4th 2019 Aziz performed on the prestigious Royal Albert Hall stage in London. Now, Aziz is heading to Philly during his last stops. Don’t miss the chance to see the stand-up tour everyone is talking about.

“These are excellent routines, as Ansari needles again and again at contemporary culture’s rawest nerves.” – The Guardian

“… expectedly hilarious yet surprisingly perceptive show.” – Chicago Tribune

This is a strict NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED show. Please leave your phones in your cars or at home. Everyone is subject to a pat down and wanding. Anyone caught with a cell phone inside the venue will be immediately ejected.

Door Time: 6:30 pm

Event time: 8:00 pm.

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Aziz Ansari’s new standup tour explores what comes after being woke

This story is part of How We’ll Win in 2019, a year-long exploration of workplace gender equality. Read more stories here . 

After a few months out of the public eye, comedian Aziz Ansari is back with a new standup comedy tour. In his act, he tries out new material—and a new persona, one that eschews the “wokeness” that once helped him rise to prominence.

Ansari has done a lot to earn himself the title of “ certified woke bae .” In the years since the end of the successful sitcom Parks and Recreation , on which he played public-servant-turned-entrepreneur Tom Haverford, he co-authored a book about the complexities of dating on the internet, with special attention paid to women’s challenges online. His Netflix comedy series Master of None earned him accolades and a Golden Globe. (When people call for representation of minorities and LGBTQ characters on TV, this was what they meant.) In an industry crowded with bros, cads, and self-effacing douchebags, Ansari emerged bearing the standard of wokeness, using his act to call out racist tropes instead of perpetuating them, unabashedly called himself a feminist .

Then in January 2018, just a few months after the flurry of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, feminist news outlet Babe.net published an anonymous woman’s account of a hookup with Ansari in which he showed aggressive and problematic behavior. Ansari said in a statement to E! Online that he was “surprised and concerned” by her story and noted that he continued to support “the movement that is happening in our culture.” He stayed out of the spotlight for a while, doing a smattering of surprise sets; in November, he announced his new standup tour, called “The road to nowhere,” that would kick off in February 2019.

I caught Ansari’s act at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. The casino’s 4,000-seat Grand Theater was sold out, an usher told me. Every audience member had to seal their phone in cloth pouches so that they couldn’t record what they saw. I paid special attention to the crowd—it was a good mix of men and women and largely white. Some seemed like they had come specifically for Ansari’s show; others seemed to be there because they were already at the casino and, well, why not take in a show?

Ansari’s new vibe is noticeably more jaded and bitter, in contrast to the more upbeat persona preserved in the amber of numerous appearances on late-night talk shows and his two Netflix standup specials. In one bit, Ansari talks about a recent incident in which a customer had ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut only to find that an employee had arranged the pepperoni in the shape of a swastika. He polled the audience: who thought the pepperonis looked like a swastika, and who didn’t? The joke was on those who answered—Ansari said he made the whole thing up (though an incident like this one did happen in 2015), then excoriated the respondents for being “the problem.” He defended (but also mocked?) Senator Sherrod Brown’s use of the word “niggardly.” He said two of the most vocal factions—gung-ho Trump supporters and the hyper-woke social justice warriors—drive the vitriolic online dialogues, while most of us (Ansari includes himself here) are just out there quietly trying to do the right thing.

But this feels slightly disingenuous coming from someone who seemed to be firmly in that second camp. In 2016, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Why Trump Makes Me Scared for My Family.” But indeed, through much of his act, Ansari’s identity seemed to be in flux. Being the standard bearer of an identity as complex and multi-pronged as “woke” leaves a person vulnerable, at risk for the fast fall of call-out culture . If Ansari hadn’t been that person, it’s likely that the blowback of his alleged sexual misconduct wouldn’t have been as intense.

Now on the other side, Ansari is no longer the poster boy for wokeness. But who should he be instead?

Maybe he could be “un-woke.” In another bit, Ansari recounts an incident in which a white teen wore a Chinese-inspired cheongsam dress to prom. Another student snapped a photo and put it online. Did those teens have a valuable conversation about culture and appropriation? Of course not—they took to the internet to lambast each other. What a shame. Except that Ansari admitted he read (and clearly enjoyed) all the comments (wrong again, audience, because he said he made the whole incident up anyhow, though an incident exactly like this one happened last year ). He told a story in which he fretted that a person he just greeted as 2 Chainz may not be the rapper at all, but instead may just be “some black guy.”

