+ Album Available Today! \\ 03.08.10
The wait is over! You can get my debut comedy album ‘Hasan Minhaj: Leaning on Expensive Cars and Getting Paid to Do It’ here. For some reason you can also purchase it in Brussels. Shout out to my Belgium fans!
+ NBA All Star Weekend Recap \\ 02.18.10
All Star Saturday night—Wack. Deron Williams’ foul of Dwayne Wade at the end of the All Star game—Terrible. Meeting Ernie Johnson from ‘Inside and having him hit me up on Twitter—Priceless.
+ Thanks CoCo \\ 01.23.10
“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.“ - Conan O’Brien
A true professional in every sense of the word, you will be missed CoCo. It’s a shame your show couldn’t go on because it truly represented a marker and transition in American pop culture. Conan O’Brien would have served as the new voice of late-night comedy—a funny one (Sorry Jay). For what it’s worth, it was a privilege and honor contributing whatever little I did to your show.
If you missed it, here’s a transcript of Conan’s closing remarks. It was one of the most insightful, touching monologues I’ve seen in a long time (If only Leno had the same reverence for the ‘Tonight Show’ franchise):
Before we end this rodeo, a few things need to be said. There has been a lot of speculation in the press about what I legally can and can’t say about NBC. To set the record straight, tonight I am allowed to say anything I want. And what I want to say is this: between my time at Saturday Night Live, the Late Night show, and my brief run here on The Tonight Show, I have worked with NBC for over 20 years. Yes, we have our differences right now and yes, we’re going to go our separate ways. But this company has been my home for most of my adult life. I am enormously proud of the work we have done together, and I want to thank NBC for making it all possible.
Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Making this choice has been enormously difficult. This is the best job in the world, I absolutely love doing it, and I have the best staff and crew in the history of the medium. But despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.
And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the Internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. As proof, let’s make an amazing thing happen right now.
+ Family Support (Leaked track off my new album!) \\ 01.15.10
My parents are very supportive of my comedy career. Here’s a recent phone conversation I had with them about it.
This is one of several skits off my comedy album ‘Hasan Minhaj: Leaning on Expensive Cars and Getting Paid to Do it’, available March 2010.
+ Chelsea Lately \\ 01.13.10
Here’s my appearance on ‘Chelsea Lately’. For some reason Chelsea thought I was somehow affiliated with the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Enjoy!
Hasan Minhaj on E!‘s ‘Chelsea Lately’ from Hasan Minhaj on Vimeo.
+ Kobe’s New Years Gift to Me \\ 01.11.10
If you know anything about me you know I’m a die hard basketball fan. Since childhood, my dream job was to become one of two things—rapper, or ball player. Allow me to explain. Ball players live the coolest lives ever. They play in front of thousands of adoring fans, have shoe deals, and occasionally get to pull guns out on their teammates (See: Gilbert Arenas). Rappers get to rhyme about such players, sit courtside at games, and occasionally have videos where things explode behind them (See: ‘Mo Money Mo Problems‘).
Now that I’m a Los Angeles native, one of my goals was to attend a Laker game at the Staples Center. Not because I need to be ‘seen’, or be one the horrible fans (I never knew the purpose of foam fingers were to be thrown on court Laker faithful?), but to see Kobe Bryant in his prime. Yes, I hate the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Both have crushed my dreams as a Kings fan over, and over again. However, I’m not going to be a delusional fan and deny Mamba’s skills—since the retirement of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant has been the most clutch player in basketball for the past decade. Being a Kings faithful (although our golden years are behind us) I wanted to support my home team in Los Angeles.
Now you’d think wearing purple and black in Staples would render me victim to curses, epitaphs, and vile remarks from Laker fans, but it was the quite contrary. No one said anything. In fact, during my cheers for the Kings, the Laker faithful in the first deck paid me no mind, making them the most polite fans in the world. Now I had great seats, and because I’ve always sat in the nosebleeds I took advantage of my prime real estate. I got on my feet after dunks. I yelled at Andrew Bynum. I had to, he sucks. On several occasions I was told to ‘sit down’, because apparently at sporting events you’re supposed to stay seated and politely golf clap. Gosh, I’m such an idiot. Now the polite behavior didn’t hold up for long. Early on, the Kings were rolling on the Lakers, and at one point went up 22 points before the half rendering boos from the audience. Let me repeat that. We are midway through the second quarter, and Laker ‘fans’ are booing their home team. Keep in mind, the Lakers have the best record in the NBA, they aren’t the Knicks, so boos aren’t in order by means. But what was I to expect? These are the same fans that booed their own team on Christmas day, chucking complimentary Nike foam fingers to the floor as if to say ‘Thanks for the foam fingers Kobe, but f*ck you and Merry Christmas’. I think at this point you can sense my bitterness towards Laker fans—they’re the only fans in the world who will tell other people to ‘sit down’ during a game, and yet boo their team before the second half. They’re the world’s only polite assholes.
Unfortunately the Kings lead didn’t last for long. The Lakers rallied back, and Kobe went off on….everybody. Even though we didn’t have Tyreke Evans or Kevin Martin, we somehow managed to stay in the game and keep a lead until the fourth quarter. Eventually we took a two point lead with seconds left in the game. And then of course, this happened. Now I could describe the play, and break it down, but lets just put it this way: I got to see what Kobe does best:
Kobe Bryant Game Winner from Hasan Minhaj on Vimeo.
This is what Kobe Bryant has done to Kings fans time and time again. And then of course came the ‘MVP’ chants…
Pandemonium from Hasan Minhaj on Vimeo.
This had to have been one of the coolest and most sad says of my life. Cool because I got to see Kobe hit a game winner literally feet away from me when he was in his prime. At 14 years in the league he’s playing the best basketball of his life, and I got to see something pretty special. The sad part? Well, I saw the Kings lose to the Lakers…yet again. Thanks for the new years gift Kobe. It will not be forgotten.
+ Yahoo! ‘OMG the 411!‘ 2010 Edition \\ 01.09.10
Happy New Years Internet followers! On this edition of Yahoo!‘s ‘OMG the 411’ I talk about celebrity roommates with the very funny Adam Corolla:
+ Album Art. Inspiration. Execution. The Final Product. \\ 12.21.09
Shot the cover for my debut comedy album with photographer extraordinaire Robyn Von Swank. If you haven’t seen her work, it’s amazing.
We took what started as a drawing in my notebook:
To this:
‘Hasan Minhaj: Leaning on Expensive Cars and Getting Paid to do it’ comes out in early 2010. Y’all better cop that!