Pitchfork Interview: Aziz Ansari

Carrie Battan: Audiences sometimes treat comedy shows like sporting events.

Aziz Ansari: You should really treat stand-up like you would a play. It's a one-man play. It bums me out that people don't really respect it as an art form as much as they should. If you're in a comedy club here, people are eating wings and shit. Texting. If you went to a play, no one would be texting during the show. Every show I do, someone at some point starts texting, even after I make a scene about it, saying, "Please don't do it, I'm begging you. It's distracting, please don't." It's nuts. If you're sitting there flashing a thing in my face, that's gonna distract me. Stand-up has rhythms, it's like a performance.

In the U.S., critics don't really come to review stand-up shows. In England, they really treat it like it's an art form, and it's reviewed very properly; I did Dangerously Delicious in London and read a review afterwards that was very thoughtful. Here, writers usually come and take three jokes and misquote them. Or they write a preview: "This guy's comin' to town! He's talked about this in the past, what's he gonna talk about this time?" I wish comedy were treated like the way it's treated in England here.

CB: Do you crave that critical feedback cycle?

AA: Ultimately, you get your feedback right away with stand-up, more so than in any art form. You get feedback every second. But if you're a guy like me or Louis [C.K.] or Patton [Oswalt], it's a lot of work to do an hour-long show. There's not really any kind of recognition for stand-up; if you put out an album, you can get a Grammy or something, I guess.

Pitchfork Interview: Aziz Ansari / By Carrie Battan / July 22, 2012