What’s there not to laugh about Vir?

What does success mean to yourdquo I ask standup star Vir Das 43 for a couple of reasons For one we are before a massive young audience at the India Film Project cinemela of sorts at Mehboob Studios Bandra which makes for a perfect location to extract such life gyans aka TED talkTwo Vir is the most successful artiste I know from growing up In the sense that we were in the same town at the same time Some of us used to take the world really seriously as lsquodebateersquo type kids in schoolcollege tend tomdashjotting down lsquopertinent pointsrsquo thrashing down global problems in four minutes flatThe first time I saw Vir was at one such debate in Delhi Ideally as champions of the circuit we should have breezed through In comes a kid who cracks a few jokes one after another The trophy is his Whorsquos this rando from Delhi Public School Noida we thought Never seen Rest is chemistryVir was new to Delhi having moved from Lagos Nigeria I remember As is common with desi expats in Africa he got sent to study in India namely Lawrence School Sanawar that he got kicked out of because he was found delivering a lovenotecard to a girl for a senior He was the Abdulla in a begaani shaadiLove is actively forbidden in boarding schools That brought him to Delhi and he studied in the US thereafter Throughout his life Vir reckons hersquos been the classical outsidermdashldquoAfrican kid in India Indian kid in the US American boy in Indiahelliprdquo Is that where the funny bone emanates fromSurely he says the comedian is never the life of the party Hersquos that ldquoloserrdquomdashldquougly relatable crack human beingrdquomdashlooking into that life of the party making a joke of it Usually standups start with short sets at open mic nights gradually fleshing them out into longer pieces YouTube has made this process simple in the sense of getting noticed thusAlso read Mumbai Handler enforcer greaser moneymoverWhat follows is you ldquoTherersquos never been a better timemdashaudiences only care for authenticity and your artistry rather than your CV family Celebs are a thing of the pastrdquo Vir points out to a suitably nodding audience as we speakAnd yet for an Indian English standup comic I donrsquot think there was any North Star for when he started out in Bombay circa 2005 Making Vir in many ways the pioneer of his profession as we know it now ldquoThere was a minor scene in South Bombay with Bharat Dabholkar Boman Irani doing some of itrdquo None Virrsquos stageage talking life sex etcWhat did he do He put together an amateur night at Blue Frog fancy gig venuebar in the late noughties Nobody had a clue who would show up in terms of performers let alone audience Both didOver the years this standup comedy contest of sorts delivered starswinners in their own right like Rohan Joshi Abish Mathew Tanmay Bhathellip ldquoI think one of the years Varun Grover wonrdquo Vir recallsUnlike several standups I know Vir doesnrsquot suffer from a reallife pressure of the punchline Hersquos actually a very serious guy when hersquos not performing Acting would have been his natural gigmdashthatrsquos what he studied in collegeWhich is also why the first time he did standup was actually a 90minute monologue before 600 people as part of his drama course He stank he says As with getting ldquobooed off stage 17 nights in a row making generic jokes about cockroaches etc at open mic nights in ChicagordquoHe first found his voice he clearly remembers as an Indian man yelling into the mic once ldquoYou Americans donrsquot value usmdashwersquore your gynaecs driving your taxis selling you condoms newspapers foodhellip Without us yoursquod just be starving stranded sexless sterile and stupidrdquoThe joke landedBut thatrsquos not how careers take off What career could he opt for anyway Vir says after skipping a VJ job for Zoom TV he saw jocks auditioning for movie roles in Aaram Nagar Bollywoodmdashhe felt like a golden retriever among Alsatians may as well hence be the best golden retrieverHe then hired a camera crew lights shot his own standup special edited it at ldquoKapil Media Pro in Lokhandwala Marketrdquomdashcased them into jackets to feel like they were international videos passing on 10 free copies to every DVD library between Bandra and Andheri where the entertainment industry livesThis is actually how he got a call from Yash Raj and Aamir Khan Productions for films Wersquove seen him touring on stage for yearsBut itrsquos really Netflix that sealed the deal Hersquos done four specials for the global platformmdashI donrsquot know anyone else maybe Dave Chappelle has that many Two of which earned him an Emmy nomldquoThere is that space for a proper Indian guy from India talking about the chudail from Andheria Mor in Norwayrdquo he says Vir fills that gap sufficiently Hersquos a travelling funnymanSo yeah what does success mean to him I ask Itrsquos that time between what you dream in terms of an idea and when you execute it he says Thatrsquos it If it nears zero yoursquore successful Couldnrsquot agree moreMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper