Comedian Hari Kondabolu, 36, was born in New York to Indian immigrant parents. He graduated in comparative politics, studied for an MSc in human rights at the London School of Economics and applied to law school, before his comedy career took off. He was the creator and star of last year’s documentary The Problem With Apu, about The Simpsons’ Indian shopkeeper. Kondabolu’s new show, American Hour, will be at the Soho theatre, London, 3-15 December. His standup special, Warn Your Relatives, is on Netflix.

What is American Hour about?

In the US we don’t really do proper shows, we just do an hour of standup. Whenever Americans bring their shows to Edinburgh, all the other comics derisively call them “American hours”. There’s no story or incredible experience that drives the narrative; it’s just a bunch of interesting ideas, spread out over the hour, with some jokes. This show is just accepting that.

Will you tailor your material to a UK audience?

I’ll talk about how superior I felt after Brexit, then how humbled I was after the presidential election. I looked at Brexit with an arrogant feeling of “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.” I’m both Indian and American – I’ve been twice colonised, so it felt kinda good. But then we self-destructed and our empire is crumbling as well. Historically the UK has been about expansion and globalisation by force. Now you’re becoming isolationist, like the US, which is bizarre.

Are you still getting lots of flak for making The Problem With Apu?

I’ve had death threats from across Europe, and lately South America, which caught me off guard. I’m learning so many ways to be insulted in Spanish. I’ve unified a continent in hatred of me. But most of them haven’t seen the film: it’s kneejerk reactions based on perceived political correctness, without hearing my argument. The Simpsons’ response has also been frustrating… it proves to me that they haven’t seen it either, they’re just responding to the media coverage. What upsets me most isn’t the character or the hate, it’s the inability to have a proper discussion.

Now there’s a rumour they’re removing Apu from The Simpsons…

I never asked for that. If you have an issue with the immigrant, don’t just get rid of the immigrant, write more interesting storylines for him. The ending of the documentary is hopeful about how much growth there’s been – look at Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn, all the different people in American life.

How did you feel about the midterms?

Mixed, like the results. There’s a debate about whether we call it “a blue wave”, but who cares what we call it? Trump’s still the president. We have a president who wants to strike the 14th amendment, which means all people born in the US have automatic citizenship – an amendment created after the civil war, after slavery was abolished. First of all, that’s cruel. Second, do you think his totalitarianism ends there? Usually once that door is opened, it doesn’t get closed. So it’s still a horrifying time. The only thing that makes it less horrifying is that you get distracted by the next terrible thing. It’s crazy-making. I hope this isn’t the way the world is from now on and we get back to normality. Normal wasn’t that great either, but at least it wasn’t the constant threat of nuclear war.

Is it true you did an internship in Hillary Clinton’s office?

Yeah, when I was 20. I worked in the mailroom, which was kinda tense because it was the time of anthrax scares. Not the best job back then. I met her for a group Q&A and asked about some Supreme Court cases. I don’t remember what she replied because I was too busy thinking how smart I was [laughs]. It wasn’t about getting close to a public official or learning the system - more than anything else, I was seeing what fame looked like… o be surrounded by secret service, to constantly have to smile and sign things. In all photos, she’d look exactly the same, like a cardboard cut-out. I remember thinking, “I never want to be so famous that a smile is no longer genuine.”

Were your standup ambitions first inspired by Margaret Cho?

Absolutely. We’re friends now, and I constantly mention how she’s the reason I do this. Race in the US is generally seen as black and white, which isn’t fair – it’s so much more complicated. When I was growing up, all the standup comics were black, white, sometimes Latino but never Asian. Seeing Margaret perform was the most validating thing, like our stories count. Goodness Gracious Me from the UK was inspirational too.

You said recently that pissing off white people hasn’t proved as lucrative as you thought…

[Laughs] I love the challenge of creating discomfort, then getting myself out of it with a laugh. As a non-mainstream comic, I get to be blunt about race, which makes some white audience members uncomfortable. If you think I’m talking about you as a white person, then I’m definitely talking about you. People who get it laugh hard. But in America, it still creates tension when race gets turned on white people. Even the phrase “white people” makes them freeze. I still have walk-outs and get hatemail. I chose a harder road, but that makes the work better, and means I can connect to a new generation.

• Hari Kondabolu: American Hour is at the Soho theatre, London, 3-15 December