He also tried on a pedantic tone. He implored the audience to slow down its news metabolism after railing against our compulsion to keep up with the news cycle’s churn. He admitted that he didn’t want to spend time with his senile grandmother on a recent visit to India, then encouraged the audience to get to know their parents while they’re still around. Hard to disagree with that, though most of the audience likely wasn’t looking for a guilt trip at the casino that evening.

Unsurprisingly, Ansari didn’t address the allegations of sexual misconduct against him. But he did talk about Michael Jackson’s murky legacy, and the public’s recent turn against R. Kelly (who, Ansari admitted with chagrin, he’d gushed about in his acts for years).

He bordered on repentant without quite apologizing. “We’re all just shitty people, but we keep trying to do better,” was a sentiment he repeated a few times.

And he did talk about sex, specifically about the woman he’s dating now (the phrase “penile bruising” horrifyingly did come up). For other comedians, the girlfriend is a classic vehicle to portray themselves as the golden child or, more often, ne’er-do-well who doesn’t deserve her. In Ansari’s act, the girlfriend yielded a story about racial slurs and a lament that there wasn’t an IUD for men. Maybe Ansari hasn’t changed that much, after all?

Were all the jokes funny? No. His new material, and his new persona, are a work in progress. But there’s little doubt that Ansari is back. During the show, he noted that he may record these jokes in the future. If he does, even larger audiences might be forced to reckon with a new, post-woke Aziz.

This story is part of How We’ll Win in 2019, a year-long exploration of workplace gender equality. Read more stories here .

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Ansari had made up the story about the cheongsam prom dress and didn’t acknowledge that an incident like the pizza swastika had also occurred. 

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Embattled comedian Aziz Ansari is aiming to put his sexual misconduct scandal firmly behind him by embarking on a new stand-up tour.

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The Master of None star has been laying low since January, when an anonymous New York-based photographer accused him of coercing her into performing sex acts following an early 2017 date, which resulted in the couple going back to the actor’s place.

Aziz Ansari to hit the road with stand-up tour Back to video

At the time, Ansari addressed the claims, explaining he and the woman in question had engaged “in sexual activity, which by all indications was completely consensual,” and revealed he had “responded privately” to the female to discuss the incident.

Ansari returned to the stage for the first time following the allegations in May for an impromptu stand-up set at the Comedy Cellar in New York City, and recently made appearances in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Now he has officially launched a new mini tour for September, billed as Aziz Ansari Working Out New Material, which currently features stops in South Carolina and Tennessee.

Ansari isn’t the only comedian launching a comeback from sexual misconduct claims – Louis C.K. hit headlines this week after stepping back into the spotlight, 10 months after admitting to masturbating in front of a number of female colleagues following an expose in The New York Times last November.

He stopped by the Comedy Cellar last Sunday to test new jokes, reportedly including one controversial quip regarding a rape whistle, while it has since emerged that he also staged a brief, unexpected performance at another comedy club in Long Island hours before his appearance in Manhattan.

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Aziz Ansari Announces Tour

Aziz Ansari has announced a stand-up tour. The “Road to Nowhere” tour kicks off in Massachusetts in February 2019 and currently wraps up in New York City in May. Check out his itinerary below. The new dates mark Ansari’s first full tour following his return to performing after he was accused of sexual misconduct in a Babe.net piece published early this year. “I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said,” he responded at the time.

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“Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere” Tour Comes to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, June 25th

“Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere” stand-up tour is coming to the historic Pasadena Civic Auditorium

Pasadena, CA (April 22, 2019) – Comedian, actor, writer and director Aziz Ansari announced the final run of his internationally sold out “Aziz Ansari: Road to Nowhere” stand-up tour, including a show at the historic Pasadena Civic Auditorium on June 25, 2019 at 8 p.m . Since August 2018, Aziz has brought “Road to Nowhere” to over 50 cities in the United States and Europe with multiple sold out shows per night. On April 4 th 2019 Aziz performed on the prestigious Royal Albert Hall stage in London. Now, Aziz is heading to Pasadena during his last stops. Don’t miss the chance to see the stand-up tour everyone is talking about. Tickets go on-sale Friday, April 26 th at 10 a.m. PST.

