--- title: 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari | TIME description: The star of NBC's Parks and Recreation is currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour. Aziz Ansari will now take your questions canonical: https://time.com/video/HGTUVfNg/ og:title: 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari og:description: The star of NBC's Parks and Recreation is currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour. Aziz Ansari will now take your questions og:url: https://time.com/video/HGTUVfNg/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HGTUVfNg/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari twitter:description: The star of NBC's Parks and Recreation is currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour. Aziz Ansari will now take your questions twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HGTUVfNg/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HGTUVfNg.m3u8) (5:41)  _Published 2011-02-04. The star of NBC's Parks and Recreation is currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour. Aziz Ansari will now take your questions_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Aziz Ansari Responds to Sexual Misconduct Allegation: 'I Took Her Words to Heart'](/video/dbvtP8TY/) ### Aziz Ansari Responds to Sexual Misconduct Allegation: 'I Took Her Words to Heart' [Late-Night Highlight: Aziz Ansari Shares Cringeworthy First Text Exchanges](/video/cWf7N1j0/) ### Late-Night Highlight: Aziz Ansari Shares Cringeworthy First Text Exchanges [Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance](/video/hyWR9rjw/) ### Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance --- ## Transcript >> And that's why they call me Prince Charming 'cause I always find the glass slipper for my Cinderella. >> These are way too tight. >> Well, the real Cinderella didn't have hippo feet. >> Tom, we're back. >> Jeremy, suck it. By the way, I've been giving away free sports bras to the girls of Hotdog on a Stick. >> Hello, I'm Gilbert Cruz for TIME and we're here with Aziz Ansari, stand- up comedian and costar of NBC's Parks and Recreation, which is currently in its third season. Aziz, thank you for being with us today. >> No problem. >> Our first question is from Olivia Wilcox from Yorktown Heights, New York. Do you have a special ritual that you perform before you get onstage every night? >> That's a racist question. No, I don't have any kind of special ritual. I sometimes will listen to the previous show, and hear if there's any changes I've made that I wanted to continue making into current show, and that's about it. I'll just drink tea-- It's all really boring. It's no cocaine or heroin, any of that. It's like, drinking tea with honey and lemon, and listening to the previous show-- very responsible type of things. >> It sounds very peaceful. It's not like, you know, Eddie Murphy getting roughed up before getting delirious or something. >> No, no, it's very nerdy. >> Our next question is from Chris Oltrogge from Chicago. If this whole comedy thing doesn't work out for you, what's your fallback? >> Jesus, do I need to have a fallback? C'mon, Chris, I'm not-- I'm not pulling enough? Jesus, I need a fallback still? >> I think so. Hollywood is fickle. >> It's true. I'll probably sell knives on the home shopping network, or swords. No, make that swords. I can be pretty enthusiastic, and I can tell people how awesome the swords are, and, you know, brag about the craftsmanship or whatever. Should be fine. >> What do you think is the ideal timeslot for selling swords on the home shopping network? >> I would say between 4: 15 and 4: 35 AM. >> That's when the sword enthusiasts are up? That's when the crazy guys who like swords are awake? >> That's that's when they're up, and they're out of it, and they think, you know what, maybe I should get me a sword. >> Our next question is from Brenda Garcia from Jakarta, Indonesia. If you could invite a classic comedian or one of the greats to dinner, who would it be? >> For me, who I really grew up and was one of my big inspirations, and who I've lucky enough to have been able to meet a couple of times was Chris Rock. Chris' stuff was really, for my generation I think, the seminal comedy specials when I was in highschool and college. So he's someone I should get there with some time. >> What was it about his comedy or his presence on the stage, what was it about him that-- >> I think he just really hit the zeitgeist with the-- with those specials like he really kind of said what everyone was thinking about a lot of different topics. And it was something different, and was a very unique comedic voice. And, obviously, he's still around, and still has a pretty big impact on stand- up and comedy in general. >> Right. [ time = 0: 00 = 3: 03 ] >> I feel like with Chris Rock, and maybe with people before him, they were-- there were specials whether they're on VHS, or cable and everywhere like-- they were such events when they came out. Is it-- is it more difficult these days when everything is so fractured, and [ unk ] gets their clips on the internet to make as big of a splash with your stuff? >> It's a little bit different now. I think there's a lot more comedy specials that are out, and it's not as much of a big deal when HBO puts out like comedy hour. >> And that's definitely hard to sell yourself apart for sure. >> Daulet Bakbergenov from Almaty, Kazakhstan. >> Whoa. >> Don't you get tired sometimes of being funny? >> Don't you get tired of being from Kazakhstan? Do I get tired of being funny? Sometimes as a comedian, it can be tiring when people wanted to be on like, " Hey, do something funny. Tell me a joke ." That can be a little tiring, but I think if you do this kind of thing, there's a part of you, your personality, that likes being funny, and enjoys exercising that part of your brain, or else you wouldn't do it. I hope you wouldn't do it. >> Right. Aziz, our last question is from Ricardo Diaz-- >> Ricardo, [ unk ] gets home. >> From Mexico City. If there's a fight between cowboys and ninjas, who wins? >> Really? Ricardo? You took-- you took time out of your life to write that down and email that to TIME magazine? >> I think Ricardo needs an answer. >> Ricardo, between cowboys and ninjas-- >> Cowboys and ninjas. >> I guess ninjas. They seem like they would probably be more stealthy in this situation, but they probably would also not be armed. It depends on how many ninjas and how many cowboys there are. >> It's very logical, but they would have swords that you would've sold them on the late night TV. >> Yes. If they were night- owl ninjas that are watching cable access late at night, they would probably have bought swords from me. >> You've made Ricardo's day. I'm sure of it. >> Ricardo, I hope you're happy. You wasted everyone's life for 30 seconds. >> Aziz, thank you for taking questions from TIME readers. >> Oh, I'm very flattered that they even had questions for me and that you guys sat down with me, so thank you very much. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for Comedian Aziz Ansari","description":"The star of NBC's Parks and Recreation is currently on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour. 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