Aziz Ansari on Parks and Rec, Master of None & Living in London

18:17Romesh Ranganathan:How do you think? Because whenever we talk to Americans, particularly because I do a hip-hop radio show, Whenever we talk to rappers, whenever you go, what's it like to be playing London? They always talk about how shit the food is. I think it's like maybe a dated stereotype, right? I mean, we think so, but then we've got nothing to compare it with. We've just got bad food and bad teeth. I think London to me is on par with New York and LA. There you go. Come on. We were hoping you'd say that. Yeah. And where are you? So you're over here now, right? Yeah. I don't want to sound like immigration, but you are.

18:49No, my wife and I met, it'll be like nine years ago in October. And I moved here however many years ago, like right around before COVID, like 2019 maybe. But I still go back all the time. Like when I made good fortune, I was in LA all the time. And so I'm still in America quite a bit. So technically I do live here though, yeah.

19:15Romesh Ranganathan:And how much, how immersed are you in sort of Britishness? Do you feel part of it or do you still feel like a visitor? I still feel like a visitor. Right. But, yeah, there's still a lot of stuff. Have you picked up a football team or anything? No. I've been to a couple of games with friends and it's really fun to go, but I don't have like a team or anything. Who did you go to watch? I went to watch Chelsea with a friend of mine who's really into Chelsea. He's grown up watching Chelsea, Chelsea fan. Oh, if you don't like Chelsea, you're making a face. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Nothing against them, but I would end that relationship.

19:53Romesh Ranganathan:On a gut feeling. I don't know anything else about them. So you took me to the game and, you know, they were down. Yeah. And I was like, you know, there was a couple of minutes left. I said, hey, should we just leave to beat the traffic? And he couldn't believe I said this. He's like, no. And I was like, okay, sure. And then we stayed and then they came, it was so exciting. They came back and they won. They got like two or three goals, you know, one of these things you never see. It really happened at the last minute. They got a few goals and we were just, fucking Chelsea! And it was so fun. That sounds fucking disgusting.

20:28Romesh Ranganathan:Who's your team? Well, three of us in the room, well, four of us in the room are Arsenal. I went to an Arsenal game too, I think. I can't imagine that was as exciting. It was the same thing. They won at the last minute. Right, okay. Yeah. But the difference is they did fuck all for the first night, I imagine. now I would love to talk to you about Master of None first of all incredible show one of those shows that I'm sure people have told you is annoyingly good you sort of watch that and so many beautiful themes tackled in it incredibly short I mean Ben Ben's a director you found it jizz worthy didn't you?

21:09Romesh Ranganathan:I didn't say the word jizz worthy you were talking around that area You loved it though, didn't you? It felt like a proper turning point for you. And so different from, you know, like Parks and Rec, for example. What made you just start to make a show of that nature? Because it felt so different to anything that had come out before as well. I think I was on doing Parks and Rec and I was good friends with one of the writers, Alan Yang. And when I first started Parks, I remember someone said, you know, often people do these shows and then they find a writer they're they're kind of connect with and then they go make their own show and and alan was a guy who was around my age we had similar interests we got along really well we were both pretty young i can't believe how young i was when i did parks and act like me and aubrey were like in our early 20s which just seems so crazy to me and uh so i got along well with alan we started talking about a show and uh it was just you know there's so many things when you when you're working on a project there's so many things that are out of your control that if they go the right way it can make a big difference you know being in the right place in the right time in the right moment culturally and and master none kind of had all those things you know netflix had just come out and this was an era netflix when like anytime a new netflix show came out i don't think netflix was even here yet at the time but whenever a new netflix show came out people were excited oh there's there's there's a there's a new netflix show which just seems crazy now right And everybody was getting into it and the idea of watching shows on there.

22:42And then, you know, then the idea of a show like that starring a guy that looked like me talking about the things we were talking about, it just didn't happen. And Netflix, you know, they were giving us so much creative freedom because Netflix was so small. They didn't even have people to tell you you can't do stuff. I mean, I tell this story a lot. We pitched the show. we pitched it to Sarandos like he was the guy now he's like a famous guy like we pitched directly to him and he was sitting behind three posters it was it was orange is the new black house of cards and lily hammer and and and he was like ready to do it he was ready to give us 10 episodes um and and you know we uh we got to make the show we wanted to make and then the second season I think we really knew second season of a show like that i think you you kind of have an advantage because you know what you want to do and you can really push it and and and make an even better show which i think we did and um yeah it was it was a great experience and um yeah i'm so glad uh we got to

23:48Romesh Ranganathan:do it and i'm proud of the show when did you realize that it was gonna have the impact that it did was like was there a turning point where you're like oh holy shit we've made something I, you know, when that first season came out, it was it was kind of nuts. Like every the reviews are very effusive. It seemed like everyone was was watching it. And I remember being with Alan at the premiere and I was like, man, we should really enjoy this because there are some great careers. And and sometimes people don't get multiple things that kind of pop this well. Like, you know, even someone like Mike Nichols, right?

24:22Like you look at, oh, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate? it that was you know those were peaks that he maybe never really reached that high again and that guy is is a legend he's done so much stuff so those moments where you really kind of hit everything where it's like the thing is good people like it critics like it and you know it's having this cultural moment that's that's rare so i you you could feel that and uh and then the second season when that came out it just felt like you know now it just feels like there's just so much stuff and like it seems so hard to break through like that it just felt like oh this it just felt like everybody in new york i was walking i lived in new york at the time and it was like i mean it was all a little bit overwhelming for me like it just felt like oh wow everybody has seen this and it's you know i you know i went away for a while and went and stayed in uh paris

