HARI KONDABOLU at Empire Comedy Club

6pm Doors | 7pm Show | 21+

HARI KONDABOLU 

Hari Kondabolu is a comedian, writer and podcaster based in Brooklyn. The NY Times called him  “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today” and described his 2018 Netflix  special Warn Your Relatives as “an incisively funny and formally adventurous hour that reveals a  comic in command of his powers.” The special was named on many “Best of” lists, including  for Time, Paste Magazine, Cosmopolitan, E! Online, and Mashable. He was also named one of  2018’s “Comics To Watch” by Variety. Hari currently hosts the new Netflix food competition  series Snack vs Chef along with Megan Stalter. 

In 2017, his truTV documentary The Problem with Apu was released to critical acclaim and  spurred a global conversation about race and representation. The Nation called it “a  devastating critique of the ultimate comedic sacred cow: The Simpsons.” It is now used in high  school, college and grad school curriculums around the US. 

Hari has also released two comedy albums, Waiting for 2042 & Mainstream American  Comic with legendary indie rock label Kill Rock Stars. Additionally, he has performed on such  shows as Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The Late Show with David Letterman among many  others. He is also a former writer & correspondent on the much loved, Chris Rock produced FX  show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. 

A regular on the public radio, Hari is a panelist on the NPR game show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell  Me. As a podcaster, he co-hosted the popular Politically Reactive with dear friend W. Kamau  Bell. Additionally, he also co-hosts what he politely describes as a “pop up podcast,” The  Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother Ashok (“Dap” from HBO’s Chillin’  Island and defunct rap group Das Racist.) 

Hari attended both Bowdoin College and Wesleyan University, graduating from the former  institution with a B.A. in Comparative Politics. A former immigrant rights organizer in Seattle  who worked under the leadership of now-Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Hari also earned a  Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics in 2008. He was the “Artist In  Residence” at NYU’s APA Institute for the 2014-2015 Academic Year and at Shangri La Museum