Comedy Bytes With Aparna Nancherla
Released on 12/11/2023
Please welcome.
[upbeat music]
Hi, hi.
Hi.
How's it going?
Good, how are you?
Thank you so much for doing that.
Oh, thanks for having me.
Sorry we were all cracking up backstage.
Oh, no, no, no.
All right, let's start with the wanting
to be uploaded to the cloud.
Yes.
I generally think that the wrong assumption here,
do you have any anxiety about the digital age and AI?
Yeah, I mean, I think as a person in the creative arts,
there's obviously a lot of collective anxiety
around AI right now.
And just like, people's work being subsumed
into kind of this unregulated ma.
I think for me, like the cynical part of me is like,
okay, we're all like going to be obsolete,
kind of the end point of AI,
is a truly frictionless society where the real problem,
the whole time was humans and we don't need them.
But I do think, I don't know, as a performer,
I just think I've gotten a little bit more
guarded about my work.
I was on Twitter in the early days,
when it felt more like a creative playground
and now I feel like I'm a little more wary about
what I'm putting online.
I kind of think twice
before I just add something, yeah.
Well, it's forever, like the internet never forgets.
So like you just said, I'm curious
how you think standup comedy has changed kind of in the age
of TikTok and Instagram
and how you can have one bit
but that will follow you around forever?
Yeah, I mean, one thing I've noticed,
'cause I kind of went the opposite with a lot that a lot
of comedians did where like during the pandemic a lot
of live performance moved online,
and it became like Instagram live or Zoom comedy shows
and I did a couple of those,
but I noticed more comedians these days have been
gravitating towards Instagram reels
and TikTok sort of sound bites of your act
where it can yeah, be circulated kind of en masse
and reach more people that way.
I think I've been, a bit of a Luddite in not really
getting on that train
and not putting myself online in those little clips.
And I see like it can really help with ticket sales
and things like that.
And also I've noticed comedians have also been gravitating
a lot more towards audience interaction
because a bit with a crowd member is sort
of something you can put online
where you're not burning material.
It's kind of just this little organic interaction you had.
And if you just put that online, people kind of get an idea
of you, but you aren't putting all of your act on there.
But I think the trade off there is sometimes when people go
to shows now, they kind of as an audience expect you
to just be interactive with them for most of the show.
And so I think that's kind of created a bit
of a skewed version of what you might want out
of a standup comedy show.
Has that been your experience when you are performing
with folks?
They kind of expect a little bit more hands-on?
I think they're kind of primed
for it in a way that I think in the past maybe they weren't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So in terms of your material
and kind of being protective of it,
have you tried to ask chat GPT write a joke
like Aparna Naja?
No, I mean I still, this feels like heretical to say,
but I still haven't tried ChatGPT,
but I think I'm like so insecure
that I'm afraid I think if it wrote a joke like me,
I'd be like, well this is better.
You're better than me, go forth and prosper.
So, okay, speaking of ChatGPT,
the SAG agreement just got signed.
Yes.
There, that has an AI and our, in terms of not
just like scanning digital spaces,
but the Writer's Guild also.
Yes.
There are lots of protections there against AI.
What are your thoughts on how to kind of
have creative control over your work in this kind
of environment?
There's a risk that you could write something
and then someone could run it through an AI
and then just keep regurgitating it.
Yeah, I mean I think that risk,
this is probably a bit of a stretch,
but I do feel like even in early Twitter days,
like people would take someone's tweet
and with a bigger platform
and then say it was theirs
and kind of have it have more of an engagement online.
And I think this is like even more exponentially that,
and I don't know, like I think I'm, like I said,
trying to be wary about what I'm putting online,
but I think to some degree it's like we're all,
a lot of our data is already in the cloud
so I can't take it back.
So I think it's sort of like, okay, well knowing that,
a lot of my tweets from the past are like in there already,
where do I want to go from there?
Knowing that now.
Have you deleted your Twitter account?
No, I need to.
So all of that is still there?
I think it's all still there, yes.
The history is there.
Would you ever delete it, you think?
Yeah, I think I'm just, I had this book come out
so I think I was like, I'll do,
after the book comes out I'll delete the Twitter.
Okay, and the book is Unreliable Narrator.
I'm really curious again, in terms of having to do with
like what you were just saying about having your body being
uploaded, there's a real tension there
between your physical form
and your mental creativity, it can't live, you don't want it
to live like completely online.
But there doesn't really seem
to be any place else to go.
Yeah, I mean there is like the little introvert in me
who is like, oh cool, you can make my likeness
and then it can go like, do my work for me.
That sounds great, like I can stay home.
That sounds wonderful.
But then yeah, if I think two steps past
that I'm like yeah this is pretty Black Mirror ish.
In terms of are you on TikTok,
Instagram, anything like that?
I'm on Instagram, I'm not on TikTok.
Okay, and have you found that it's kind
of helped you with your career?
Like TikTok has or Twitter had?
Yeah, I mean I think, like I said,
it's like for any artist,
any platform to kind of expose a bigger audience
to your work is helpful.
But I think I have not maybe leveraged it the way
I see comedians doing now more with the sort
of short video bites of material.
I haven't really jumped on that train
but I do feel like that is the current phase that we're in
of like that being really the way
people are getting momentum.
It kind of has seems to just,
has it changed standup though
that it's like people are now just doing jokes instead
of having to do like an entire like 30 minute set
or like an 90 minute set.
I mean I will see comedians like go to shows
and then just tape it
and then chop it all up and put it online.
So I think that is kind
of the way it's being translated online now instead
of like people watching a full hour special, it's kind
of like, oh I like these three things
that they have circulating online.
I don't want to get like nostalgic or anything,
but do you think it was easier
before the internet to get into standup comedy?
I don't think it was easier, I think it's been
democratized in a certain way
where certain gatekeepers have been removed
because of the internet
but everything comes with trade-offs
and I think the trade-off
with the internet is now it's almost like a bit
of a glut and it's a little harder to weed through
and find the path.
But I will say especially
for people from marginalized communities,
it has like afforded journeys into
the industry that weren't there before.
So I think that's obviously a good thing.
Well that's great, well I look forward
to you being uploaded to the cloud at some point.
Thank you. Look for me.
Thank you very much everybody.
Thank you.
Community’s Dan Harmon Talks About his Adult Swim Show Rick and Morty
El-P Drops Cancer for Cure at SXSW
Bill Gates & President Bill Clinton: Looking Forward and Maintaining Optimism-Exclusive Interview
Key & Peele Talk Game of Thrones and New Season
Issa Rae on How She Wrote ‘That’ Rap
First Look at the New Ninjago Legoland | Giant LEGO NINJAGO Brick Battle!
WIRED25 2020 Q&A: Protecting Health Care Systems From Cyberhackers
The Fiddler Crab: One Part Giant Claw, Two Parts Attitude
Why Edge of Tomorrow is of the Greatest Movie About Video Games, Ever
Virtual Boy vs Oculus Rift Throwdown