Comedian Hari Kondabolu on 'Waiting for 2042', Weezer and Burger King
by Steve Seel and Hari Kondabolu
November 14, 2014
Before making his Wits debut tonight at the Fitzgerald Theatre with musical guest OK Go, stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu sat down to chat with Steve Seel of The Current's Morning show about his debut stand-up album Waiting for 2042, the story behind his Weezer joke and yep, eating at Burger King as a child.
The New York Times has called Hari Kondabolu one of the most excited political comics in stand-up today. Earlier this year Kondabolu released his debut stand-up album Waiting for 2042 via Kill Rock Stars. Hari co-hosts the mostly improvised talk show The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Project with his younger brother Ashok who is also known as "Dap" from the hip hop group Das Racist.
On what exactly it is in 2042 that Hari's waiting for: "2042, according to census figures and the media that keeps reporting it, is the year that white people will be the minority in this country [the United States]. On the album, I talk about how race is a construct and there's not anything to worry about and none of it is real and it's a way to scare us, but that seemed like a really long title and I wanted the shock value of 'waiting for 2042.' The album cover art is me on the back of bicycle rickshaw with an old white man driving it. I feel like that works stronger as an image."
On eating at Burger King as a child: "My mom I think very much felt like it was important for us to adjust to being American. Even though we were Hindu and I realized years later that we weren't supposed to eat beef, that was never an issue in my house. She would take us to Burger King and we would eat beef hamburgers. I guess her idea was that, 'You're going to be American, and Americans eat at Burger King, and that's what you're going to do.' If that leads to heart disease, great! Even more American."
On Weezer: "I loved that band so much as a young person. It was interesting being a 14, 15-year-old hearing about being a twentysomething and what that life was like. They were so funny and the writing was clever and the songs were poppy. I just loved that band. As I've gotten older, I feel like they've kind of gotten worse. I went from a 14-year-old listening to the lives of twentysomethings to being a twentysomething and feeling like I was listening to something for children. It felt like instead of being honest artists, it started to feel like it was very pander-y. Honestly I understand that more now as somebody who's released an album and has to deal with critical attention for the first time. It's scary to put yourself out there. They [Weezer] released their second record Pinkerton and Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer, got the negative reviews and that [Pinkerton] was the one that was the most personal and I think after that it was like, 'Alright, I'm just going to write fluff from now on.' If I release a second album and it doesn't go well, I might be talking about cats and dogs and relationships from now on."