25:12Romesh Ranganathan:for a bit in japan because i i it was it was a lot yeah yeah with with the the parents episode Yeah. That episode is like, it's an incredible encapsulation of what it's like to be a child of immigrants, right? In terms of like, taking for granted what your parents have gone through to get you to a position of privilege, and then how much we then take that for granted and don't pay that any respect at all. and also your actual parents are in that so yeah so how important was it first of all to tell that kind of that kind of part of your story i remember so we were supposed to do the show at a certain point and then parks and rec got picked up for another few episodes so we had to delay starting work on our show and it was a little frustrating for alan and i because i think we were ready to do this but it was a great gift because it gave us more time to keep thinking about it and we wrote a version of the show like an episode and you know in that time we eventually threw that away and just wrote something and the show became different it became much different than what we originally pitched you know um but i remember i was with alan we were in new york i was staying in some hotel there and we were just talking about different ideas and alan started saying something a story about his his father about how you know it's crazy we're sitting here in new york in this beautiful hotel room and we're trying to come up with ideas for a tv show you know a generation ago my dad you know grew up with a dirt floor and he had to kill his pet chicken for dinner he had a pet chicken and one day his dad told him he had to kill it so they could cook the chicken for dinner and then here we are just one generation later it's a great lesson about the origins of food isn't it and and and i said whoa that that should be in the show that's super interesting and we just we just went towards that and then you know we we it's weird because that doing that episode you know my parents saw that and and i think other parents saw that and i don't think they ever thought about some of those things like there's a thing in there where he's like oh my parents never say I'm proud you know if I landed on the moon they'd be like why didn't you go to Mars you know and I think you know I my parents they started saying they were proud of me more often after that really yeah yeah because I don't think they thought about it like that what did they think about you because you know I was I taught maths before I became a comedian and that is like one of the brown respect jobs do you know I mean you know my mom and dad was so So, my dad was a bit more blase as you know, he taught us a lot of the time, but my mom was like really, it was really important to her how the jobs that her children were doing were seen by the community and all of those things.

28:12Romesh Ranganathan:So then when I made the move to comedy, my mom was in particular, was not that happy about it. How old were you when you did start in comedy? It was quite late. I mean, it must have been 30, 31, something like that. Oh, wow. So I went into it. I've been doing it as like a little hobby and then it occurred to me that I could do it for a job. And so I started doing it for a job. And when I quit teaching, my mom was not happy. And now she's obviously delighted. It's worked out very financially well for her and she's on the podcast as well. Yeah, yeah. But she was concerned. How supportive were your parents about you doing this?

28:51Well, I was thinking about this the other day. I was with some comedians here and one of them had told me they started maybe four years ago. And I was thinking about, you know, and this goes for when you started as well. If someone starts now, there's a real path to success. There's a trajectory, yeah. Yeah. And you can see like all these people that are doing theaters and making a lot of money and doing podcasts. And it seems like, you know, I think there's people that start now. They're like, oh, I can make a lot of money doing this, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when I started, and I think when you started, it was like telling people you're starting to juggle.

29:27It's like, what are you doing? I'm juggling. I'm going to some juggling open. I'm just trying to get good at juggling. Really? Why? I like juggling. There was no thought of making money or any kind of real future. I had no thought of acting or any of that, much less directing, screenwriting. That all kind of evolved as I evolved in my career. But my parents, I was in college when I started doing it, but I never was like, I'm dropping out of college to pursue this. Right, right, right. And by the time I was finished college, enough things were in play. I started being in magazines and things like that, and it started getting more legitimate.

30:07But at first, it's a weird industry, and it's hard to kind of really convey when you're doing well. I opened up for Patton Oswalt at Caroline's. Okay, great.

30:24But eventually, once everything starts going well, they're like, I was there beside him the whole time. I told him, you got to stop being a math teacher. You got to devote yourself to this.

30:40Romesh Ranganathan:Well, no, I had that exact conversation with my mom because I had... All I wanted to do is I just want to get to a point where I can pay the bills from doing comedy. That was the ambition. right yeah if I'm gonna pay for my groceries from doing stand-up that's amazing right and then and then when I started doing like tv and stuff then my mom said I you know it's all good it's worked out and I but I said to her if I'd have been paying my bills but I wasn't on tv that's still it still worked out yeah it's that's still a success but for my mom it's like you know she won't admit it now but I think it's very much like what her friends are telling her you know her friends are saying to her, it's really, Ramesh has done so well.

31:21Romesh Ranganathan:You know, she wants that. That to her is success, you know. Whereas if I'd have been working the circuit and stuff and not made it to whatever you want to call it, getting profile or whatever, I don't think she would have reacted the same way. I think she still would have had doubts. But your parents aren't like that. I think I was very young and things just started coming to me pretty quickly. And, you know, once they start coming to show like I remember I don't think I'd really brought them to a big theater show until I did Carnegie Hall. And, you know, this is me being stupid as a younger guy.

31:57Like I was like, oh, my God, they should see one of these shows. I've been doing theaters and she'd never my mom and Matt, they'd never seen it. And so I told him they should come out. I remember I had this one kind of man, I was really sad. I hosted the MTV Movie Awards, which is a big deal. And it was really fun. And my brother was with me. And we were at like this whole after party and everything. And my brother and I, we called my parents. And I was like, what am I doing? Like they should have been here for this. I should have asked them to come out. And after that, anytime I do anything that has any, you know, feels like a fun night like that, I always bring them out and make sure they come.

32:45And they always do. And they end up staying late at all the parties and everything. Everyone's so excited to see them, especially after the show. You know, all these people get so excited to see them. And so, yeah. Was it important for you to put them in the show? Well, I originally was going to get actors and I auditioned people and I just couldn't find anyone that really felt like what i was trying to convey they felt like actors and it felt like someone doing an impression of my someone doing kind of a bad impression of my parents and i didn't mean that in a disrespectful way to the actors but there's a difference between getting the real deal you know i mean there's you know i i uh i've watched a couple episodes of your podcast but i didn't see the one with um your the stuff with your mom but like there's something fun about that and there's something very real about it yeah and you know to capture their real dynamic which i think that episode does like their real silliness and how ridiculous and my dad is very funny he's like he's a really fun he's a really funny actor because what makes something funny is is someone doing something unexpected or making an odd choice in a scene and he does things that make no sense to me and so where did you even when we did good fortune he did a little thing in that and i was like hey just just start dancing and he started doing this thing like this i was like what what is this and i and he had like a long so that there's a scene in good fortune where he's in and he he had like a long thing and it was just too long for him to memorize and i was like okay just just walk up to keanu like the bid is basically like Like, you know, Keanu sees my dad at this party, and then he realizes something about my character, that I've been deceitful about something because my dad is there.

