Review of Aziz Ansari's Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening

Aziz Ansari's comedy album "intimate moments for a sensual evening" is probably one of the best comedy album's I've heard in years. I've haven't laughed this hard since Mitch Hedburg's "Strategic Grill Locations."

The album follows the basic comedy format of arriving on stage and then telling one joke or story after another. No opening sketch is used which is a plus since most opening sketches fail to reach a level of actual humor and tend to present simply a gag that only the comedian in question finds funny. Unlike regular jokes, opening gags fail to be screened by the audience thus preventing the comedian from getting honest feedback. As a good stand-up routine can compensate for any foolish opening sketches few comedians truly know how far off the mark their opening material is.

Mr. Ansari's stories vary over a fairly wide range of topics from going to the pharmacy to finding things on Craig's List to his time spent hanging out with Kanye West. My personal favorite story hands down was the story told involving Mr. Ansari giving his young cousin a hard time on Facebook not only because the story was humorous but because the elements flowed so well together that it seemed fairly clear the event actually happened; A rarity among the numerous stand up jokes.

I tend to listen to comedy CD's while I'm at my job which involves me sitting for large amounts of time in an office setting. In order to not look insane I have to try and not be too loud or laugh and talk randomly so the system I use to measure how funny a comedy act is based around how many times the CD in question managed to make me literally laugh out loud. Nearly every joke on this CD had me laughing with the exception of the final track in which Mr. Ansari assumed a false persona and told jokes from that characters perspective. Not only was this character not funny but the segment also suffered from an overuse of sound effects and repeated jokes. While this over use was clearly intentional it was very ineffective. In fact it was actually quite off putting as it was the last thing on the CD and left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to give quite some time and reflection before reviewing the CD.

Overall, as I said earlier this is possibly one of my new favorite comedy CD's and I recommend it with ease despite the tremendous failure of the final track.