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Comedy, Off the Radar
For as much as I loved standup and was fascinated by the form in all its iterations, I found myself having an almost viscerally negative reaction to essentially every South Asian comedian who I came across on YouTube. Granted, by this point, comedians like Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling had already opened the doors for South Asians to exist more three-dimensionally in the public eye, but they did so by swinging in the complete opposite direction and separating their comedic personas from their racial identities almost entirely. Comedians like Hasan Minhaj were able to carve out a fruitful middle ground, where they could put out material that thoughtfully explored issues of identity without becoming pigeonholed exclusively within this niche. Today, Minhaj releases his first comedy special on Netflix , a one-man show entitled Homecoming King. I got the chance to speak with Hasan recently about Homecoming King, his process for writing the show, and of course, his amazing set at the WHCD. I know we only have a little bit of time, so I should probably get right into it, but I have to ask: what was it like playing in the NBA celebrity all-star game? A life-changing experience, man. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Growing up, I always wanted to play in the league. They had trainers who stretched us out. It was nuts! Yeah, as a fellow Indian kid who got cut from basketball teams growing up, I have to imagine that it was incredibly validating. Oh my God, it was a life-changing experience, man. It was incredible. So, okay, in terms of Homecoming King —when you were workshopping the show initially, what was it like getting adjusted to the rhythm of theater versus the rhythm of standup? The biggest change in the rhythm of theater is that you have to be comfortable with, like, huge chunks of silence.
Hasan Minhaj’s humble beginnings
Watch now. You can add Little Women to the list! Take a look at even more movies and TV shows that were so nice they made ’em twice at least. See the full gallery. Title: Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King —.
On Dvd & Streaming
Someone please tell the President. He was born in America, and spent the first eight years of his life alone with his father, a chemist, while his mother, who had returned to India, was training to become a doctor. When she eventually joined them in the U. Minhaj is preppy and polished, his carefully choreographed routine aided by images projected on a screen behind him. A Rockwellian animation of Minhaj biking in a suit foreshadows the story that gives the show its title, about a shocking incident of genteel racism that Minhaj experienced in high school. Over-production can kill a good comedy special, or risk making it seem like a TED Talk, but Minhaj shrewdly uses imagery to underscore the Americanness of his story. The camera trains on his telegenic face, his friendly eyes wide with awe at the memory. That was the moment, he says, when he realized that he and his father come from two very different generations. And now you want to be the bigger man? When he arrived, though, he discovered another boy already there, placing a corsage on her wrist. Do you need a ride home? Later, Minhaj gives a coda. A phrase in Hindi recurs throughout the show. Recommended Stories. Sign in. Get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box every day. Privacy Policy.
How W. Kamau Bell manages to make intersectional progressivism funny.
Someone please tell the President. He was born in America, and spent the first eight years of his life alone with his father, a chemist, while his mother, who had returned to India, was training to become a doctor. When she eventually joined them in the U. Minhaj is preppy and polished, his carefully choreographed routine aided by images projected on a screen behind. A Rockwellian animation of Minhaj biking in a suit foreshadows the story that gives the show its title, about a shocking incident of genteel racism that Minhaj experienced in high school.
Over-production can kill a good comedy special, or risk making it seem like a TED Talk, but Minhaj shrewdly uses imagery to underscore the Americanness of his story. The camera trains on his telegenic face, his friendly eyes wide with awe at the memory. That was the moment, he says, when he realized that he and his father come from two very different generations.
And now you want to be the bigger man? When he arrived, though, xid discovered another boy already there, placing a corsage on her wrist. Do you need a ride home? Later, Minhaj gives a coda. A phrase in Hindi mucch throughout the. Recommended Stories. Sign in. Get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box every day. Privacy Policy.
How W. Kamau Bell manages to make intersectional progressivism funny.
It is his first stand-up special and premiered on Netflix on May 23, Homecoming King received immense critical acclaim, hhow some calling it the best stand-up comedy special on Netflix. Illustrated with old photos and peppered with Hindi and Urdu phrases, Homecoming King features a central theme of the immigrant experience in the United States, based on true stories from Minhaj’s life as the California -born son of Indian Muslim immigrant parents. In the first half of the show, he discusses his childhood growing up in mostly white Davis, Californiawhere he lived alone with his dad for eight years while his mother was finishing medical school in India. He talks about the pressures of being the child of demanding immigrant parents while at the same time experiencing racismbullying and rejection from the outside world. The second half of the show concerns his heartbreaking senior prom night when he went to pick up his date only to discover her parents had found her a white boy to take because of «how it would look» and the repercussions, which impacted Minhaj’s life until he was hired for The Daily Show. Minhaj chose the title Homecoming King to reflect his status as the high school underdog who never went to football games or dances, while also conveying a message mnihaj redemption as an adult.
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