When comedian Asif Ali shook hands with a reporter before his Wednesday night performance Ali said, “Yea, I’ll do an interview, but it will be racist.”
After his hour long show, his comments were less racist but made light of the stereotypical qualities of his Indian heritage.
“What’s your best season to pick up girls,” Ali asked a student in the audience. “Summer,” the student said. “Well, I like to pick up women in the winter. That way, I can have nine layers of coats on and no one questions my actual size.”
His improvisation and make-fun-of-myself style was a big hit for Mesa State’s audience last Wednesday. Ali was constantly interacting with the audience and created a very humorous dialogue with several audience members. Which is a comedic style that has proven successful by the recognition he has received.
He’s performed in eight countries and features on HBO, Ziddo 21, Comedy Central Open Mic, and NBC Standup For Diversity. He works hard to make a name for himself. With comedic idols such as Chris Rock, Daniel Tosh, and Dave Chappelle, Asiff Ali’s style is right up with the greats with his quick thinking and unique comedic delivery.
Mesa State’s PAC brought Ali to the college. The turnout for the comedian was more than the planners anticipated. Dwaynie Bacon of PAC said, “I was thinking maybe 50 would attend, but there is a lot more than that.” The event took place in the College Center’s game room. As seating ran out, students continued to pile in.
PAC’s chair person, Patience Kanda described why Ali was brought to Mesa,
“He was a good fit for Mesa State because he is goofy, and we’re a little goofy here at Mesa,” she said. “He’s really relaxed, and he is not one of those comedians that bashes everybody in the audience.”
Ali’s interactions with the audience at Mesa will be posted on his Facebook. He said, “I had some fun audience interactions [at Mesa State]. Which are always great and they will be posted on Facebook soon. I like to post different audience interactions and Mesa state has by far passed all of them.”
“I started in coffee shops in Arizona where I grew up and it was going really well and then I moved to Chicago and that’s when I really started touring and doing colleges and international things,” Ali said.
Now, Ali is working on an idea for a show to Comedy Central in the Fall about breaking into the industry and the experiences that he has encountered with it himself.
If you would like to see the highlighted audience interactions that Ali chose to post with Mesa State students, search for “Comedian Asif Ali” on Facebook. To see the routine in action, look for KMSA Video’s footage of the routine on Youtube.
u
Recent Comments