Aziz Ansari Talks Comedy, Dating and Social Media

By Jamilah King Oct 02, 2014

Aziz Ansari is taking an unusual approach to his comedy routines these days: he’s doing sociological research. In an interview with Camille Cannon at Vegas Seven, the comedian talked about why the research is crucial to his new routine and book, "Modern Romance."

In addition to Modern Romance being the subject and title of your stand-up tour, you’re writing a book about it. What’s that process like?

It’s ambitious. I’ve been doing [stand-up] about dating and stuff, and I started meeting with sociologists and academics and got into these interesting conversations about dating and technology and how relationships have changed over the last few generations. I’ve been working with sociologist [and Going Solo author] Eric Klinenberg for more than a year. We interviewed hundreds of people and a bunch of notable academics. I don’t think there’s been anything similar to it from a comedian. It’s a really funny book, but it’s also really interesting, and I think people will dig it.

You’re also crowdsourcing on Reddit, and you promote a link to that thread on Twitter. Does it ever feel super meta to conduct research on technology and relationships using social media?

I never even thought about that until you said it, but that’s true. It’s weird. When we did these focus groups for the book, we’d have like 30 people in different cities, and we’d speak to them for an hour or so and then we started thinking, "Oh, it’d be great if we could get people from other parts of the country, because we can’t physically be everywhere." With Reddit, you’re kind of everywhere. Everyone participates.

Read more at Vegas Seven