hasan minhaj had a very strange year

The comedian felt the wrath of the Internet AND lost a career-defining job opportunity. NOW he's back with an interview series, A NEW NETFLIX SPECIAL, and a fresh perspective on his COMEDY.

- MICHAEL SEBASTIANI

STANDARD & STRANGE IS A STORE IN MANHATTAN THAT sells $95 Japanese T-shirts and $435 corduroys. It's classic, straightforward menswear-stuff with substance and weight. The prices are high, but the shop's motto is "Own fewer, better things." This is one of Hasan Minhaj's favorite stores.

On a Thursday afternoon in August, after lunch at Wayan, a French-Indonesian restaurant whose menu Minhaj knows by heart, he has taken me to Standard & Strange, where the clerks know him. He wants to show me clothes from one of his favorite brands, Visvim. Whether or not he's aware, this shopping trip also underscores an idea he's been conveying to me for weeks: He is obsessed with the way things are made, from a Japanese T-shirt to a carefully constructed joke.

"I love the craft of it," he says of stand-up comedy.

Minhaj, thirty-nine, is one of the most popular comedians of his generation. His career took flight in 2014 when Jon Stewart hired him as a Daily Show correspondent. Since then, he's released two Netflix stand-up specials; hosted his own show, Patriot Act, as well as the White House Correspondents' Dinner; and acted in TV and movies. Last year, however, the way he writes his material came under intense scrutiny, causing him to lose a career-defining job opportunity. "It was a strange, bizarre year," he says. He responded by throwing himself into work-he poured the experience into a new stand-up set, toured with it, and started a new YouTube series. He made something new.

Now, in conversations over Zoom and lunch, and while browsing around Standard & Strange, Minhaj is explaining it all.