“These are excellent routines, as Ansari needles again and again at contemporary culture’s rawest nerves.” – The Guardian

“… expectedly hilarious yet surprisingly perceptive show.” – Chicago Tribune

Fans who sign up for Aziz’s mailing list ahead of time at AzizAnsari.com will be sent a pre-sale code to get early access to tickets on Tuesday April 23 rd at 10 a.m. PST. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.com and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium box office.

Aziz stars in, writes, and directs MASTER OF NONE, a Netflix original comedy series that he co-created with Alan Yang (PARKS AND RECREATION). Now in its second season, Aziz won the 2016 and 2017 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series” and has received five additional nominations for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series” (2016 and 2017), “Outstanding Comedy Series” (2016 and 2017), and “Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series” (2016). He won the 2017 Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor in a TV Series, Comedy” and the show was nominated in 2016 and 2017 for “Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy”.

In 2015, Aziz became one of the only headlining comedians ever to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York. His two sold-out performances at the legendary arena were filmed for his fourth comedy special, AZIZ ANSARI: LIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, which was released on Netflix in March 2015. On television, Aziz co-starred opposite Amy Poehler in the beloved NBC series PARKS AND RECREATION for the show’s entire seven season run. Aziz’s portrayal of government employee ‘Tom Haverford’ earned him critical praise as one of the show’s breakout stars and garnered him nominations for an American Comedy Award for “Best Comedy Supporting Actor – TV” and a NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” in 2014.

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium is located at 300 East Green Street, Pasadena, CA 91101. On the day of an event, the box office will open three hours prior to the show. Please call (626) 449-7360 for up to date information.

*** No cellphones, cameras or recording devices will be allowed at Aziz Ansari’s show. Upon arrival, all phones and smart watches will be secured in Yondr pouches that will be unlocked at the end of the show. Guests maintain possession of their phones throughout the night, and if needed, may access their phones at designated Yondr unlocking stations in the lobby. All guests are encouraged to print their tickets in advance to ensure a smooth entry process. Anyone caught with a cellphone in the venue will be immediately ejected. We appreciate your cooperation in creating a phone-free viewing experience.

For more information, head to AzizAnsari.com .

About the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau The Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau is a non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting Pasadena as a leading meeting, convention and leisure travel destination. With over 650 restaurants, more per capita than New York City, for guests to enjoy, including shopping and entertainment, Pasadena offers something for everyone. For more information about planning a trip to Pasadena, contact the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) 307-7977 or log on to VisitPasadena.com. Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau Contact: Crystal Williams Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications Tel: (626) 817-5606 Email: [email protected]

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Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari's Stand-up Specials

Aziz ansari: right now (2019), aziz ansari: intimate moments for a sensual evening (2010), aziz ansari: buried alive (2013), aziz ansari: dangerously delicious (2012), aziz ansari: nightclub comedian (2022), aziz ansari live in madison square garden (2015).

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Aziz ansari sets netflix return with stand-up special.

Actor-comedian Aziz Ansari is returning to Netflix, not with another season of his beloved series 'Master of None,' but with a new stand-up special, 'Aziz Ansari Right Now,' directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze. It will debut July 9.

By Bryn Sandberg

Bryn Sandberg

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Aziz Ansari is back.

The actor-comedian is returning to Netflix, not with another season of his beloved series Master of None ,  but with a new stand-up special, Aziz Ansari Right Now , directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze. It will debut July 9.

The special is based on Ansari’s worldwide Road to Nowhere comedy tour, which sold out in 75 cities in the U.S. and 12 countries abroad, including shows in Mumbai, Delhi, Sydney, London and Paris. Most recently, the comic sold out two shows at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall and three shows with Dave Chappelle at Austin’s Paramount Theater.

Aziz Ansari Right Now was a filmed set from the Brooklyn Academy of Music tour dates in New York. The special marks Ansari’s return to Netflix after he was accused of sexual misconduct in a highly controversial Babe.net story in January titled “I went on a date with Aziz Ansari. It turned into the worst night of my life.” According to  those who made it to one of the shows, Ansari addresses the #MeToo movement and the allegations leveled against him.

Ansari’s last two comedy specials, Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive and Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden , both aired on Netflix. The second season of his dramedy Master of None came out in 2017 and he has yet to return to the Emmy-winning series.

