Vir Das: I come from a pure place

Standup comedian Vir Das is currently in New York City A big night awaits him at the Big Apple as we speak The International Emmy Awards is 24 hours away where Das is nominated for Best Comedy for his Netflix standup special Vir Das For IndiaWhich also means hersquos singlehandedly competing with fullon shows such as Call My Agent Season 4 in the same global category Also making him the first Indian standup comedian to be honoured thusThe Two Indias clip was part of Dasrsquos performance in Washington DCWhile this should make India proud as it certainly does Dasrsquos big moment is also sort of eclipsed by anxiety over the massive outrage directed against him in both social media and television news ever since he shared a short standup comedy clip last week on his personal YouTube channelThe routine was from his performance in Washington DC during an ongoing US tour Along with virtual threats there has also been vocal support for his freedom of expression in the same platforms On his part he has posted a clarification on the intent of his videoThe monologue was an attempt at satire expressing dichotomy of two Indias both bright and dark that reside within one country Das sounds understandably guarded as we meet him at a New York City hotel mdash as part of the press interview for his Netflix specialrsquos Emmy nomination Also understandable that the quick conversation we have is centred on that clip insteadVir Das in the Two Indias videoOne day one fiveodd minutesrsquo video Just take us through what has happened sinceI put the video up And there has been a response It has been humbling to receive love from everywhere in the worldDid you foresee the consequences or likely impact mdash from ministers in government to leaders from the opposition everyonersquos had their say on it sinceLook laughter is a celebration And I think any Indian with a sense of humour who understands satire and who watched my entire video mdash which is a large group of people mdash knows thatrsquos what happened in that room Thatrsquos what Irsquom focusing onWhen you say watched the entire video you mean the larger act of which the clip you put out was only a partI mean the video that ends with a gigantic round of applause for our country mdash people celebrating our country Thatrsquos a beautiful thingNot just with you but do you think the community of standup comedians are taken more seriously than even journalists mdash when it comes to speaking truth and not just to powerOur only job is to make people laugh Yoursquore a journalist mdash you tell me if we standup comedians are being taken more seriously or not You have a very important job Mine is just to tell jokes Thatrsquos it Irsquom just a guy with a micDid the reactions freak you out though with stuff that happened after the video was outDefine lsquofreak me outrsquoAs in something you hadnrsquot imagined Or actually just tell me what went through your headI think as an artiste you have to humbly accept every kind of feedback And I humbly do Because thatrsquos everybodyrsquos right All you can do thereafter is continue to focus on being an artiste And know that you come from a pure place I think thatrsquos pretty evident in my work mdash that I come from a pure placeDo you also believe that as an artiste it is your job to express what you feel and say it the way you see itEvery artiste does that at some level mdash whether a musician or author mdash you just express your experience of day or month etc Comedy is just about thingsYour refrain from the clip ldquoI come from an Indiahelliprdquo has gone beyond a meme mdash turned into something larger either wayMan if I made some people laugh or smile Irsquom happyWhat about those you made angryThere are two responses to a joke mdash if you laugh you keep watching If not you stop And if you didnrsquot laugh I hope you find something else that gives you joyThere was selfreferencing in that act itself Which is the bit where you talk about how a lot of people would think that what yoursquore telling is not a joke Do you feel the standup comedy scene globally is becoming more and more about OpEd commentary rather than cracking jokes for the heck of itI donrsquot think any comedian goes up on stage with that intention We just write jokes Which creates conversation Then people have that conversation But you create the art with the intention of making people happySure but there are all kinds of comedy mdash observational situational commentaryBut over a couple of hours of a show mdash you see all of the other types of comedy as well No comedian does only one thingDo you think though mdash that mess being the message mdash a more confessional kinda comedy is what yoursquod doI just go ahead and do what I think is funny I donrsquot think we give ourselves any selfimportance whatsoever My job is to make fun of myself to make you feel better mdash to send you home on a cloud thatrsquos itDo you think the idea of people constantly taking offence to everything hurts comedy badlyNo Any joke will have the lsquolaughterrsquo and lsquono laughterrsquo And therersquos the third kind of response as well But if there are enough people laughing at your joke feeling good for what yoursquore doing mdash keep goingWhatrsquos the third kind of responseYou get angry etc mdash in which case you should find something that you wanna laugh with And focus on that Focus on what you love or makes you happy Thatrsquos itDo you notice a culture of people constantly getting all heated up about one thing and swiftly moving on to the next thing to get heated up aboutI think so There will be something else and someone else and something else and someone elsehellip And for the lsquosomething elsersquo and lsquosomeone elsersquo mdash I just hope that theyrsquore okayAre you okayI hope to be some dayResponses that Dasrsquos set evoked on Twittergtgt ldquoVir Das goes to the USA and says this to a packed Kennedy Center These are the ldquoinfluencersrdquo of our country who continue to perpetuate the ldquosnake charmerrdquo idea of India to the worldrdquordquogtgt ldquoI come from a India where I bash the country in the day and apologise in the night and get away with itrdquogtgt ldquoIt is a shame that such people call themselves Indians and then for some money tarnish the honour of their countryrdquoAlso Read Vir Das Win or lose itrsquos nice to have my culture up there