34:39So I was like, okay, just go up to Keanu and just say whatever. And he just walked around and went, hello, and then walked away. And Keanu just rolled with it, and he was like, hi.

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36:33Romesh Ranganathan:How much of Dev is, how close is Dev to you? to me uh i don't know i mean that you know that guy now it's just 10 years ago you know um i mean it i'd say it's probably not the same as like larry david and and the larry david and curb you know that's pretty close i think the guy in master nine and me it's like you know a little different yeah yeah there's a degree of separation yeah um okay we've got actually we've got a question from my mother oh great i don't know what the question is okay so it's a voice note so please don't uh embarrassingly try to interact she's not on the line hi as is i'm shanti romesh's mom i have heard a lot about you fantastic career and i understand do you have any tips for America.

37:24Romesh once tried to do a gig at Greek Theatre in LA, but nobody wanted to buy tickets. It made me sad as well. I heard you always sell out. Any tips? Welcome. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. I'd love to watch your program one day and I hope it will happen. Have a wonderful day. Speak to you soon. Bye. It sounded like a dig at me at the end. I hope to watch one of your programs one day, but anyway.

37:57Romesh Ranganathan:I feel like it was really sweet. And then she said she might watch your program one day, like it's really difficult to do. You can't cast someone to do that. That's the real deal.

38:10What did she ask? She was asking, oh, you tried to do a show. Also, I don't think you can try to do a show. You did the gig. It sounds like it didn't sell well.

38:17Romesh Ranganathan:No, we did a thing. we did uh we did a thing for showtime where it's like i was going to try and sell out the greek theater three months after arriving in la oh wow and so we did this like series of stunts and stuff and it was like but you directed didn't you we had a nice time it's kind of like a comedy documentary thing anyway we and then we were just we did the whole aim was we're just going to see what happens and what happened was uh we sold so few tickets that we could fit everybody that attended onto the stage and so it was intimate we shut the curtain there was no need for any of the seats and everyone just sat on the stage i mean it was very expensive experiment you know i it was like we all said it was sweet afterwards but really that was to talk me off the ledge but you sold out madison square garden what i mean that is correct what was that like i mean that's i mean it was insane i mean you know i even when i look back like that was nuts i did two shows in one night which seems insane to me because i you know i i i don't think i could do that today that was a lot of tickets that was that all came together at the right moment uh yeah um i mean it was insane did you have to disassociate from what was going on like how do you handle that kind of i think that period uh you know even when you start you know just doing theaters and all this stuff it it all kind of becomes a blur you never take a minute to really sit down and be like oh wow this is pretty crazy you know I mean when I'm planning a tour now like I've looked back at like old tour schedules I've been like whoa that's that was a lot I really traveled a lot that year I can't believe I did all that yeah so how where where does stand-up sit in your do you consider yourself primarily a stand-up like what's what's your kind of I mean you're a polymath but like what where does stand-up sit is it your first love do you think i think the the frustrating thing for me at this moment is i love two things i love stand-up and i love filmmaking and they're both things the more you give them your all the better they're gonna go yeah and i'm kind of trying to do both at the same time and it's really hard like i want a tour but i'm also trying to make this movie in the fall yeah but you know filmmaking is so it's so frustrating because there's so many things you can't control oh, you know, you're waiting on actors to read a script and decide if they want to do your movie.

40:35You're waiting on financiers to decide if those actors are famous enough. You've got all that kind of stuff. Whereas stand-up, you're in full control. And there's something really beautiful about how it's so pure. It's just you talking to a microphone. And, you know, I'm sure you go through this too. Like sometimes you're like, eh, I don't feel like doing stand-up. Last night, I don't really do a lot of stand-up when I'm in London, but I've slowly started to do a couple of shows.

40:59Romesh Ranganathan:Have you been doing, I think somebody saw you, did you do the Bill Murray? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there last night. Right, right, right. And I just dropped in there and I didn't really have anything and I was like, eh. And then, you know, sometimes you do those shows in the crowd and something, it just starts going and then you have this one thing that you try that works and then you're like, ooh, that's good. Now I got to get obsessed and figure out that bit. And that's a fun feeling. So I'm going to New York on Sunday for a couple of weeks and I'm going to do a lot of stand-up. while I'm there and I'm going to try to write some new stuff.

41:32Romesh Ranganathan:You came up in the New York scene, right? I did. I started doing stand-up summer of 2001. I started doing open mics and all those kind of things and the shows where you pass up flyers and all these things and then slowly worked my way up through the club scene and also alternative rooms. There was that scene and, yeah, I came up doing all that stuff And then, you know, I kind of moved to L.A. when when parks and all that stuff was happening. But I was always doing stand up. And, you know, whenever parks had a break off seasons, I would always do a lot of touring. I wouldn't do I get offered, you know, movies or different products, but they were never anything that felt as exciting as just going on tour and doing stand up.

