Like most Indians abroad, Hasan Minhaj appreciates the value of a good lota. The “manual transmissions of bidets”, as the Indian American comedian calls them, features hilariously in episode two of his Netflix show, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. The sophomore instalment took on Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Like most other late night hosts, the 33-year-old too focussed on the atrocious hit on journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, who was dismembered by 15 assassins inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But unlike anyone else, Minhaj worked a surprising, yet seamless, segue to a much lighter topic: imploring his audience to treat their bodies with the same respect as they would a pair of expensive albeit soiled Air Jordans. You would not use only toilet paper to clean them, right? So Minhaj laid down some “booty hygiene tips”.

Political comedy high

The Patriot Act — the latest to jostle for eyeballs among the oh-so-crowded pecking order of late night political comedies — dropped on the streaming giant’s website three weeks ago. A “woke TED talk”, as he puts it, the 20-something-minute show highlights a single topic with a generous dollop of humour. Contrarily, Minhaj’s peers — from Late Night with Seth Meyers to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — devote a mere segment of an entire episode to news. “There’s a lot of tweet chasing that’s happening right now and I think this show is one of the few in the marketplace that provides insight and an in-depth look at really big issues,” he says. “But I think it’s awesome for me to do a huge geopolitical deep dive and then also do a different run on lotas.”

So far three episodes have aired, each featuring a wildly-gesticulating Minhaj in his trademark performance style. He goes through a gamut of emotions on stage, embodying sass, wide-eyed wonder and even outrage, while talking a mile a minute. The carefully-planned tirades are only amplified by an incredibly cool set, thanks to production/set and lighting designer Marc Janowitz. Surrounded by screens that double as walls, Minhaj stands on a stage that projects in 4K high-def. As images and graphics whoosh in and out, the comedian deftly uses every inch of space available, capturing his audience’s attention. Take, for instance, this writer’s personal highlight of episode three, Amazon, featuring Bill Gates’ possible worst nightmare. The founder of Microsoft, along with former CEO Steve Ballmer, proudly stars in a parody of the 1998 cult comedy, A Night at the Roxbury, replete with shiny disco suits. “Bill Gates wants us to forget that video so bad, he’s trying to end malaria,” sasses Minhaj to audience cackles.

Deeper focus

Despite the many jibes and comic tangents, he stresses that the focus is always on large political and cultural topics that often do not get covered in mainstream news cycles. “This is a news-driven show. It starts with news, facts and a take that comes from our senior news team,” says Minhaj, about his colleagues who comprise former reporters from illustrious publications like The New York Times and The Associated Press. “They’re print journalists who’ve spent years cutting their teeth on hard news. They’ve been waiting for the opportunity to put [news] in a format that is easily digestible.”

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Minhaj’s late night picks

Once the dossiers of information are collected, a unique peg is established. Minhaj has declared that the Patriot Act needs to be simultaneously current and with a long shelf-life. A paradox, if we have ever heard one. But he is confident he will successfully pull it off. Take, for example, the episode on Affirmative Action, which was actually about meritocracy and the rising anti-black sentiments in the Asian community.

As an [Indian] American, I can have a unique perspective on that,” he says. “India has programmes like that too, where there are seats reserved for under-represented groups. It is a heavily debated thing that’s both topical and evergreen.” Similarly, Amazon was about understanding monopolies and anti-trust laws; important issues that will not vanish any time soon. “Every single headline that we talk about ties into a larger fundamental question,” he emphasises, adding that whenever possible, he would like to run the topic through the prism of his own experiences. “I want it to be both broad in terms of its topical subject matter, but niche in terms of ‘this is how I feel about it’.”

Rise to the top

Before Minhaj brought us Patriot Act, he appeared on The Daily Show from to 2014 to 2018, first working with Jon Stewert and then Trevor Noah. As the show’s senior correspondent, he gave us gems like ‘Halal Things Considered’, a segment that addressed racism against Muslims. It was spurred from an incident where a woman was denied a canned beverage aboard an airplane for fear she would transform it into a weapon. Another memorable bit was highlighting American ignorance when a wave of racial intolerance and Islamophobia was hurled against the Sikh community. Among a collage of images which included a Sikh person, several US citizens picked the least likely representation of a member of the community. Often, they even chose a bird instead of an actual human being.

But what skyrocketed his rising fame was his set at the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. US President Donald Trump, who famously boycotted the event, was the ‘elephant not in the room’ according to Minhaj. “The leader of our country is not here,” he ribbed. “And that’s because he lives in Moscow. It is a very long flight. It’d be hard for Vlad [Putin] to make it. Vlad can’t just make it on a Saturday.” His likening of the President to the HBO show Game of Thrones’ vicious King Joffrey and the dinner akin to the Red Wedding bloodbath elicited a lot of applause.

Desi by heart

Later that year, Minhaj released his Netflix special, Homecoming King, recorded in his hometown of Davis, California. The hour-something show cemented his definitive rise to become one of America’s best comedians. With savage anecdotes and other poignant stories, Minhaj hung his heart out for the world. “I think audiences are really savvy. It’s an insult if you try to put on a front or present a different version of yourself,” he says, about the need to be vulnerable on stage. “I want people to feel like I’m speaking to them and hanging out with them.”

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The Daily Show ticket

As the first comedian of Indian descent to pull off something like the Patriot Act, Minhaj is expected to end Netflix’s bad romance with talk shows. They have cancelled Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea, The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHaleand Michelle Wolf’s The Break citing low viewership. Fortunately for Minhaj, the streaming giant has already ordered 29 more episodes, giving him plenty of time to hone his act. In an endless sea of similar formats, his series aims to push the boundaries of political comedy and we really like what we have seen so far.

Streaming now on Netflix.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment / by Deborah Cornelious / November 09th, 2018