Aziz Ansari’s Empty Authenticity

Aziz Ansari in Nightclub Comedian. Photo: Marcus Russell Price/ Netflix Aziz Ansari has always been a comedian who cares about how things look, and on the surface, his new half-hour special for Netflix, Nightclub Comedian, looks pretty good. Like much of his Netflix series, Master of None, Ansari directs Nightclub Comedian himself, and the two shows share some aesthetic obsessions. They are grainy and immediate, with framing designed to feel casual and close.

The half-hour begins with black-and-white footage of a very young Ansari descending the Comedy Cellar stairs. Then it cuts to the present day when Ansari is now standing backstage waiting to go on. He peeks around the corner, anticipating his moment. He glances at a notebook, then closes it. “The audience was unaware of the night’s lineup,” an interstitial card reads before Ansari heads out onto the stage. The crowd goes wild, thrilled to see a recognizable face.

It’s a contradiction Ansari does not examine, even when his own material pulls him closer to the crux of the problem. He swings at other comedians and artists who pursue moneymaking ventures like brand partnerships and luxury-beverage companies. He jabs at Kevin Hart with a joke that begins with an admittedly hilarious image of Hart promoting lawn mowers, performing stand-up that plays only when you get on the back of a John Deere.

If at any point Ansari’s material reached for the same goals as the look of the special, Nightclub Comedian might be a different experience. For this special shot as a close, intimate, immediate, raw half-hour of comedy, though, Ansari never skirts anywhere close to vulnerability or risk. He has jokes about vaccines that posit that not everyone is equally qualified to make scientific decisions.

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