42:14Romesh Ranganathan:I mean, because in New York, as somebody as a British comic, you know, like I started to I didn't go to the States to do stand up for a while. and then when I first started trying to gig in New York I mean I feel like the general perception is that New York has the best comedians in the world you know in terms of the standard and I remember and then when you start going and working the clubs in New York everybody's really really good right and it feels like if you're if you can if you can emerge from there then you must be pretty decent right i mean it's like uh it's new york is kind of the standard is incredibly high right i mean have you noticed a difference between new york and other places you've gone to and watched stand up i mean new york they're definitely i don't know i i i think there's some merit to that i i feel like i'm a little bit of a old guy now you know i go and i don't know a lot of the people there yeah there you know there's people that opened up for me like two tours ago now they're doing theaters like things move so fast yeah um and but yeah you go and you can watch people that are really crushing yeah i remember like going to i was like doing a documentary out there and then i thought i'd go and get on stage while i was out there and then i got booked to do uh some gig or got managed to get some gig uh and i was like the ninth act on first of all that's what was the show it was i think it was mark norman's show at the the black fat black pussy cat that's the one okay yeah yeah the little room yeah the little room yeah and it's a great room yeah I was on 9th yeah all of the 8 people on before me were unbelievable and just as I watched each person I just thought I don't think I want to do this like normally I'll be honest with you Aziz you have some shit people and there's a couple of people that are good and you think okay this will be alright when you watch fucking 8 killers and then you'll it's like i do think it's like pretty mad standing in new york it's so interesting because i used to go to the comedy cellar when i was first starting out and just watch people and the way it's changed it used to be that you know someone would have their act and it would be 15 minutes and every time you saw them they do those same 15 minutes and now it's like all these people are trying to you know tour and churn out and and develop new material have a new hour and go on tour and in And it's all changed.

44:34And now the seller, like the seller used to be like, you'd have the 730 show and the 930 show. Yeah. Right. And sometimes they wouldn't sell enough tickets for the 930 show that they would tell the 730 people, hey, you can just stay and watch the 930. And this is even after it got to the point where I had reached a level where they would let me drop in. Right. So I drop in on the 730. I'd be like, hey, can I drop in on the 930? Like, no, no, no. It's the same. It's the same people. Don't do it. I was like oh okay and now they have how many they have the comedy cellar they have the village underground they have the fat black pussycat they have the bar they have like four or five different rooms that they have multiple shows a night they're always sold out and it's just crazy how popular just comedy and that place

45:23Romesh Ranganathan:yeah I did that you know when you do the audition for the for the cellar that was one of the most So you did the audition for Esty? Yeah. So I went, you know, you go and do the thing and then you don't sit with the other comics because you haven't done the audition yet. So you go sit at the bar and then they come over, you know, you go down the stairs. It's terrifying when the light comes on. You know, you've got five minutes. Good luck. Whatever. It's like it's like deliberately. It's willfully hostile. Right. It feels like it felt like it to me. And then I got introduced on one British guy lost his shit.

46:01Romesh Ranganathan:Love that. Nobody else gave a fuck. And then the set went fine, like had a good set. And then as I walked off, it was like I was made. It felt incredible, man. That's great. But that whole experience is a mad experience. That's a special room and it's why I'm going to New York to work on stuff there. It's got a certain energy. and um you know i love look i you know i love doing these bigger venues but i really love a small comedy club yeah even like bill murray in london yeah you know it's a saying there's something about those intimate shows it's i i've always uh in my heart i kind of i feel more at home there yeah it's a shame they're not as lucrative isn't it yeah they're not yeah um so how was your how would you say i mean you described yourself as one of the older guys what how has your stand-up change do you think over the over the years like what what are you now compared to how you were even a few years ago have you like changed your style well you know I was doing stand-up a lot when I you know I was pretty young to be doing some of the stuff I was doing I was pretty young when I was doing theaters and stuff which I think was part of the reason I was able to gain an audience because there wasn't a lot of you know people that were talking about the stuff that someone my age could relate to when I was then and now I'm just older I just don't know as much stuff and i'm like a little bit more old guard but in a cool way and you kind of grow with your audience you know like you know this tour i you know i come out and talk about how i'm married now and everything and i i i think if i came out and i was like yeah so anyway these dating apps people like damn man come on let's let's get it together so it's good to kind of um you know grow with your audience a bit and and you have new things you're talking about and it's fun to see the audience and you kind of grow together there's something interesting about comedy where i remember i i saw uh i think ben stiller was talking about some interview and he said like after zoolander 2 he was like whoa i can't believe i was that off like i thought i understood what people thought was funny and he was a little bit taken aback with the reception of that film and And I think comedy is something, you know, a lot of times it's hard to really keep up as you get older.

48:23Yeah. And I think that's something that's really valuable about stand-up is like you're there, you're with the people. So hopefully that keeps you a little bit sharper.

48:33Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I do think that stand-up, I feel like it moves so quickly. and I think if you spend too long out of the clubs or not doing it for a while you can get left behind super quick or you know like it just it just whips along so quickly you know stay on one of those things the more you do it the better you're gonna be yeah and it's that simple and what gets tough is as you get older you know for me now it's like oh I'm you know I'm married if I go to New York and you know my wife is here and you know if I wasn't married I'd probably like let's stay in new york for if if i wasn't married and i could just be gone as much as i want i'd be like all right let's go to new york and then let's go to let's go to zany's nashville let's go to the punchline set let's really get this set in such good shape yeah you know and i try to do my best to get to that amount of reps um but if you have responsibilities you know whether it's kids you know marriage whatever you can't go quite that hard no you can't and also you hopefully are just better because you got more time you got more chops i think definitely that's true you don't need a little bit yeah yeah yeah i mean i remember i i was at the cellar and i saw trevor noah and it was like maybe 8 30 and he was just sitting there having dinner and i was like are you going up later and he's like no i'm done i was like what and he's like oh i just asked him if i could do a show at like six and i do that and then i'm done and i was like i'm doing that because i I used to stay up till like one in the morning just going around.

