Do losers make the best comedians? US standup Aziz Ansari is no loser: he’s sharp-suited, effortlessly cool and his life is, by his own admission, blessed. The Parks and Recreation star is also – hot on the heels of a Madison Square Garden gig – doing two shows in one evening at Hammersmith Apollo, the better to squeeze in all his fans. The popularity is justified: the show is animated, skilful, tight; at points, thoughtful and principled. But it’s also very slick, and I wonder whether Ansari isn’t just a bit too perfect to engender top-rank comedy.
There’s certainly some fine material here. The opening routine contrasts his parents’ struggles with his own frictionless life, sparing neither the loneliness and fear his immigrant mother experienced, nor the ease of being Aziz. There follows a riff on meat-eating and food production that confronts us with our own cravenness, but not at the expense of rap-based tomfoolery; and a feminist routine about the difficulties women experience with “creepy dudes”.
The opinions expressed are uncontroversial, but there’s a blithe intelligence here that’s refreshing. There’s enjoyable stuff too on how mobile phones have made us all commitment-phobic – although Ansari’s claim that we’re the “least lonely” generation is highly questionable.
The closing stages of his 70-minute set are weaker. An extended metaphor representing sex as Skittles asserts the difference between the male and female sex drive. (Sara Pascoe demonstrates the exact opposite in her current show.) Ansari deploys his cartoonish voice to full effect in the closing skit, but these mimed graphs tracing the trajectory of different types of relationship offer minimal insight. It’s all smooth and efficient. But there’s not much warmth, far less – as he quotes doting text messages from his girlfriend – rawness, vulnerability or any sense that Ansari is, or considers himself, ridiculous.
