华盛顿邮报 哈桑·明哈杰的喜剧之路（在线收听）

Did you always want to do comedy? Like, how did you figure out that you were funny?

你一直想演喜剧吗? 你是怎么发现自己很有趣的?

So, I was a speech and debate kid.

我是一个擅长演讲和辩论的孩子。

And, you know, I'm a child of Indian immigrants.

你知道，我是印度移民的孩子。

My parents came to the country in '82. I was born in '85.

我父母1982年来到这个国家。 我出生于1985年。

I'm a millennial kid, and my dad and mom specifically didn't let me watch cable growing up.

我是千禧一代的孩子，我的父母在我成长过程中特别不想让我看有线电视。

And that means I missed out on all the seminal years of HBO Comedy, Comedy Central half-hour specials, all of these things that shaped a generation of comedians that are now my contemporaries.

这意味着我错过了有着巨大影响的HBO喜剧的岁月，这是喜剧中心半小时特别节目，所有这些东西塑造了一代喜剧演员，他们现在是我的同龄人。

"The Simpsons." I missed out on all of that stuff.

“辛普森一家”。 我错过了这一切。

And so, one of the things that I coincidentally stumbled into was, my teacher Ms. Takeuchi would catch me cracking jokes and sometimes not paying attention in class.

所以，我碰巧遇到的一件事是，我的老师竹内女士会抓到我在讲笑话，有时还会在课堂上不专心。

And my sophomore year of high school, she said, "Look, I won't give you detention if you join this thing called FBLA."

在我高二的时候，她说:“听着，如果你加入FBLA，我不会给你留堂的。”

And in FBLA, we have a public speaking competition where you can do impromptu speaking.

在FBLA，我们有一个公开演讲比赛，在那里你可以做即兴演讲。

And so I ended up going to these tournaments.

所以我最终参加了这些比赛。

And funny enough, I would crack jokes during my speech, and whenever the judges would come and give me my marks, I always had 10 to 15 points higher because I just broke the fourth wall.

有趣的是，我在演讲的时候会讲笑话，每当评委来给我打分时，我的分数总是高出10到15分，因为我刚刚打破了与观众之间无形的墙。

And so, I didn't know that was a skill set at the time.

所以，我当时并不知道这是一项技能。

I thought I was just being funny or just kind of being a smartass.

我以为我只是在搞笑或者只是在耍小聪明。

And then when I got to college, I would start watching stand-up comedy because I could download comedy on my computer in the dorm rooms.

然后我上了大学，我开始看单口喜剧，因为我可以在宿舍的电脑上下载喜剧。

And I was like, "Oh, this is just funny speech and debate."

我当时就想，“哦，这只是有趣的演讲和辩论。”

And so my freshman year of college, it all clicked for me.

所以在我大学一年级的时候，这一切都让我豁然开朗。

I realized this thing that I had been doing in high school, that Ms. Takeuchi told me to do, was actually a gift, and I could perhaps pursue it as a real career.

我意识到我在高中时一直在做的这件事，竹内女士让我做的事情，实际上是一种礼物，也许我可以把它作为一种真正的职业来追求。

And I'm assuming that wasn't what your parents had in mind.

我猜这不是你父母想要的。

Yeah, no, no. Actually, I think, Linah, you're wrong, that it's exactly what my parents wanted me to do.

是啊,不,不。 事实上，我觉得，莉娜，你错了，那正是我父母想让我做的。

One of the things that both my parents, you know, leaving Aligarh, India, coming to the United States of America, one of the things they really wanted for their first and only son to do was to go in really dark, dingy basements late at night and perform jokes at 1:30 in the morning in front of drunk people.

我的父母，你知道的，离开印度的阿里加尔来到美利坚合众国，他们真正想让他们的第一个也是唯一的儿子做的一件事就是深夜走进非常黑暗，肮脏的地下室，在凌晨1：30当着喝醉的人的面讲笑话。

That's exactly what they wanted for their son.

这正是他们想要给儿子的。

I know, obviously, that we're doing a podcast. I'm being completely sarcastic.

我知道，很明显，我们在做播客。我完全是在讽刺你。

That is not what they wanted. It was the exact opposite.

这不是他们想要的。事实正好相反。

And so, that was a long, decade-long fight between, you know, me and my dad specifically.

所以，那是一场长达十年的斗争，特别是在我和我父亲之间。

It was really, really, really rough.

这真的，真的，真的很艰难。

Hmm. I saw that he was, like, even recently in your Cole Haan campaign. So he's more -- he's come around.

嗯。我看到他最近还参加了你的科尔汉竞选活动。所以他--他回心转意了。

Yeah, yeah, he's come on board now, which is really funny.

是的，是的，他现在赞同了，这真的很有趣。

But I think now that I'm a parent -- you know, I'm a father of two.

但我想现在我是一个家长了——你知道，我是两个孩子的父亲。

I have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. And it's so funny.

我有一个3岁，一个1岁的孩子。 这很有趣。

I think about this all the time. Would I want my son or daughter？

我一直在想这件事。我想要我的儿子或女儿从事喜剧吗?

-- because my eldest, she's 3. She's really funny.

因为我的大女儿才3岁。 她真的很有趣。

And I was like, "Would I want her to do stand-up comedy?"

我想:“我会想让她演单口相声吗?”

And there's part of me that's like, oh, my God, what I had to go through -- I wouldn't wish that on my children.

我的一部分在想，哦，天哪，我所经历的一切，我不希望我的孩子也经历这些。

So, it's one of those things where you have to really, really love it.

所以，这是你必须非常非常喜欢的事情之一。

And I think my dad's concern was pretty understandable because he saw me as someone -- and I remember he told me this as my LSAT score was expiring.

我认为我父亲的担心是可以理解的，因为他把我当成了重要人物--我记得他在我的法学院入学考试成绩即将到期时告诉我这一点。

He was like, "You're so capable. I think you're actually a very smart kid.

他说，“你很有能力。我觉得你是个很聪明的孩子。

Why don't you apply it towards something that'll be productive and fruitful for your life?"

为什么你不把它应用到一些对你的生活有益的事情上呢?”

And I was like, "Dad, I'm telling you, jokes -- jokes is the way to go. I can really do this."

我说，“爸爸，我告诉你，说笑话，说笑话才是正道。我真的能做到。”

And then, you know, my LSAT score expired, and the rest is history.

然后，我的法学院入学考试成绩过期了，剩下的都是历史了。