50:05I was like, uh-uh. I'll do the Trevor mode. I'll just go six o 'clock, do it, and then maybe do one show at 830, and then I'm done because, you know, also with chat lag and all that stuff, I can't stay up till one doing the sets and stuff. You know, I'm not as – I don't have the energy, and I'm just kind of tired, and it's just not as good. But every now and then I'll get, you know, you'll get fueled by that, you know, energy of trying to figure out a bit. I know, yeah. And then you can keep going. mean that's what's crazy about the cellar right you can start at like eight o 'clock and you have like this little germ and you can do like five shows in one night and then by the end it's like

50:41Romesh Ranganathan:oh whoa i got it yeah which is really fun um so hypothetical yeah what's the what's the what's the gist of that show i mean it's a lot of the things we've been talking about now about you know being married and and try you know it's about trying us trying to have a family which which is so interesting to see you know people react to that because you can tell a lot of people have been dealing with this and not a lot of people talk about it they get pretty private about it um for obvious reasons and um yeah and it's just kind of just um it's kind of where i'm at now and um it's it's just fun to be touring again i hadn't done it in a while and to have that immediate reaction and you know it's interesting with a movie you like write a joke in a script and by the time you get to hear the laugh it could be years you know i wrote a joke in good fortune and it was years before i heard it play in a theater and heard a big laugh but it's super cool it's like oh shit keanu said that and they got a big laugh from like you know 300 people in burbank that's awesome but it's a long lead time you know where it's like oh man there's just something about the energy of being in a stand-up show and just you know it's great i mean i think there's something so special about you know seeing a live show and and and it's why it's exploded you know so many people are touring and and um it's a really special thing to be able to do it and i'm really grateful that people come out and and um i i try not to take it for granted what what uh what are your rules about what you how open you're willing to be like you know some people like their other half say don't i don't want you to talk about this i don't need to mention us at all or like how how exposing are you willing to let your stand up be uh there's been there hasn't been anything my wife is i think my rule is like my wife's like hey don't do that then i'm not gonna do it sure that feels that's pretty bloody minded yeah there's there's been nothing yeah i guess that'd be pretty bad if i was like my wife's like don't say it but i just say it I don't care.

52:42No rules. No, my wife's like, hey, but she's been pretty chill about all this stuff. Yeah. I don't think she loves it. But you know what's weird is like the stand-up she doesn't mind as much, but sometimes when you're like writing screenplays where like, oh, my character is like cheating on his wife. And she's like, yeah, don't love this. Don't love reading this with you.

53:11um and you're doing the royal albert hall yeah which is which is one of the greatest venues to do stand-up in the world i did it uh i i think five years ago on the when i did a tour called road to nowhere and it was one of my favorite shows and it's a hard venue to lock in there's it's and so whenever this date opened up in july i was like oh man yeah let's do it it's

53:34Romesh Ranganathan:gonna be amazing my roller i've always great to yeah to do anything really but yeah we'll not do anything i mean you know but stand up great yeah yeah no i'm really excited um now can we talk about parks and recreation a little bit of course yeah cult favorite are you sick of talking about it yet no i i uh that was a great experience and and the best part of the experience is is those people and and i still keep up with them i see them and we're in contact and uh it's always a joy whenever uh we get to see each other that show the chemistry between the cast of that show it just felt like you're watching something kind of unique right in terms of everybody fizzing off of each other and all that stuff i get i guess you can't ever know if that's going to happen you know so you cast good people people you cast good people in hope for the best yeah did it feel like very very quickly that this was a special group of people that had got together i think it always felt like a special group but when the show was on you know every season we thought we gonna get canceled every season are we doing season two are we doing season three it was never certain and we kind of just kept trudging along and and now the show has got a second life from streaming and all these things and it's a really uh beloved show but at the time we were making it it was we were like oh my god we're gonna be able to keep making this yeah so but yeah i i love all those people and um yeah it was it was a great experience how uh because obviously now there's you talked about having a second life you can watch infinite uh videos online of like bloopers and impro improvised lines and all that kind of stuff yeah yeah that gives you the impression that that shit was happening like left right and center have we just watched all of the clips and actually it was quite straight i mean like those are the clips that are really fun to watch because you know every now and then if I'm on tour and in a hotel room and have cable the show pop up and I'll watch a few minutes of it and you know that stuff's kind of a blur but when you watch those behind the scenes bloopers things that that really feels like oh man that was that was I remember that stuff and that was what the day-to-day felt like I mean was every scene like that where there's a funny blooper no no but like we had a great time we all got along well and it was just such a dream gig you know and and those kind of shows where oh you're gonna do 100 episodes and and you just it i don't know if those kind of jobs really exist anymore it's so much different than than making a film or even a show like master or none yeah i mean i just showed up said lines and went home it was a really easy gig it was and and you're working with great people behind the camera and in front of the camera and it was a great experience.

56:23Romesh Ranganathan:Parks and Rec to Master and I mean, obviously completely different, but did being in Parks and Rec and how big that show became, did that exert any pressure on you in terms of what you were going to do in Master and None? I think there's something about the bravado of youth. Right. and me and alan were just young guys and we just didn't we didn't think about yeah uh a world where the thing we were doing wasn't going to work we were just so confident because we didn't know anything yeah and it's a huge advantage you don't think about you know when i'm making a uh you know i'm trying to put together a movie now and whenever you you know i'm looking at the budget and all the stuff and and and i'm really in the weeds and i'm worried about this and that and i didn't worry about anything when i made master not not that it was easy it was really both of those seasons it was a lot of work and it really took a lot out of me and um uh and then the third three we did three third season as well which is a little bit of a different thing but uh it was a lot um but in those early seasons we didn't really we hadn't done enough to know what could go wrong yeah does that make sense yeah and that's an advantage right yeah and netflix was also just letting us do stuff You know, stuff that like, you know, hey, we want to do an episode where I'm not in it at all.

57:40Yeah. A lot of shows do that kind of thing now. But back then they were like, are you what? And then, you know, there were things that we were just excited about doing that normally I don't think you'd be allowed to do. But they just, I don't know, they just didn't have anybody to tell us no. And then we did it and it went well. So then we got to keep doing it.

