Aziz Ansari Punched A
Wall
In this
showcase, 22-year-old standup prodigy Aziz Ansari has a great command of
his material, relating his personal stories with a unique comic
perspective. As a prodigy, though, Ansari is naturally enamored of his
influences in his delivery, most obviously Chris Rock and Mitch Hedberg,
which makes for an unusual blend of two wildly different and nearly
opposite styles.
Ansari courageously makes his hapless personal life the fodder for most
of this 30-minute show (paired on this night with sketch comedy group
Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz). This is what really gets him laughs more so
than the appeal of any style of delivery. When Ansari taps into the
dating (or lack of dating) disappointments universal to probably 80 or
90 percent of young men, everyone can relate. We’ve all been there when
it comes to saying something as lame as “I, like, like you” to an object
of a crush.
The
focus of Ansari’s show as highlighted in the title is an explanation of
what romantic frustrations led him to punch a wall at 4:30 a.m. one
pathetic winter night in February, breaking his hand and requiring him
to wear a bulky foam cast for six full days. With charm and wit, Ansari
is oddly gleeful as he tells his tales of crushes on various girls who
already have boyfriends, to which we can all relate; you can tell he
enjoys these stories and that enthusiasm is infectious with his
audience.
Ansari also shows skill at working other media into this performance,
bringing in video from a previous show where he brought one of these
crushes on stage, not for some kind of mean-spirited humiliation, but
merely to illustrate a story; as well as a tape of a phone call to his
mom explaining (or obscuring) how he broke his hand -- this gets Ansari
the biggest laugh in his show.
In
“Aziz Ansari Punched A Wall,” Ansari shows he has the tools,
perspective, stories and material to master stand-up comedy with an act
that is not just a succession of jokes or mere variations on
observations that have been bounced around in stand-up for years. His
challenge will be to hone and craft all of these strengths into a
distinct voice of his own, deploying his material with his own style,
not borrowed influences. Still, now is a great time to catch him -- to
see a talent certainly destined for great things in his formative years.
“Aziz Ansari
Punched a Wall” will be performed 7 p.m. Saturdays August 6, 13 and 20
at the UCB Theatre.
|