Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden

Topics up for discussion include misogyny, Internet cruelty, factory farming and how modern technology has destroyed our ability to truly connect with one another

The performance was recorded in October 2014. Ansari used the theme from For a Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone as his entrance music. He chose this, and a series of images on a digital screen, to demonstrate his ambition and imagination. Before he performed at Madison Square Garden, a large venue at which few standup comedians had performed, he sought advice from Chris Rock, a mentor who had performed there previously. Rock advised him to concentrate more on his jokes than the spectacle. Ansari attributed the change in the topics he addressed to maturing and growing older.^[1]

In order to make the stadium show interesting for the audience, he was inspired by music tours, such as the Watch the Throne tour, and he recruited people who had worked on that production. Ansari was originally going to shoot the special in Toronto, but Rock convinced him to do so at Madison Square Garden, which Rock felt was more appropriate.^[2]

The film was released March 6, 2015, exclusively on Netflix.^[3] It was dedicated to the memory of Harris Wittels, Ansari's close friend and a writer on Parks and Recreation, who died February 19.