[case rattling]
[equipment rattling]
- Are you allergic to medical tape?
- Am I allergic to medical tape?
No, I'm perfectly fine with medical tape.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, yeah. - Have you ever mic'd someone?
- Yeah.
- Is Chris Hemsworth allergic to medical tape?
[dramatic music]
[loud beep]
- [Cameraman] Hasan Minhaj Answers Increasingly
Personal Questions as the Camera Gets Closer to His Face.
[clapboard shuts]
- That's the full, you need the full title?
[film beeping]
Where am I looking?
- [Cameraman] Right in camera.
- Oh, directly into camera, okay.
[film beeping]
- [Cameraman] Work.
[board clapping]
- [Max] How's work?
- Work's good.
It's stressful, but it's meaningful and challenging
and that's what matters.
- [Max] Where do you live?
- I live in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
- [Max] Why don't you live in L.A.?
- I hate L.A.
I truly hate L.A. with a passion.
I love New York because it's the one city
where it's not defined by one monolithic industry
so us all being on top of each other is really beautiful
and it's a city that rewards people
that put everything they can into their respective art form.
- [Max] Do people ever confuse you
for another celebrity?
- Yeah, whoever's poppin' at the time and has melanin,
I've been confused for them,
so there was a hot minute where I was Dev Patel.
There's another minute where I was Riz Ahmed, so, yeah.
- [Max] What was your most memorable debate
from high school debate club?
- I was put into a debate where we had to argue segregation,
and I was very lucky that I had to argue against segregation
because that was video recorded and it's out there somewhere
so I'm glad that I had the right position at 15.
- [Max] How do you balance career and family?
- I don't, I don't know if it's my place to say
to be quite honest.
I'm doing the best I can, but the most challenging thing
about having a career in, where you're a public figure
and having a family is that you make all these decisions
and you do these things that are out in the world
that other people get to talk about,
tear apart, nitpick, like, not like,
and the ramifications are that your family
has to live with that.
For better, for worse, they don't get a voice
or a vote on those things, and that's something that
I think about a lot and it's challenging.
- [Max] Have you ever made a mistake
in your career that you regret?
- You know, when I was starting out,
there was a lot of things that I was doing in my career
where I was hedging.
I was hedging my expectations of
what I could accomplish in show business.
I was hedging the expectations of what I demanded of others.
One of the first pilot seasons I went out for,
there was this scene where I walked into the room
and I'm suppose to slate for the camera
and they go, just say your name to the camera
and then we'll slate, and I remember I walked in
and they go, say your name,
and I go, oh, I'm Hasan Minhaj,
and the guy's like, HAS-IN?
And I'm like, no no, it's HOSS-IN Minhaj,
and he goes, it's fine, it doesn't matter,
and I was like, yeah it doesn't,
and I like, kinda believed him.
So, I regret moments like that,
like taking those little jabs, those little asides,
where I wasn't defining what I was doing
and who I was on my own terms,
'cause my name does matter and who I am does matter.
Even if the audition doesn't mean anything, this matters,
like who I am as a person and the art that I'm creating,
it matters, so I should have just
kept it going until he got it right.
- [Max] When do you feel most lonely?
- I think any time I have to poke a bear
that I've been told you probably shouldn't poke this bear.
A lot of the people that I've talked about on the show
have not been poked before in a real significant way
and so, doing the long division of,
should I do this, should I not,
I'm delving into territory that a lot of times hasn't been
gone into just yet, so it's scary, and that can be lonely.
- [Max] Beautiful.
- Cool.
- [Max] Reset.
That was great.
- Cool.
[film beeping]
Man, it's getting like, it's getting super emo at the end.
Are you doing that on purpose?
[film beeping]
- [Cameraman] Family.
[board clapping]
- [Max] How's the family?
- Family's great.
Beena's great, daughter's beautiful, I'm very blessed.
- [Max] You set up a Gmail for your daughter?
- Yes, how did you guys know this?
- [Max] Has anyone emailed the baby?
- Uh, yeah.
This is actually very scary that you guys know this.
My wife and I emailed our daughter for her first birthday
which is about four months ago and we both sent her
messages from us just saying how the past year has been,
and I signed it Dad, which to me was really special
because she's the only person in the world
that calls me Dad, which is really beautiful.
- [Max] Your parents are in an arranged marriage.
Has that affected how you view romance?
- For sure.
I mean, in Desi culture arranged marriage
is just the expectation, but it definitely got me
to really believe in the power of loyalty
and putting the collective group over individuality.
We is more important than me.
- [Max] How has fatherhood affected
your relationship to your own dad?
- Oh, that's a Simba-Mufasa question.
Yeah, everything, all the cliches are right.
Everything my dad told me was kinda right.
I'm, you were right, Dad, yes.
I am gonna be very pissed if she doesn't text me.
I'm gonna be very mad.
- [Max] How do you and your daughter
prefer to spend quality time together?
- Uh, mornings is our time, so I get up.
