JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Every week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Kumail Nanjiani embraces big feelings in his work, whether it's in his film "The Big Sick," about his relationship with his wife, or his new stand-up special "Night Thoughts," which focuses on his anxiety. The Hulu special is out tomorrow, and it's his first stand-up special in over a decade. He says he was afraid to return to the stage, which is why he felt he had to do it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
KUMAIL NANJIANI: I really hated the feeling of I used to be good at this and now I'm very, very scared of it. Like, I was like, I cannot imagine that at one point this felt like something that was easy for me.
SUMMERS: Nanjiani talked to Wild Card host Rachel Martin about growing up in Pakistan and his connection to his family, including his grandmother.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
RACHEL MARTIN: What's an experience you wish you could give every person?
NANJIANI: An experience that I've had?
MARTIN: Not necessarily.
NANJIANI: Or - OK.
MARTIN: It's your fantasy.
NANJIANI: I wish everyone could eat my grandma's biryani because I think you'd be a better person...
MARTIN: (Laughter).
NANJIANI: ...If you ate her biryani. She's gone now.
MARTIN: It's that good? Oh.
NANJIANI: It's that good. And she's gone now, but I will say my mom is carrying on the legacy. And, you know, I always felt like my grandmother's biryani is the best in the world, and my mom's is 5% worse. But it's still, like, the second best thing I've ever eaten. Now, my mom's gaining. Maybe it's only 2% worse, you know?
MARTIN: (Laughter).
NANJIANI: And she's getting there. She's like an - you know what it (ph)...
MARTIN: Do you just say this in public interviews so your mom will be at home, like, I got to get to 1%. I got to...
NANJIANI: Oh, she...
MARTIN: I need to feed him more.
NANJIANI: She knows. I mean, I think feeding me is one of the great joys of her life, so I don't have to convince her. Whenever I'm visiting, she's like, what do you want to eat? And I'm like, I want to eat these three things and then surprise me. And she loves it. She's so good at it. So I wish everyone in the world could eat her biryani because, you know, I think - I truly believe this - right? - we're in a time, not to bring it down, where there is fear of people who are different from you, and there is demonization of people who are different from you. And I just feel like if we could all get together and eat each other's food, I genuinely think some of that stuff would go away because - I'm from a part of the world that is the - you know, is at the receiving end of a lot of negative representation and stereotypes and all that stuff. But if you ate our food, you would think, oh, any culture that comes up with this can't be all bad. So that's an experience I wish I could give everyone - eat this and see, like, hey, we have more in common than we don't.
SUMMERS: You can watch that entire conversation with Kumail Nanjiani on YouTube by searching for @NPRWildCard. His new stand up special "Night Thoughts" is on Hulu tomorrow.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.