Aditi is a comedy superstar over in India. She’s only one of three female English-speaking comedians in India. – Hasan Minhaj
Growing up in the States, there’s this part of me that’s like, man, I’m Indian. Like, this is where I belong. And as soon as I got to India, and I had to go to the bathroom in some places, I was, like, ‘Man – I am American.’ – Hasan Minhaj
The traditional Hollywood system is pretty rigid, but the film scene in, say, South Africa is booming with a lot of possibilities. If you have the cameras and reasonable capital, you can put your film in theatres next to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ A great example of that was Kagiso Lediga’s film ‘Blitz Patrole.’ – Hasan Minhaj
If you want a great replacement, like, who can follow Barack and still have that swag, that charisma, that charm and be historic – I think it would be Tina Fey for president. – Hasan Minhaj
I’m addicted to chocolate chip cookies. I mean that seriously. If there are chocolate chip cookies, I will devour them. – Hasan Minhaj
One thing I found very interesting about comedians around the world was their knowledge of stuff outside of their own culture and comfort zone. That’s not very common in the States. We produce our own soft power, which is pop culture, but we rarely try to absorb and learn information from other cultures and countries. – Hasan Minhaj
I had a huge Indian wedding, and I did it for my wife, and I did it for my white friends. – Hasan Minhaj
I’ve found the 90-10 rule to be pretty true: 90 percent of what I come up with and write down is kinda ‘eh,’ and then somehow, someway, 10 percent of it happens to work out really great in my act. – Hasan Minhaj
J. Cole’s 2014 ‘Forrest Hills Drive.’ The album, artwork, and director of that album was a huge influence on the visuals for ‘Homecoming King.’ – Hasan Minhaj
There’s all sorts of terrible things that happen around the world. And comedy’s one of those few things where you can discuss those things. – Hasan Minhaj
To show that a comedian on stage in India talking about sanitation or in South Africa talking about HIV and AIDS awareness, if you follow the joke into their lives, you can see that, like, oh, these things aren’t just contrived in joke books. This is real life. I think the best comedians have that bravery and courage to say, Oh, this is what it is. – Hasan Minhaj
The movies ‘Dope’ and ‘Straight Outta Compton’ blew me away. I love seeing directors and writers of color make amazing slices of pop culture. – Hasan Minhaj
I’ve learned to start from a really sound argument, boil down the essence of what you’re trying to say, then build your humor around that, rather than starting with, ‘This sounds funny,’ and going from there. – Hasan Minhaj
‘Shantaram’ is fantastic. An Australian prisoner escapes & joins the mafia in India? Sign me up. I love stuff that is based on true stories. – Hasan Minhaj