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Aziz Ansari Prepping Introspective New Stand-up Tour

By Matthew Perpetua

Matthew Perpetua

Whether he’s performing at music festivals like Bonnaroo, joking about R. Kelly and M.I.A. in his standup or hanging out with the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Fleet Foxes and Kanye West, Aziz Ansari has spent much of his decade-long career in comedy immersed in music culture. This weekend, the Parks and Recreation star will open for Drake at a special performance sponsored by Bing at the Sundance Film Festival in Parks City, Utah. Rolling Stone recently caught up with Ansari to chat about the gig and his upcoming standup tour, which promises to be his most revealing hour of material yet.

I understand you’re going to be opening for Drake at this Sundance show. Are you going to doing any Drake-centric material?  It’s just like we’re both on the bill. I’m not gonna, you know, do a set about making fun of “I’m on One” or something. It’s just going to be my regular stuff and then he’ll bring in his band and do his show.

So do you know Drake personally? Have you hung out? Yes, I have met him a handful of times, yes. The times I’ve hung out with him, he seems very down-to-earth and super hard-working, and just really excited that he gets the opportunity to do the kind of job that he does. And you know, I’m kind of the same way myself. I just feel really lucky to be able to do what I for a job, and I try to work very hard and do the best I can, and I feel like he’s a similar kind of guy in that regard.

What else have you been into lately as far as music goes? Music-wise, I’ve been kind of lacking on listening to new stuff. I just hear occasional songs that I like. I don’t ever listen to the whole album. I should. Everyone says that the M83 record is good. I’ve just heard that “Midnight City” song. I like that, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole album. There’s a couple of songs from that Real Estate album that I listen to that are really good. But again, I haven’t listened to the whole album. Nothing much. I’ve been kind of slacking.

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What else have you been up to lately, besides filming Parks and Recreation ? I’ve written a new hour of stand-up that I’m going to tour later this year. I’m finishing up editing my stand-up special from the last tour. I’ve got to put that out in the next couple of months.

Are you putting that out yourself, Louis C.K.-style? That’s definitely an option. I haven’t quite figured out how I’m putting it out yet, but I’m really happy with the special.

What is your new material like? Did you change your style at all? The new tour that I’m doing this year, that hour is about how I turned 28 last year. It’s just a pure result of it, in a way. A lot of people I know now are getting married, having children, and the idea that it’s that point in my life, that I need to be ready to do that, is just terrifying. I couldn’t imagine getting married and having a kid. It just seems like something that’s still very far away, but I’m almost 30 and it seems like the most terrifying thing now.

When you’re younger it doesn’t seem like that big a deal, “Oh, when I get older, I’ll get married and have a kid.” And then when you actually get old, you kind of realize, “Wow, that’s a pretty scary prospect.” The idea of settling down with one person and having children . . . these are all huge, huge things, and that level of responsibility just seems so far away from me. So that’s kind of what the new hour’s about. I’m really proud – I think it’s way different than the other stuff, but I think it’s my best hour. You always hear with stand-up, whenever you hit 10 years, that’s like a big marker for you, and you get a lot better when you hit like seven years, 10 years. And I hit 10 years last May, so I definitely felt like I’ve gotten a lot better, and I’m really excited. It’s definitely a lot more introspective.

Did you make a conscious decision to get more personal and revealing? It wasn’t really that conscious of a decision. I just started writing and that was the kind of stuff that came to me, and then I just kept getting deeper and deeper into that kind of stuff and it seemed to be what interests me. That was the kind of stuff that was in my head at the time. That was what I was gravitating towards when I was writing, and then I just felt like, “Well, why don’t I just make that the theme of the show?” Plus, the last two hours have been more kind of all over the place, like random stuff. And with this I thought it’d be interesting to do one where there is more of a focus, a central idea.

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Are you still doing Randy stuff, or has that been totally phased out? I did that in the first special because I was working on that when I did that movie, Funny People , so I had that little set of Randy stuff, and I thought it’d be funny to do a little mini-Randy special within the special. But in the second special, the one that I’m putting out this year, there’s no Randy stuff in that. I did an update on my cousin Harris, so I thought that would be interesting. It’s kind of a good progression of that stuff because in Intimate Moments , I talk about helping Harris with his college essay, and you kind of get to see what he’s up to now.

