Seated in a brightly lit Hollywood coffee shop, Aparna Nancherla doesn鈥檛 have the usual bearing of a comedy scene-stealer. Cheerful and direct where her stand-up delivery is often dry with lethally funny flashes of absurdity while examining her issues with depression and anxiety, the 36-year-old Nancherla is a formidable figure in discerning comedy circles.
The daughter of Indian immigrants who was raised in Washington, D.C., but now lives in New York, Nancherla has a well-earned reputation as one of the funniest voices on Twitter. She has recently been seen on Netflix鈥檚 Master of None as well as being heard on the podcasts 2 Dope Queens and a show that offered a comic spin on living with depression, Blue Woman Group, which she co-hosted with fellow comic Jacqueline Novak.
This year, in addition to appearing in the second season of HBO鈥檚 Crashing (and one of the network鈥檚 upcoming 2 Dope Queens specials), Nancherla began her biggest role yet with Comedy Central鈥檚 Corporate, which was created by two of her friends from the L.A. comedy scene, Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman. In it, she portrays Grace, the jaded head of HR at a soul-crushing mega-corporation. In one episode, she delivers an existential PowerPoint presentation on how her fellow employees 鈥渄eal with the pain of being alive鈥� (it鈥檚 far funnier than it sounds).
鈥淚 think a lot of lines on this show are things that you think but wouldn鈥檛 say, but everyone is just saying them,鈥� she said with a laugh. 鈥淚 guess this is a world where everyone just says the undertone of what they meant.鈥�
Back in L.A., where she once lived and still occasionally performs, Nancherla talks more about Corporate and navigating comedy and reality in the age of Trump.
Q: Did you have any office jobs like in Corporate?
A: The day job I had the longest was I worked at like a trade magazine in D.C. It was weird, it was kind of a meta-job because it was this magazine that studied how companies train their employees to be more productive and engaged. So it was kind of about work, it was a magazine about workplaces. Then when I moved out here I temped at NBCUniversal for a while.
Q: Was there a different sort of corporate culture you noticed at these jobs?
A: I think NBC was probably the biggest corporation I worked for in an office-worker capacity. You get emails that are like, 鈥淭his is our new policy on this,鈥� and you鈥檙e like, 鈥淲ho makes this decision? Where does it come from?鈥� Then there would be events like we鈥檇 all go and celebrate something that was apparently big about the company that day 鈥� it just felt like everything filtered down. I feel like the show does a good job capturing how surreal and otherworldly it can be.
Q: Were you able to draw from the places you worked for this show?
A: I鈥檝e always struggled in an office atmosphere, I get very antsy and restless. And I think I also have trouble buying into the culture of it because there is something taken away from everyone鈥檚 humanity, I think, but you鈥檙e supposed to buy into that and not maybe acknowledge the degree to which that鈥檚 happening? I think I had a lot of trouble with that contradiction.
Q: Your character on the show works in human resources, which is its own heightened reality.
A: I know, HR is supposed to be for your employees鈥� interests, but I feel like a lot of times it comes across as sinister because someone鈥檚 like: 鈥淗R wants to see you.鈥� And you鈥檙e always like: 鈥淥h, I鈥檓 losing my job.鈥�
Q: I first heard of you on Twitter, which has been a great medium for comics. But it seems like it鈥檚 changed in the last year or so.
A: I think specifically post-election it鈥檚 become both a tool for people to feel maybe empowered in some ways of speaking out against what鈥檚 happening, but also the reverse side of that is in some ways it鈥檚 become a very toxic place. It鈥檚 like if you鈥檙e not on my side you鈥檙e on the other side, and every issue is very black and white and people are mad before they even read what they鈥檙e mad about.
Before I think it was a very valuable place where people would connect and disagree and people would learn about things. The internet has always had extremes of positives and negative, but I think it鈥檚 become more heightened since the election.
Q: You kind of have to be on Twitter for your job 鈥� is it a tough place to spend a lot of time?
A: I get frustrated with it a lot because I worry about falling into that whole 鈥渟lacktivism鈥� thing of 鈥渙h I retweeted today, I did my part.鈥� That doesn鈥檛 feel like I did anything.
I feel like social media is such a bizarre version of reality where you think it鈥檚 reflecting exactly who鈥檚 out there and it could just be an algorithm that pushed up a bunch of trolls or bots. I think it can play with your mind so I try to have a relationship with Twitter where I鈥檒l put stuff out but then I won鈥檛 spend all day checking reactions or I鈥檒l scroll a little and read a few things but then I鈥檒l be like 鈥淥K, that鈥檚 all.鈥�
Q: Do you feel an additional obligation to be outspoken as a woman of colour and a child of immigrants?
A: Yeah, I think in that sense I鈥檓 more politically outspoken on social media about certain issues that I feel strongly about. But I still haven鈥檛 quite figured out how to bring some of that into my stand-up. Because then the trick is making it funny and not just making people angry or bummed out about it. It鈥檚 trying to find that angle to approach it.