58:01Romesh Ranganathan:And then how did that move on to, you're now a filmmaker and you're making movies. How did that come about? Well, I made two seasons of that show and they wanted us to keep doing more. And I kind of just, by the time we'd finished the second season, it just felt like there was a lot of that type of show. Whereas when we first started doing it, there wasn't many shows like that. Yeah, but you made an impact, didn't you? I mean, like you changed what those type of shows were, right? I think it helped to, you know, with our show at Atlanta, all these things, it kind of was a model of like, hey, this can work.

58:39Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, there's something cool about, you know, having a person kind of have their vision of these kind of shows. And then whenever we did the third season of Mastermind, I was like, okay, this would be what's interesting to me. Like take everything people like about the show and get rid of it. Make it into a lesbian drama. don't tell anybody just piss everybody off it was very nihilistic and uh but i i i love it i mean it's one of these things i look back i'm like wow i can't believe we pulled that off like you know it got great reviews i got to work with naomi ackee and lena who was they're both such amazing actresses and and uh but it was much different than what we were doing and you know if i could do it again i probably would have just said hey let's do this and call it something else we're gonna piss people off too much whatever it's fine um but i i wanted to uh you know do something what's cool about films is like you live in this world for a bit and then you move on it's hard for me to like do a show and like you gotta keep coming up you're in this world for a long time and i wanted to do something where it's like okay you can get in and get out and then just do something completely different about whatever whatever i feel like writing about now so So, you know, I had Good Fortune and now I've been writing a couple other things that I want to try to do.

59:59But it's hard to make movies now.

1:00:02Romesh Ranganathan:How difficult is it for Aziz Ansari to make a movie? Like Good Fortune, was that a tough solo or people just ready to throw money at you? Well, I had Seth. And so me and Seth were kind of the package. And then we were kind of set up. And then Keanu came on board. And once Keanu comes on board, that's, you know, then you're kind of set. but just me by myself it's not easy i mean i used to think like oh like just being an actor that's where that seems insane to me for me because okay what are the chances like how many movies came out last year that you even liked yeah okay and in those how many of those was there a part you could even do and okay if you could even do it how how far down the list are you how many people have to say no before they really get to you yeah so it seems like a game you're gonna lose but then a couple months ago i had the other thought which is like on the other end if you're trying to make something there's only a few people that really kick the door open right so what are the chances one of them is right to play a part in the movie what are the chances they're even available because everybody's chasing these people there's only a few of them because we're in a weird zone where there's not a ton of those people there used to be a lot of people that could kind of help you but now it's like there's a very limited pool of people to pull from so what are the chances they make sense that they want to do it that they're available it's a really tough game and the other thing is i'm trying to be in the in all the movies you know i want to act i gotta get myself a plum part so it gets tough yeah yeah and do you think films are So films and stand-up are the things you're going to be doing for the foreseeable, right?

1:01:47I guess. You know, I listened to your podcast you did with James Acaster, and you said something that it was really interesting to listen to you guys speak because obviously I related to so much because I'm a comedian like you guys, and you were saying something about how you're like, yeah, I'm going to put it out. We'll see what happens. It was like you weren't chasing. Like you didn't have that demon that was making you chase. That guy is still in me. I don't know how to get rid of him. but I did just, you know, I spent a lot of time, you know what I do that's kind of meditative for me is I cook a lot.

1:02:20Right. And, uh, I was like, you know, if my wife and I have a kid and I just, I'm just kind of a guy that cooks and takes care of the kid and maybe that's enough. Maybe I don't need to make stuff, but I don't know. Sometimes I, the, the movie stuff, especially it gets, there's so many parts that are not fun that like all the kind of lead up to actually getting on the set it's just not fun but once you're there it's it's the funnest thing and if you can actually pull it off it's it's a lot of fun but uh sometimes it gets frustrating

1:02:53Romesh Ranganathan:but getting rid of that demon is not like getting rid of the demon of like wanting to like you know i i can't imagine a time when i will not want to do stand-up the difference is is not caring about the result is like what i mean and i mean creatively i mean how it does so like for example you you make good fortune yeah how invested how worried and anxious are you about how that film does like you know what how how big a part of that process is that for you well it's scary because you you know how much goes into a movie you know how much work it is and you see these movies that come out and no one cares about them they're just like a fart in the wind yeah and you're like oh oh my God, I hope that doesn't happen with me.

1:03:36And yeah, you want it to have some sort of impact. You want people to see it because you put so much work into it. You don't want it to just go into a void and no one see it. And it's tough to figure out how to do that today because there's so much stuff and it's so hard to break through. But yeah, so anytime like a friend texts me, hey, I saw a good fortune. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so glad you saw it. Thanks so much. I'm so thrilled. You know, it's funny. You go through phases of your career where people are like, hey, man, love Parks and Rec. You got to watch Master of None. And then they're like, hey, man, love Master of None.

1:04:11You got to watch Good Fortune. But I'm always just kind of like, you know, I'm excited about Good Fortune. But, you know, that was like something I wrote a long time ago. I'm already like two movies ahead in my head. Yeah, yeah. And it takes a while to catch up. But no, I don't think I would, you know, I say that stuff, but I would always want to be creative, especially with stand up, because that's such a low barrier to entry just to go up and do stand up. I know that that's that is so it's so beautiful how simple that is.

1:04:41Romesh Ranganathan:I know what I love about it is it's so easy to start doing it, but it's so difficult to get any good at it at all. You know, that's addictive, you know, to try and do the stand up that you really want to do. It's hard. Do you know what I mean? And like every time I've done a show at the time I'm doing the show, I think this is really good. And then I reckon 30 seconds after I walk off stage, after I've done the last one, I think, oh, that was a shit show. I need to do a good show, man. Do you know what I mean? Why do you feel the show is bad? I just, I just get, I just, every time you do it, you just sort of think that isn't, you're trying to, I feel like I'm trying to get the show.

