Aziz Ansari comes to Miami Beach for the South Beach Comedy Festival

By Amy Reyes2/21/2012

He’s known and loved for stealing scenes as the egocentric public servant Tom Haverford in NBC’s Parks and Recreation, for his roles in movies like Judd Apetow’s ‘Funny People’ (“Raaaandy!”) and alongside Jesse Eisenberg in ’30 Minutes or Less,’ but actor and comedian Aziz Ansari has been doing stand up since his days as Marketing major at NYU. He visits Miami to headline the South Beach Comedy Festival on March 3 at the Fillmore.  The South Carolina native talks to us about his famous friend Kanye West, his love of food and his fear of growing up.

Q: It’s you, Kanye West and five models in the penthouse suite at the W South Beach. What does the conversation sound like?
A: Probably just a bunch of models talking to Kanye and listening to his music and I’m just trying to go get some food and then go to bed.

Q: Which one of your Parks and Rec co-stars is your work wife?
A: All of them together are probably my on-set work moms because they all look after me.

Q: If you were a lady, which one of your co-stars would you go for: Rob Lowe, skinny Seth Rogan or Danny McBride with a mullet? 
I would say none of them and I’d go for Ron Swanson.

Q: Do you share Ron Swanson’s love of beef?
A: I do like food a lot, yes.

Q: I'd heard that you were a big foodie. What places do you plan to hit on your culinary tour of Miami?
A: I am only there briefly, I guess I will try to get some good Cubano. I like tacos a lot. There’s this place in Los Angeles called Ricky’s Fish Tacos that I like and another one called Guisados that I like.

Q: You should try Lime Fresh. They have pretty great fish tacos.
A: Sounds good!

Q: Talk about your role as the pirate rabbit in the upcoming Ice Age movie.  
A: I think it’s really cool. It’s fun to do stuff that the kids can enjoy and not just stuff for older people. In that movie they have so many funny people, plus Drake and Nicki Minaj are both doing voices in it so I’m excited to see how it turns outs.

Q: You are incredibly dapper all the time. Do you have a glam squad?
A: No, I just send photos to my mom and then she just always tells me I look goofy no matter what it is.

Q: Would you ever wear a leather outfit for a comedy special like Eddy Murphy in Delirious?
A: No, but I do have a specific outfit that I wear on tour.  I like to pick a cool suit to wear when I go into work. But no leather so far.

Q: Before the movies, Parks & Recreation, the MTV Music Award hosting gig, there was stand up: Is it your first love?
A: I never stopped doing stand up. It’s something I‘ve keep as a constant.

Q: In your stand up you talk about texting and Facebook and blogs and external hard drives and such. Are you really into gadgets?
A: No, I like gadgets but I don’t talk about that stuff too much. I talk about ice cream and sheets and I’m not obsessed with those things.

Q: What are you obsessed with?
A: I'm obsessed with food. I like to travel and I’m obsessed with stand-up.

Q: I once heard you talking about an R. Kelly concert you went to where he told the crowd that he had been warned that his show was getting too freaky. Will that happen at your show at the Fillmore?
A: I don’t think so. It’s right around the right amount of freaky, hopefully. 

Q: Whenever I see you do that bit I think, “This is so funny, yet he’s such a horrible singer.”
A: Well, your in the minority because most people hear it and they think, “He’s a fantastic singer.” 

Q: What can we expect from your show?
A: It’s like what I’m going to do on my new tour: About how I’m turning 28 and I see a lot of my friends who are becoming adults and getting married and having babies and how I’m very scared of that stuff. It’s kind of about coming to grips with adulthood. 

Q: If you were to have a baby, when it comes time to select a name do you think you would go for something like Blue Ivy or Apple?
A: I don’t plan on having any babies any time soon, so I can’t say.

Q: What’s next for Aziz?
A: I’m planning a new stand up tour that starts in April, my second stand up special is coming out in March and then developing a couple of movies. Movie stuff takes so long to develop.

Q: Describe Aziz Ansari’s ideal woman.
A: She has a sense of humor, enjoys food, she has a jet sky. I’ve always wanted to ride a jet ski.

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