Aziz Ansari covered Metallica songs at NY Comedy Fest (video)
The New York Comedy Festival is underway, and it included a surprise appearance by Aziz Ansari at Greenpoint club Warsaw last night… but not the kind you might have expected. As MetalSucks points out, Aziz showed up for The Goddamn Comedy Jam, where “comedians do a stand up set and then perform their favorite cover song with a live band.” Aziz was a surprise guest on a bill that also included Bill Burr, Nikki Glaser, Josh Adam Meyers, Sal Vulcano, Big Jay Oakerson, and Luis J Gomez, and he did a series of Metallica covers. He played guitar for a medley of “Seek and Destroy,” “Master of Puppets,” and “One,” and then put it down to take the mic and sing on Metallica’s cover of Queen‘s “Stone Cold Crazy.” Turns out, Aziz can kinda shred. “I played guitar when I was like 14, when I was in South Carolina, and had no friends that were… minorities,” he said on stage. You can watch the whole thing below.
Aziz also joined a bunch of the other comedians on stage to cover 4 Non Blondes‘ “What’s Going On,” and the show also featured Sal Vulcano doing Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing In The Name,” Big Jay Oakerson doing Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69,” Nikki Glaser doing Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” and more. Videos of those are below too.
Aziz returned to standup earlier this year, after staying out of the public eye following the sexual misconduct allegations that were lobbied against him. He first was only making surprise appearances, but recently started playing shows that were announced in advance.