1:05:17Romesh Ranganathan:You know, the show that when I finish. Like the hour. like the show that when I look back on my career I go that was the that's the show that I want to point people I haven't done that show yet I I feel the same way when I look at my old stuff I don't I don't fully love it and not I just don't think it's as good as I am now which makes sense because I'm a lot older and I haven't put out a real special in a few years I did a little special during COVID but that was was so in that moment you know that's why I I'm excited about this tour and recording it eventually but doing an hour it's interesting and and i've done shows where you know you do showing on land like that was amazing and then then you do an astro like oh that one didn't feel right and it's like i bet if you asked the people in the audience they thought it was the same thing i know it's all in our heads that is definitely true and and um yeah i i i uh i'm trying to do that show like you're talking about yeah and i don't i i think this this will will be that i hope and the other thing is that you want to make something that feels like oh it'll make sense to people a long time from now and that's tough because you you kind of want to do some stuff that's about what's happening in the world right now that's tricky to because there's so much shit going on that you just sort of think i've got to lock in on on this right but then that'll obviously time stamp it whatever it's difficult yeah um right we're gonna play a little game aziz sure tell me it's called misquoted i'm gonna read for i saw you do this i'm gonna i'm I'm gonna hate hearing these things I said.

1:06:45Romesh Ranganathan:So five things, some of them you said, some of them you didn't. Okay. Good luck. There's no stakes whatsoever. Okay.

1:06:56Romesh Ranganathan:It's misquoted. Here's your first one. When the iPhone 18 Pro Max comes out, it'll be the third time I've camped outside the Apple store. I definitely didn't say that. That one was easy. Yeah. You're into flip phones, is that right? I have a flip phone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why do you like flip phone so much? I just I just I like it just gives me more space. I just don't like all that stuff So would you say do you a dumb phone guy? I mean, this is the one I have it's it's um This like a Nokia one and it's it's so bad Like if I press the number zero the phone turns off So if I want to call a number that says zero Like it's 020.

1:07:38I have to text my wife the number and then call it from from the chain Can you flick it in a cool way though? Can you flick it open in a kind of No, that's it's more about the Yeah, the shot that's a great powerful shot. It's a great way to end the meeting.

1:07:53Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah. What um So how long have you been a how long have you been that feels like a almost like a religious decision? But so how how long ago did you decide that you wanted to stick with that kind of phone? I don't know. I think it first started with I used to have like a second phone that didn't have anything on it yeah like a dumb phone and then and that like had no browser and everything which i remember at first like what am i gonna do without a browser and then you're like i don't need a browser i used to not have a browser it's okay i don't need to look stuff up and then i went from that to the to the flip phone right and apart from the zero thing there's no marked disadvantages oh there's plenty there's there's no you know there's no uber or anything so You know, there's no Google Maps.

1:08:35There's nothing on there. There's no Spotify. There's nothing. But I'm okay. To me, it's worth it to just kind of. I find, like, just being able to focus is a huge luxury. Yeah. And not being distracted by other stuff. You know, we've set up an environment that really encourages multitasking, which we know we're bad at.

1:08:55Romesh Ranganathan:I know. I know. It's a good point. Fuck. Should we all smash our phones after this? Feels like it could be a moment. Okay. Here's your next one. By the way, that's correct. Well done. You must be very proud of yourself. Okay. Did you or did you not say this? I was certain this dude was a dildo. I did say that. That was from my SNL monologue, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:09:21The day after Trump's inauguration and how it made you reflect differently on the presidency

1:09:26Romesh Ranganathan:of George W. Bush. Yeah, yes. That was a quote. I remember when nobody in the UK believed that Trump was going to win that election. And even, I remember I was on tour when the US election was happening and I went to bed with like obviously with the time difference and the polls were, it's looking like Trump was like doing really well. And I thought, oh God, that's going, I guess all the states that would go the other way have not come in yet. Then went to bed and woke up and was like, fuck like couldn't believe it that's all i talked about for the first 20 minutes of my show that night because everybody was just in shock but i mean yeah i mean as as were we that was i i remember that night i mean that was i was filming master nun season two and that happened and we'd all we'd had like a a party because we thought first female president everyone's oh what are we gonna play aretha franklin what are we gonna it was that level of confidence and then People started coming in like everyone's leaving the Hillary place like they're they're leaving the center like it's done And I was like what oh my god And then the next day we had to film some scene where some dude was being racist to me and I was like this is weird But I remember I landed in London when brexit happened right and everyone was a similar thing Everyone was thrown and I was like you gotta explain this to me I don't fully understand and some lady said this is like if Donald Trump became president and I said

1:10:56Romesh Ranganathan:What was it like doing SNL? You're aware that there's a UK one now? Yeah, I went to the taping of the first one. It was so fun. And I'm so glad that the SNL UK thing is happening. I think anything that's nurturing young talent and exposing people to that is great. And I think that show's really good. And the cast is super talented. but yeah I hosted the US SNL and that was so fun definitely a highlight of the career you're there the whole week right getting involved in all of the stuff yeah I'm there the whole week and yeah it was super fun yeah okay you're two for two well done here's your third one whenever I see Keanu he still gives major Neo energy no I didn't say that I didn't say that if I did it's misquoted no you didn't say that it's the real quote about him you said is he looks like he drove straight from an anime movie into reality.

