Mindy Kaling at the UCB Theatre

Tallyhead K files this report on Mindy Kaling’s visit to Jimmy Pardo’s show at the UCB Theatre Thursday night.

I went to see Mindy Kaling at UCBLA tonight. The show ran like a regular live talk show but in a theater. The host was Jimmy Pardo, a classic stand-up veteran, whose quick and sharp humor kept the audience on their toes the whole night. He opened with holiday-oriented stories, bantered with his iPod DJ Pat Francis, and teased an Australian guy in the front row who sat two seats away from me.

When they introduced Mindy, they cued ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ during her entrance. She wore a long pink and black patterned dress, a brown hoodie, and a cute pair of gold flats. She complimented the choice of song which led into a story about her appearance on Conan and how they used ‘Eye of the Tiger’ for her entrance. She had expected something like ‘Pretty Woman,’ though her pick for an entrance song would have been ‘Ghostbusters.’

The subject moved on to the strike. Mindy said she’d been taking the 6am shifts which consist mostly of older writers from shows like ‘The Virginian’ and ‘Texas Walker Ranger.’ She thought it was funny that these elder writers had no idea what ‘The Office’ was and that a young Indian woman was in the Writers’ Guild. Then a series of Indian jokes were made, one of the punchlines being “No, that’s the wrong kind of Indian.”

Then Mindy mentioned that writers will be picketing the Golden Globes. ‘The Office’ isn’t nominated for a lot of Globes this year so she felt that the picketing wouldn’t be as big an FU if they had been more nominated. She then revealed her dislike for one show in particular that got nominated. She mentioned that hopefully “nobody blogs this,” so I’ll refrain from revealing the actual name of the show.

When asked if she preferred writing or acting, she chose writing. She sometimes gets bored just sitting on the set when she’s not in a scene. Ironically, she finds herself playing the role of an office worker, a job she’s tried to avoid in real life. Hence, the career writing comedy.

And what a career! She was only 24 when she started writing for ‘The Office.’ This made Jimmy feel very old and unsuccessful. Now at 28, she’s no longer referred to as a wonderkid and deals with the fact that her family is more into ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ than her show.

Jimmy expressed his outrage and joked that ‘The Office’ was the second best show on television. Mindy asked what the number one show was and suggested ’30 Rock’ or ‘Flight of the Conchords.’ Jimmy eventually admitted he and his wife constantly fight over naming either ‘The Office’ or ’30 Rock’ as the number one show. Mindy was cool with that and encouraged Jimmy to check out ‘Conchords.’ She admitted she wasn’t into it at first, but was won over by their French Nouveau episode.

Mindy went on to shamefully admit she’s more a PC person than a Mac person. And although she enjoys both John Hodgman and Justin Long as individuals, she isn’t a fan of the Mac commercials they appear in. She’s also dating a guy named Ben and thinks it’s weird when people are overwhelmed by how nice Angela Kinsey is in real life.