Aziz Ansari: Nightclub Comedian

Come for the celebrity jokes and encounters, stay for the kinder, gentler message, and use the Notes app to write a note to self to look into a flip phone.

It’s a world-weary show – the more so for the contrast drawn with Ansari’s younger self, footage of whom is intercut arriving at the same venue 20 years ago.

The half-hour passes quickly because Ansari is still affable as a comedian, but the humor is bland and empty. He wants to connect with viewers on a more emotional level, but the transparent attempt to rebuild his image feels too measured and staged, taking precedence over the performance itself.

Without much in the way of interesting ideas, all that’s left for Nightclub Comedian is the look, and in moments it is beautiful. ... Except if you look closely, all the faces around him change. The crowd is different from one shot to the next. It’s not one authentic performance; it’s many of them stitched together. ... But the look of this special — its claim of being real — is all that it’s about. When that part of it crumbles, what’s left?