Do you feel a pressure from your audience to keep up with those recurring bits? I felt like – the thing with Harris’ college essay – like that happened, for real, you have to help him with the essay. The essay he gave me and me helping him was a really funny thing, and I was like, well, I gotta put this in the act. Comedy’s a weird thing, where people kind of want to hear you talk about some of the things you’ve talked about before. Like with Louis C.K., whenever I watch him, I want to hear stuff about his kids! It’s so funny. So, you’re kind of based on these different characters that people have heard you talk about. For me it’d be Harris or R. Kelly or whatever. And the trick is to kind of do it in a way that’s better and feels like a progression.

Do you find yourself envying musicians who can just go out and play a song that people know, and everyone loves it? Comedians need to have that element of surprise. Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. Whenever you finish an hour, you have to kind of throw everything away and start over. But when it’s coming to you, it’s really exciting, and you feel really good that you’re able to write and discover new stuff. I kind of have that sweet spot where the material is very fresh for me and I’m really excited about. But once you do it for a couple of years, you’re kind of ready to do new stuff anyways.

Is there anyone in comedy right now who is really inspiring for you? I think the obvious answer is Louis C.K. He’s obviously a huge inspiration for everyone. I’ve talked to him a bunch about the whole idea of doing these tours in these theaters, writing a new hour, putting up specials. I saw Chris Rock a few weeks ago. He was at the Comedy Cellar in New York. That’s a place I go sometimes when I’m working on new material. And he was there working on new stuff, and I talked with him for a while about that kind of stuff. And he’s so, so fucking good, man. He was just working out new material, and you could tell already, like, “Wow, he’s already got these amazing ideas that are going to be an amazing special.” And he’s kind of one of the biggest guys that even got me to do stand-up. I mean his first special, when I was growing up, I knew it word for word, and I still do. So it was amazing to see him working on new material and then talking to him about comedy for a while. It was really, really cool.

Louis C.K. has really taken a lot of control over his career – he made and released that special on his own, he does pretty much everything on his FX show. Do you think you could do that down the line? Yeah, well, I get that same thrill out of stand-up. You know, stand-up, you’re completely autonomous. You get to do whatever you want and no one tells you anything. You’re really your own boss, and your only boss is really the audience. And even then, that’s up to you how you take their feedback. So I feel I get that autonomy with stand-up. Stand-up to me is, like, the thing that I do that’s probably the most important to me. Because it’s just me, and it’s all from my voice. I have the most control over it and I get that same thrill that I guess Louis gets from doing his show, where it’s like, “Oh this is something, this is really what I want to say about this thing.” You know?

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Aziz Ansari performing stand-up in November show in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS -- Comedian and actor Aziz Ansari will be performing in Indianapolis this November.

His stand-up tour, announced this week, will take him to the Murat Theatre at Old National Centre on Saturday, Nov. 3 and 7 p.m.

Ansari is best known for his role as Tom Haverford in the TV series "Parks and Recreation," which takes place in a fictional Indiana town. After "Parks and Rec" ended in 2015, Ansari created and starred in the Netflix show "Master of None."

This is Ansari's first foray back into the public light since he was accused of sexual misconduct in January 2018 when an anonymous woman wrote an account of a date she went on with Ansari, calling it "by far the worst experience with a man I’ve ever had.”

In the report, the woman said he ignored her discomfort when he tried to pressure her into sex. Ansari released a statement about the incident, saying their activity was "by all indications was completely consensual," but later said he got a text from her that said she felt uncomfortable. 

"I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said," Ansari said. 

Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. Prices range from $42.50 - $68.50. For more information on the event, click here.

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Harris Rides Momentum to Arizona, for What Campaign Says Is Largest Rally Yet

Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, drew 15,000 at a rally near Phoenix, the campaign said. To win in Arizona, they will need the diverse coalition that gave President Biden the state in 2020.

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By Kellen Browning and Shane Goldmacher

Reporting from Glendale, Ariz.

• Aug. 9, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris rolled into Arizona on Friday evening with the same political momentum that has infused her first swing across the country this week, drawing a crowd that her campaign estimated at more than 15,000 — her largest yet — in a Western state that not long ago appeared to be falling off the battleground map.

Along with her newly minted running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Harris delivered a stump speech that is barely a week old, and yet familiar enough to an impassioned new following that some shouted her lines before she did.

The rally was her fourth in four days with an arena-filling crowd that demonstrated the degree to which her candidacy replacing President Biden’s had remade the 2024 race.

