By Ellie Austin

The past few months have been a blessing and a challenge for comedians. On the one hand, they have plenty of material. On the other, with performances before live audiences on hold, they are having to rethink their creative process.

"It's a big change," Hasan Minhaj, host of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," said this week at The Wall Street Journal's virtual Future of Everything Festival. "We're all broadcasting to the world from home in our pajamas."

The 34-year-old comedian began in stand-up and was hired by Jon Stewart as a correspondent on "The Daily Show." There, he delivered segments on subjects such as anti-Muslim views (Mr. Minhaj is a first-generation Indian-American Muslim), gun control and equal pay in women's soccer.

"Patriot Act," which launched on Netflix in 2018 and is part talk show, part political satire, was due to begin its sixth season when the coronavirus outbreak halted production. After a two-month hiatus, the show returned in May with episodes filmed in Mr. Minhaj's living room. During his interview at the festival, he explained how comedians are adapting their work to these uncertain times.

Learn to tell jokes to an empty room

Writing and performing monologues has become a strangely solitary experience, making it hard to predict how a joke will land, Mr. Minhaj said. "Living through Covid-19 means that I'm doing my show in a room at home in front of a green screen. I no longer have that safety net or check where you hear groans or gasps from the audience. You just have to go straight from your gut."

He misses interacting with fans face-to-face. "Even when my wife and I go to Trader Joe's, we're masked up and everyone is staying 6 feet away from each other," he said. "I'm used to people coming up to me and saying, 'Hey, what's up? You need to talk about this on the show.' "

Make monologues personal

Last week, Mr. Minhaj released a 12-minute video on YouTube in response to the death of George Floyd. He called on Asian-Americans to speak out on behalf of the black community and donate money and time to black organizations. Instead of dwelling on how the protests affected their lives, Mr. Minhaj said in the video, they should confront their own biases and speak up for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I'm a child of immigrants and a lot of people in my community are small- business owners," Mr. Minhaj said. "As soon as the movement [provoked by Mr. Floyd's death] translated into riots and looting, a lot of first-generation immigrant communities were saying, 'Why is this happening to us?' "

Mr. Minhaj didn't feel he could wait until the next episode of "Patriot Act" -- which is released on Sundays -- to address the issue. "When we do one of our 22-minute deep dives for the show, there's a lot of me recapping and synthesizing stuff," he said. "The George Floyd piece was quite different from what we normally do in that it came from my personal perspective."

Get uncomfortable

During the George Floyd video, Mr. Minhaj calls out his South Asian community by repeating a derogatory word some members use to describe black people. Including the term in his monologue wasn't an easy decision.

"I thought about cutting it but ended up keeping it in," he said. "You have to talk about things that scare you a bit. You should feel scared. Anytime you're doing something creatively, it should feel like you're just out of the shallow part of the pool and about to walk into the deep end."

Educate viewers

When possible, Mr. Minhaj aims to call his audience to action. A "Patriot Act" episode on the rent and eviction crisis triggered by coronavirus directed viewers to a website of resources the show compiled to help tenants understand their rights. "I try to be active and optimistic in my outlook," Mr. Minhaj said. "The world is messed up but I want the viewer to leave the show and say, 'I can do X,Y and Z.' "

Tell universal stories

In tense and volatile times, comedians have a responsibility to present thoughtful, balanced arguments, Mr. Minhaj said. "What's cool about the show is that we're telling stories that are bipartisan."

"We've covered the opioid epidemic, the importance of local news and this week's episode will look at whether college is worth it. In any given episode, there are two or three moments where I play Devil's Advocate and say, 'But Hasan, what about this?' I try to be as measured as possible. One of the nicest compliments is when someone comes up to you at an airport and says, 'I disagree with what you say on the show but you seem pretty cool.' "

Write to Ellie Austin at Eleanor.Austin@wsj.com