Aziz Ansari @ the Pabst

I’m almost willing to bet my weight in Pabst Blue Ribbon that anyone who spends an hour watching Aziz Ansari will walk away talking just like him. Start by proposing an everyday fact about life or a weird situation, drop down low into a sort of gangster dialect and finish it off by talking really fast in a high pitch.Maybe jump around a little bit too for emphasis. It may not be funny to your friends who don’t know who the hell Aziz Ansari is, but it will get a laugh from those who know what he’s been up to. Ansari’s infectious delivery spread through the Pabst Theater on Friday, June 18th for two hilarious shows.

You know the funny, little Indian guy from “Human Giant,” “Funny People” and “Parks and Recreation?” It’s the same guy. Ansari has been blowing up in the past few years, and, with the January release of his Comedy Central special “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening” on DVD and CD, his stand up is gaining worldwide popularity.

Ansari’s commentary on stories about crazy, hip-hop celebs, Facebook encounters with his cousins Harris and Darwish, and his Internet procrastination process is completely unpretentious and totally piss-in-your-pants funny. He recanted a tale from a night out where he watched a waiter explain what a grapefruit is to 50 Cent.

“50 Cent doesn’t know what a grapefruit is,” he said. “The exchange was glorious.”

Ansari is also a big fan of top 10 lists and perusing seemingly useless information on the Internet. Apparently Wikipedia has an insanely long list of every racial slur ever. Ansari shared his top five favorites with the audience.

“We all know they are offensive, so just shut the fuck up.”

The crowd really got going when he brought up his cousin Harris and his less popular cousin Darwish. If anyone has banked on relentlessly teasing relatives, Ansari has cashed out. His chubby, teenage cousin Harris’ obsession with Cinnabon and Darwish’s financially crippling addiction to Chick-fil-A provided a good chunk of entertainment. Ansari’s impression of Harris doing it with a Cinnabon topped the whole bit.

Of course the night wouldn’t be complete without his latest stories about R. Kelly.

“R. Kelly keeps doing amazing things, and I would be failing at my job if I didn’t make fun of R. Kelly.”

A found video featuring R. Kelly trying to define the word “echo” by excessively using the word led to an extended bit of Ansari defining random words from the audience, R. Kelly style.

The show opener Dan Levy was also full of funny. His bits about his upcoming marriage, adventures in Las Vegas and the awkwardness of STD tests played out nicely with his sort of defeated nerd style of comedy. His most crowd pleasing moment came when he told the tale of his roommate eating four of his pot cookies without knowing that they were pot cookies. Complete with a reading from the journal of his messed up roommate, the routine was fresh.