Well, she gets me up.
She wakes up around six, and those first two hours,
we just hang out and it's the best.
- [Max] You've talked about gaps
of cultural understanding between you and your parents.
What's a gap you anticipate to have with your own daughter?
- Oh, it's gonna be terrifying.
She's gonna be like, Dad, I'm gonna join the Matrix.
I'm going in.
We're gonna be full-on cyborgs.
Like, me looking at this camera is,
we're all just gonna be one
and I'm gonna be like, no, there should be a separation
between human beings and technology
and she's like, you're such a narc, Dad.
Let's fully plug in.
It's gonna be a heated debate.
- [Max] What do you hope will be different
by the time your daughter is 18?
- I hope that she can unapologetically be herself
and she doesn't have to qualify things about her identity
or upbringing or who she is.
[film beeping]
Max, is it weird that I'm dressed
exactly the same as the crew? - [Max] I gotta change that.
[laughing]
- Then we can swap places.
I'm ready to hold the boom mic, is what I'm saying.
[film beeping]
- [Cameraman] Identity.
[board clapping] - [Max] How you been lately?
- That's the most loaded question that you've asked me, Max.
- [Max] Right, yeah.
- How are you?
That's pretty heavy.
[film beeping] You ever had one of those with your friends,
you're just like hey, how are you, and they just break down?
You're like, okay.
[laughing]
That's where we're at right now.
[film beeping]
- [Max] If you had another name,
what would you name yourself?
- I would go Prashanth Venkataramanujam.
I want more letters.
Hasan Minhaj is already too easy,
but now that I'm embracing my name,
let's just go full on South Indian name.
Give me all the letters.
- [Max] You used to have a black Toyota Camry.
Is that right?
- Yes, yeah I had a black Toyota Camry.
Like many immigrants, I had a black Toyota Camry, yes.
- [Max] Why'd you get rid of it?
- Because people kept getting into the car,
thinking I was their Uber driver.
I am not joking.
I had to get rid of that thing.
It happened too often.
- [Max] You once mentioned the importance
of making memories in your shoes.
- Yes.
- [Max] What is your most notable memory
wearing the shoes you're in right now?
- These shoes right here?
I'm a big advocate of wear your shoes,
make memories in your shoes.
Life is short, crease your Jordans.
I have been to Europe in these shoes
and I went to Europe with my wife in these shoes.
- [Max] What is the most embarrassing thing
you've ever done to fit in?
- The most embarrassing thing that I've done to fit in,
I remember being a kid and my grandparents
were living with us.
My grandma would wear a sari everywhere
and I remember being at the grocery store with my grandma
and trying to be further away from her
because I didn't want people to think that we were together.
- [Max] When did you last cry in front of another person?
- The last time I cried was actually June fourth,
and it was when my daughter started walking,
and it was the happiest moment for me.
[film beeping]
- What if this is what therapy was like?
They're like performers, musicians.
You got people who work in the creative arts.
Therapy is much needed, but the only way we do it
is if people were recording us.
[film beeping]
- [Camerman] Politics.
[board clapping]
- [Max] If aliens made contact with Earth
and you were the spokesperson for humanity,
what would you say to them?
- I apologize about man-made climate change.
- [Max] Would you rather have a lifetime supply of Jordans
or impeach President Trump?
- Okay, so that's a tough question,
because I think I have enough Jordans.
I have enough material goods, but I think
in order to do the latter, you would have to have
Congress be functioning, so in order
to impeach the President, Congress has to function properly,
and so I wish for Congress to function properly
'cause that lasts longer than a president.
- [Max] What makes you?
- Damn, that was, Max that was a great.
That's like a, I should run for public office answer.
[film beeping]
- [Max] What makes you feel most like an American?
- I would say I felt the most like an American
at the White House Correspondents Dinner when I was
making fun of the most powerful people in the world.
- [Max] What's a headline that you can't
get out of your mind?
- The, my favorite headline right now is the one
where a bunch of people stormed Area 51 to, quote,
"see them aliens."
Actually, when I read that headline, I felt like an American
because that was, only in America would that be a headline.
- [Max] What have you been trying to do more of?
- I've been trying to do things
without being attached to technology.
- [Max] What is the scariest thing
about being Muslim in America?
- The scariest thing about being a Muslim in America
is having to always prove your loyalty
and have your loyalty be questioned to this country.
That's the toughest thing about being a Muslim.
After 9/11, it became very clear that
the Muslim part of my identity was something that
now was indicative of me being an enemy of the state
and so, ever since then and if you look at
even political rhetoric here in this country
and around the world, there's this idea that
if you're a Muslim you are an anti-national
or you don't belong, and I think having to
navigate the idea of constantly being in an away game
even though you're supposed to be playing a home game,
that's always been tough for me.
- [Max] All right, cut.
That's a wrap.
[applauding]
- [Hasan] That was fun.
That was a shoot.
Thanks man, appreciate that.