It’s always refreshing to see a nonwhite male making waves in the entertainment industry — even more refreshing to see a nonwhite female, but we’ll save that for another post —and Aziz Ansari has been killing the game. The lovable Parks and Recreation charmer and author of Modern Romance got even more romantic with his Netflix series Master of None, which aired last year.
Who among us didn’t grow a soft spot for the playful, pasta-loving Dev Shah, the character Ansari played in the series? He may have been sincere to a fault and occasionally a little clueless about his relationship, but his heart was always in the right place. And now, you can be in the same place as his heart, because Aziz Ansari is inviting you to come hang out on set.
Celeb sweepstakes website Omaze recently announced Ansari’s latest campaign, an invitation to come hang with the cast and crew of Master of None in exchange for donating $10 or more to The Malala Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps girls in developing countries gain access to secondary education.
If you win, you and a friend will get to hang with Ansari and the rest of the Master of None cast on set, score a sneak peek of the new season, and maybe even take selfies with Aziz’s dad (his promise, not ours). If you don’t live in NYC, you’ll get flown to the city and put up in a four-star hotel. And even if you live here, you can probably still ask for the hotel.
It’s worth mentioning that Master of None’s first season filmed in locations we all know and love: Baby’s All Right, Commodore, Alameda and more. Ansari’s show clearly loves Brooklyn, so this is your chance to show some love back.
Yes, the competition is a pay-to-play lottery, but it’s for a good cause: inspired by Malala Yousef, the Malala Fund advocates for resources and policy changes to give all girls a chance at secondary education, especially Syrian and Nigerian refugees.
Here’s how it works: every $10 gets you 100 entries. As your donation and entries go up, so do the perks associated with each donation. A $25 donation gets you a digital thank you card, $100 gets you one Ansari’s famous “I want Pasta” tees from the series, and the maximum donation of $2,500 (worth 25,000 entries) gets you a signed copy of the Master of None script!
It looks like the second highest perk — a signed copy of Ansari’s Modern Romance at the $1,000 donation level — has already sold out, so there’s obviously widespread interest. And since more money equals more entries, there’s always a chance that some trust fund kind with a thing for Ansari will buy hundreds of thousands of entries using offshore bank accounts and fake identities. But that probably won’t happen, so it’s worth a shot for $10.
Enter ASAP using this form, as the lottery ends in just 13 days. Good luck, and if you don’t win, there’s always next season.