Aziz Ansari combats web piracy with a $5 special
Aziz Ansari, best known as Tom Haverford on NBC's "Parks and Recreation," has also been a busy stand-up comic for the past decade.
Now, Ansari has a new comedy special called "Dangerously Delicious," which he's offering directly to his fans online for $5.
Aziz Ansari offers up comedy special online for $5
Ansari said he got the idea from a fellow comedian and decided to film his special and release it online because that's how many people are watching his routines.
"I saw how many like views on YouTube compared with how many DVDs I was selling, and it was clear people liked watching this kind of content online," Ansari said on CBS This Morning." "... A DVD is like 20 bucks or something. You know (with this sale that) all the money is going to the artist. ... Just $5, you own the video, you can watch it on anything."
He added, "I just think the problem is, with a lot of stuff, is the way people consume media now is so far ahead of the way companies release it. And it gets frustrating because they're like, 'Oh, I want to watch that show. Is it on Netflix? No. Is it on YouTube? No. I'm just going to steal this because I can't find it.' ... I've seen many surveys that say people that steal stuff like that online ... (people) say, if it was convenient to find this and it was fairly priced, I wouldn't have stolen it.' And I think that's true. I think, you know, that frustration I describe is a common thing."
For more with Ansari -- who people may not know is a graduate of New York University's Stern School of Business -- on how he started doing comedy and why his special is called "Dangerously Delicious," watch the video in the player above.