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‘Parks and Recreation’ funnyman Aziz Ansari talks about hosting an Obama fundraiser and doing standup for the President

By Dylan Stableford | The Ticket – Thu, Feb 23, 2012

Blue state? (Aziz Ansari/Tumblr)

On March 1, the Obama Victory Fund--a joint fundraising committee for both President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee--is hosting a gala reception in New York. Organized by celebrity Obama supporters including Deepak Chopra and Russell Simmons (and featuring music by The Roots), the $1,000-a-head event will be co-hosted by Aziz Ansari, the comedian and co-star of the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation." Ansari spoke to Yahoo News about his approach to headlining a political event.

Yahoo News: How did you end up as the host for this event?

There must be some Indian guy who was a Nobel Prize winner with a very similar name to mine maybe?

Is this the first Obama fundraiser you've done? If not, how'd the others go?

I'm pretty sure I did some "Standup for Obama" type events for the last election and they went well. I'm too lazy to go through my emails and confirm that this ever happened, but in my heart I definitely did and they were key to winning the last election.

Are you going to do standup for the president? Are you nervous about that at all?

I've been told I'm just making some remarks and getting the crowd fired up. I'm gonna talk to Funkmaster Flex tomorrow to get some "crowd firing up" pointers.

If you were forced to vote Republican, who would you vote for? Why?

Wait is that a thing in my district now? Being forced to vote Republican? Oh man. Things are getting rough.

I realize you don't talk too much about growing up as a child of a Muslim household in the south. But in general, what role do you think Muslim-Americans and Indian Americans are going to play in the 2012 presidential election?

Hmm ...

I also read you're an atheist, a group of voters that politicians don't tend to court. Should they?

I'm not the guy that would know the answer to either of those questions. You need to be redirected to a smarter, more informed Indian person. I'm the guy that makes a living saying things like "What's crackin' boo?" on TV.

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