Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

If you enjoyed Aziz Ansari on “Parks and Recreation”, “Funny People” and “Scrubs, you’re going to dig Ansari in “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening”.  A fun and very entertaining Comedy Central DVD release with comedy about his cousin on Facebook, Craigslist, Kanye West, R. Kelly and much, much more!  Definitely a DVD worth checking out!

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TITLE: Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening

DURATION: 55 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital, Widescreen

RATED: Not Rated (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content Warning: This Program is recommended for mature audiences only.  It contains adult language and situations)

COMPANY: Comedy Central/Paramount

RELEASE DATE: January 19, 2010

Starring

Aziz Ansari

Comedian Aziz Ansari presents his highly anticipated, hour-long debut standup special.  The critically acclaimed standup and actor (Parks and Recreation, Funny People) discusses topics ranging from sheets with fraudulent thread counts to the chubbiness of his young cousin Harris.  Also included is a special encore performance from RAAAAAAAANDY.  Ultimately, there is no reason to purchase this DVD and help Mr. Ansari earn enough income to perhaps make a down payment on a nice country home.  Don’t make a decision you’ll regret forever. Purchase “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening Now.”

Aziz Ansari has had a spectacular year in 2009 with a new television series “Parks and Recreation” and kicking off the year on “Scrubs”.  Ansari has also appeared on films “I Love You, Man” and “Funny People”.

Known for playing with characters for their witty humor, Ansari’s comedic ties began while he was attending college at New York University where he performed stand up comedy in NYC especially at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.  His comedy attracted a lot of people in the area and sure enough Rolling Stone Magazine added him on their hot list for “Hot Standup” and won the Jury Award for “Best Standup” for HBO’s 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.  Ansari later toured with the Comedians of Comedy and the Flight of the Concords and in 2008, went on his own comedy tour titled “Glow in the Dark”.

Now Ansari’s special titled “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” is set for air on Comedy Central and his own Comedy Central DVD will be released and the first comedy DVD from the cable network to kick off 2010.

Ansari’s comedy is quite different from other Comedy Central comedians in which we see the style of comedy shown from his characters are similar what you see on stage.  What I mean by that is, Ansari is cool.  He has this street like humor mixed in with this Gen Y style of comedy in which Ansari will joke about Craigslist, Facebook, gay rights, Cold Stone Creamery and his associate with friends such as Kanye West and R. Kelly.

Ansari talks about going on his young cousin Harris’s Facebook page and messing around with comments and screwing with him on his message board, to interviewers who ask him questions about his feeling towards “Slumdog Millionaire”, especially when he’s born in South Carolina.  Ansari manages to keep things consistent throughout the whole performance but definitely saves the best for last as he talks about jokes about hanging out with Kanye West and watching R. Kelly live.   And for those who enjoyed Ansari’s performance as Randy from the film “Funny People”, Ansari has an encore performance as the character “RAAAAAAAANDY” included on the DVD.

Here is the following track list for “Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” and what you can expect from the DVD:

  1. Gay Rights
  2. Sheets
  3. CVS/Getting the Sniffles on a Flgiht
  4. Craigslist Ad
  5. My Ransom Roommate/Getting Recognized in New York
  6. Waking with Dinosaurs
  7. Simpleman Cruise
  8. My Cousin Harris
  9. Harassing Harris on Facebook
  10. Are White People Psyched All the Time?
  11. MTV’s Next
  12. The J-1 Waiver/Using my BlackBerry While Driving
  13. Bonnaroo
  14. Cold Stone Creamery/Something Cool to Say to M.I.A.
  15. A Night Out With Kanye West
  16. Kanye West vs. Darwish
  17. R. Kely: The Pied Pier of R and B
  18. RAAAAAAAANDY

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” is presented in widescreen.  Picture quality is very good.  Solid blues and purple background, no busy background, pretty much the focus is on Aziz Ansari with several camera angles including a close up, full body, behind the audience and a camera focusing on the audience.  Editing is not dizzying as the camera follows Ansari and doesn’t change too much.  No 3 to 5-second cuts, cuts are around 10-20 seconds and easy for the eyes.

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital and the comedy is front and center channel driven.  Ansari’s vocals are clear and you can also hear the audience laughing.  For those who own a modern home theater receiver and a 5.1, 7.2 or higher speaker setup, some may want to select audio on all channels for a more immersive soundscape.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” comes with the following special feature:

  • UCB Comedy Death Ray Performance – (30:35) Aziz Ansari’s “Comedy Death Ray Performance” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles recorded on November 3, 2009.  The cool thing about this performance is that it’s not a rehash of what he did on his Comedy Central performance, newer jokes and also crowd interaction as well.  From he and a friend wanting to go on a cross country trip to why he’s getting a lot of hits from Tommy Talorico’s (the video game TV host and video game music composer) website and how Ansari went on the site’s forum to ask for love advice to googling his name.

Ansari’s comedy for “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” was a fun comedy DVD and his presentation for his comedy is very different than other comedians.  In a way, his jokes are story-based and not fast-qipped style of jokes made for shock value but fast quipped-jokes that use things that people familiar with pop culture to online social media and more.  Ansari has a pretty smooth flow with his comedy and is not easily distracted and his delivery is pretty entertaining and just fun.

Again, his comedy routine is quite different from other comedians that have had Comedy Central DVD releases but in the end, I laughed and really enjoyed his stand-up comedy.  His comedy routine was pretty relaxed and you can tell he and the audience were having a fun time. It was great for Ansari to include the Death Ray comedy segment on the special features but it would be cool have more special features.  Maybe some jokes on the day in the life of Aziz Ansari or something really crazy sketch comedy routines or something.

Last, there are not too many Indian American comedians that you see on television and on film in mainstream America, so it’s very cool to see Aziz Ansari get his own Comedy Central DVD and to see his comedy and his career flourishing is pretty awesome.

Overall, if you enjoyed Ansari’s comedy on “Parks and Recreation”, “Funny People”, “Scrubs”, etc. what you see onscreen, Ansari’s style of comedy is captured in “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening”.  The DVD is pretty solid and  definitely a comedy DVD worth purchasing and also a reason to help Ansari have enough income to make a down payment on an nice country home.