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Aziz Ansari has gotten really famous over the last year. Parks and Recreation made him a TV star and now this Randy bit from Funny People is becoming an internet/standup comedy sensation. He also appeared in I Love You Man, coming to DVD soon, has a standup special coming to Comedy Central.
Crave Online: We know Judd Apatow movies are a lot of improv. How much freedom did he give you?
Aziz Ansari: He’s like really cool, for my character he was really cool about being open to any ideas I had, not only standup but just character traits and attitudes and stuff. Yeah, it’s really collaborative.
Crave Online: Were you surprised how much or how little standup ended up in the film?
Aziz Ansari: I think we all kind of assumed that he wouldn’t use a ton of the standup, so no.
Crave Online: But was there more than you expected?
Aziz Ansari: No, that was the exact amount of standup I predicted would be in. When we were filming, I was like, “There’s going to be about 15 minutes and 42 seconds total standup.” Watch the movie, it’s right on the dot.
Crave Online: How much will end up on the DVD?
Aziz Ansari: I mean, we shot so much standup, there’ll be so much on the DVD. How many sets did we do in the comedy clubs, like six different shows in the comedy clubs. Then there was the show at the Orpheum theater. They shot hours of standup. Even when we’re practicing, as soon as we starred doing standup for the movie, getting our characters ready and stuff, they were filming every show we did, like UCB Theater and places like that.
Crave Online: Where did Randy come from?
Aziz Ansari: You know, when we did the first Randy scene, Judd was kind of explaining his idea of the character. He’s just like, “Yeah, just make him really cocky and confident.” Then as we were doing a scene, we were kind of coming up with these ideas. Like, “Oh, what if he had a DJ? What if all his jokes were really dirty, about sex?” Then after that, we shot the scenes first and then the standup stuff. I was like, “Oh, the way I did Randy in the scenes, he wouldn’t do standup like I do standup. It would be much crazier and he’d jump around and all that stuff.” So I started writing standup for Randy in particular. As far as who it’s based on, I’ve seen like we put out some videos and people went, “Oh, that’s definitely gotta be this guy.” I don't think it’s as much a dig at any particular comedian. I kind of thought of it like what if Soulja Boy did standup comedy? That’s the idea I had, so that’s why he has a dance. That’s why he has a DJ. That was kind of the inspiration more than any comedian. So it’s Soulja Boy.
Crave Online: Did you learn things doing standup in character?
Aziz Ansari: I’ve learned that I think people like Randy more than Aziz Ansari. No, but it’s crazy. People really do respond to that really high energy stuff. When you come out there and you’re dancing around, you’re like, “Who’s ready to laugh their dicks off?” People are like, “Oh, I like this. This is good.” I was watching a tape of my old standup and I come up, I’m like, “Yeah, so, you know, I was walking down the street…” Who cares about that? Yeah, it is kind of interesting to see how audiences react when you do standup as a totally different person.
