We officially have a trend in the stand-up comedy industry. Louis CK started it with his highly successful Live at the Beacon Theatre show that he released on his own and Aziz Ansari has followed suit. He released Dangerously Delicious for $5 a few weeks ago and I grabbed it after seeing an article in the NY Times. This trend shows no signs of stopping. Heck, I’ll buy the Jim Gaffigan show soon.
I buy these because I love the delivery model, which circumvents big media companies and eschews digital rights management. Oh sure, I also like stand-up comedy, but not really enough to actually go to a comedy club. In fact, I had never even heard of Aziz Ansari before that NY Times article. Evidently he’s on some TV show kind of like The Office, that’s all I know.
It was funny stuff. Not Louis CK funny, but pretty funny. It’s profane and rude, on par with Louis CK in that respect, so beware. It’s pretty sophomoric, Ansari is young and does a lot of self-deprecating stuff about dating and technology.
I do struggle with his method of incorporating other people into his routine. He uses his Cousin Harris, a friend named Brian, and miscellaneous unnamed people as a vehicle for some of his humor. This doesn’t always work for me. I keep thinking, are those people real? Did that really happen to him? Because it would be really funny if it did, but not so funny if it didn’t. He does mention his Cousin Harris in the credits, so maybe they are real.
Louis CK incorporates others, but not in the same way. It’s more about himself so it seems a little more genuine.
It’s still great stuff. Ansari mocks racism a lot and that makes for some really funny bits. That’s the best way to criticize racism I think, make fun of it with humor. He has this nailed.
Nice job. Definitely worth $5.