Minhaj back with 3 San Jose shows
Comedian Hasan Minhaj is returning to the Bay Area this summer for a special live taping during his latest stand-up tour.
A three-show run is scheduled for July 12-13 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts as part of Minhaj’s Off With His Head Tour. The tour kicked off in the fall in Milwaukee and took over San Francisco’s Masonic for four soldout shows in February.
Tickets are available through an artist presale. The general sale begins at 10 a.m. Friday, April 12, at hasanminhaj.com.
Phones and smartwatches will be prohibited during all tour stops. Attendees who bring them will be instructed to lock them in Yondr pouches upon arrival. Anyone seen using a device during the performance will be escorted out of the venue by security.
Minhaj, born and raised in Davis, first launched his comedy career in San Francisco while studying at UC Davis in the early 2000s. He began to gain widespread recognition for his political humor during his run as senior correspondent on “The Daily Show” from 2014 to 2018. He scored his own Netflix comedy series, “Patriot Act,” in 2018, melding news reporting with witty jokes. Though the show was canceled after two years and six seasons, it won an Emmy and landed Minhaj on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2019.
Last fall, Minhaj made headlines following accusations that he fabricated the details of personal anecdotes in his jokes. The allegations surfaced in a New Yorker story written by Claire Malone, that looked into the misleading nature of the comedian’s stand-up and sparked broader discourse about the role of truth in comedy. Minhaj later admitted he embellished some of his stories, but emphasized they were rooted in “emotional truth.” Following the controversy, Minhaj was reportedly removed as the front-runner to take over “The Daily Show” from previous host Trevor Noah.
Minhaj referred to the scandal during his San Francisco stand-up run earlier this year, cheekily telling the audience “don’t fact-check that joke, because they came for your boy.”