Mr. Walz relished the crowd that filed into the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., in 100-degree heat as he poked fun at Mr. Trump’s obsession with rally crowds.

“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Mr. Walz said to knowing cheers.

Despite her momentum, Ms. Harris faces an uphill battle in Arizona , a longtime Republican stronghold that flipped to Mr. Biden in 2020 but, according to polling, had been drifting back to former President Donald J. Trump this year.

To win, she will need to reunite the diverse coalition of voters who delivered the state four years ago, and she made an explicit appeal to one part of that group on Friday: Native American voters.

“As president, I will tell you, I will always honor tribal sovereignty and respect tribal self-determination,” she said. The first speaker at the rally, notably, was Stephen Roe Lewis, the governor of the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix.

In her speech, Ms. Harris zeroed in on two issues that are especially pertinent to Arizonans: immigration and abortion.

Crossings from Mexico into Arizona have remained high this year even as they have dropped elsewhere, and Ms. Harris positioned herself as supporting both an “earned pathway to citizenship” and tougher border restrictions, pointing to her record as California’s attorney general.

“I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and the human traffickers,” Ms. Harris said. “I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won. So I know what I’m talking about.”

By contrast, Ms. Harris said, Mr. Trump was playing politics with the issue. She highlighted his opposition to a bipartisan bill this year that would have beefed up border security.

“He talks a big game about border security,” she said, “but he does not walk the walk.”

The comments come as her campaign began to air a tough-on-immigration ad that labeled her a “border-state prosecutor.” Senior Trump campaign officials see the border and immigration as one of Ms. Harris’s deepest areas of vulnerability, and his campaign has repeatedly labeled her, inaccurately , as Mr. Biden’s failed “border czar.”

Ms. Harris did add a new riff to her speech, responding to Mr. Trump’s muddled comments on Thursday at a news conference in Florida, in which he did not rule out directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to abortion pills.

Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump’s agenda “would ban medication abortion in every state,” adding, “But we are not going to let that happen — because we trust women.”

Mr. Trump has previously supported the Supreme Court’s ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone. Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokeswoman, said in a statement the former president’s position on mifepristone “remains the same — the Supreme Court unanimously decided on the issue and the matter is settled.”

The abortion rhetoric could prove especially potent in Arizona, where the State Supreme Court reinstated a near-total ban on the procedure this year. The State Legislature eventually repealed it, but abortion is still banned after 15 weeks, and voters will have a chance to enshrine the right to an abortion until fetal viability in the state’s Constitution through a ballot measure in November.

The speakers who preceded Ms. Harris on Friday made a number of appeals to independents and moderate Republicans, another segment she will need to win over.

“I do not recognize my party,” said John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., who is a prominent Republican backing Ms. Harris. “We need to elect a ticket who will be the adults in the room.”

Senator Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat who is also a Navy veteran and former astronaut, introduced Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz. It was the second time this week that a finalist in Ms. Harris’s running-mate sweepstakes introduced her at a rally. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania did the same in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump had “zero respect for any of us who have worn the uniform.” Mr. Trump’s allies have raised questions about Mr. Walz’s decision to leave the National Guard in 2005 to run for Congress.

Attendees and speakers said the enormous crowd braving scorching desert temperatures on Friday was a sign that, after months of dreariness among Democrats, momentum in Arizona was finally on their side.

“It may be a little warm outside,” Kate Gallego, the mayor of Phoenix, said, “but based on the energy in this arena, I know it’s Donald Trump who’s feeling the heat.”

Kellen Browning is a Times reporter covering the 2024 election, with a focus on the swing states of Nevada and Arizona. More about Kellen Browning

Shane Goldmacher is a national political correspondent, covering the 2024 campaign and the major developments, trends and forces shaping American politics. He can be reached at [email protected] . More about Shane Goldmacher

Keep Up With the 2024 Election

The presidential election is 80 days away . Here’s our guide to the run-up to Election Day.

Tracking the Polls . The state of the race, according to the latest polling data.

Election Calendar. Take a look at key dates and voting deadlines.

Swing State Ratings. The presidential race is likely to be decided by these states.

Candidates’ Careers. How Trump, Vance, Harris and Walz got here.

Harris on the Issues. Where Harris stands on immigration, abortion and more.

Trump’s 2025 Plans. Trump is preparing to radically reshape the government.