1:11:54Romesh Ranganathan:That's what you actually said. Yeah, because we would just rehearse at my house, and he would just show up on his motorcycle, and he just looked like an anime character. He's the coolest guy. And me and Seth are just sitting there like we're dorks. Is he as cool as we've been all led to believe? He's the best. Right. He's the best, and he's just done so much. I was watching him this morning. I watched The Devil's Advocate. It's on Criterion channel, and I hadn't seen it in so long. it's great yeah um it must and how long did it take you to sort of because we always british people we always get really starstruck with americans uh-huh and kiana would be like somebody it would change your behavior did that happen to you he's like one of the few people that you know at a certain point you kind of see all these people sure and then there's like a really you know select group that still have that mystique and he's one of those people but over time you kind of get used to it and he's such a sweet guy and yeah so he sort of gets rid of that pretty yeah yeah and he's aware of it you know he kind of knows yeah he knows that he's going to have an effect yeah yeah uh okay here's your next one the big advantage of writing for myself is i always agree to do my projects and i don't drop out yeah i definitely said that I was in Variety last year.

1:13:12Romesh Ranganathan:I mean, that's a good guarantee, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, that's the thing I think about when you are working with people who are actors and actors alone, is that I find it really... I find it so difficult to think that you're at the mercy of other people deciding whether you should do this thing or not. And that's your only way of getting work, right? It feels pretty mad, right? Wait, if you're the director? If you're the actor and you're... You're waiting for someone to say you're just going to a different gatekeeper each time in the hope that they think you're the one. Yeah. In a really competitive field.

1:13:44But some of those people that are super successful, they're just sitting there going, yeah, I don't want to do this. They're getting a lot of stuff. And some people, I mean, Keanu has been that guy for so long. The guy's been working since he was a kid.

1:13:56Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah, yeah. And it's never stopped. Gosh, incredible. Okay, you're four for four. Well done. Really proud of you. This is your last one. Okay. Did you or did you not say this? salads aren't bringing it hard enough this is from one of my specials I remember that do you ever listen to old stand up and you forgot the bits yeah loads of times sometimes somebody will quote a bit back to you and you're like I don't say that what the fuck are you talking about that happens to me someone will be drunk and just say some bit that I don't remember I have no clue what they're doing and they're like you said that I'm like sorry do you still stand by that salads aren't bringing it hard enough Yeah, they need to come a little harder.

1:14:37Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah.

1:14:40Romesh Ranganathan:I mean, I do think Salas have done better in America than over here. That bit was a while ago. So that's before all this kind of the sweet green and all these kind of things. Yeah, yeah. Okay, fine, fine. Okay, I'm not going to hold you accountable for that. You are five for five. Well done, Aziz Ansari. That was great work. It's incredible. It's one of the best. I'll say that most people get five out of five. But look, it's been a real pleasure to talk to you, man. Thank you so much. And a real honor. I'm such a fan. We're all massive fans. Well, same for me to you. And I'm so glad we finally got to meet.

1:15:11And I hope to see you around more.

1:15:13Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah, yeah, same. Hopefully, we'll gig at the Bill Murray together. Yeah, that'd be amazing. Yeah. Now, we like to try and end the podcast on a big moment. Could you give us like a, we're after an exclusive, really. Like, do you have like a dream you have, a hidden talent, something you haven't said publicly? Okay. So, yes, I brought something for you. Great news. Here's something I don't think I've talked about ever before. I, every year I started doing during COVID, I started making a cookbook for my friends. And now I've done like six of them. So I brought you, you can take one of these because I don't have extras, but you can take any of these.

1:15:55I wanted to give you this one Is this real? Yeah, these are real This is the one that's the Indian recipes But I only have one I can get this for you I have extra somewhere in LA But any of these you can take But this was last year This was 2021 These are your cookbooks? Yeah, but I just make them for my friends This was 23

1:16:20Romesh Ranganathan:Yeah, that's true This is the first one This is like you deliberately went, I'm going to shit on your gift.

1:16:33Romesh Ranganathan:There's way too much production value. Can I just, do you mind if I just, these, this is an example of a book that Aziz has done for his friends. He's got an introduction. He's got a little thing about breakfast, what you'd like to do. And then it's the recipe. There's illustrations. this is incredible yeah photos everything yeah frittata with mushrooms and rosemary I do my zucchini do you mind if I read a bit I do my zucchini frittatas mostly in summer and this is when I switch over to as we get into the colder months wait you gotta do the audiobook because it sounds it sounds ridiculous hearing it out loud this is why I don't release them publicly because it's truly absurd you could put these out though come on man I kind of like that it's something that is just for me.

1:17:26Romesh Ranganathan:This is so cool. This is like, oh, wow, man. How many of them do you get made at each time? I know you're asking how many friends have you got. Probably like 50 or something. 50? Yeah. Yeah, I guess when you get to bigger numbers, it makes it more cost effective, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The key to this heartwarming soup is some nice big butter beans. Wait, you got to keep doing this.

1:17:52Romesh Ranganathan:also in general gotta give a shout out to nice jars of beans I've never I've never been able to get into the whole soak the beans overnight madness who the fuck knows they want beans the day before

1:18:09Romesh Ranganathan:this is funny shit man no it's fun oh thank you so much please can you give it up for Aziz Ansari that was great man Thank you so much. Yo, thanks for watching and listening to the Romesh Ranganathan Show. Sup, y 'all? It's genuinely lovely that so many of you keep coming back, but I'm hearing rumours, naive hearsay and conjecture that some of you haven't subscribed yet. If you haven't, now's the time. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss episodes. We've got new episodes every Monday and Thursday. Monday's the Big Guest Conversations where we talk about what they're up to and have a laugh.

1:18:45Romesh Ranganathan:And Thursday's the me and my mum, Shanthi, answering your questions and family dilemmas as well as burning off any self-esteem I've got knocking about. So I'll see you on Thursday when mum takes over. If you've got a problem, a story or a family dilemma, send it to podcast at rangaby.com, voice note or text us on 07731 623355. That's 07731 623355. We love getting you involved and you might hear yourself in a future episode. Plus, it means less content for us to generate. See you next time. Oh, shut up, Romesh. Capture your favorite summer feeling with Pandora Jewelry. Discover a collection inspired by the sunshine, freedom, and moments that make the season unforgettable.

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