Vir Das is leaning into being an “idiot”
International Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, director and actor, Vir Das, known for his cutting, socially-conscious stand-up, is wrapping up his ambitious Mind Fool World Tour in the United States. The tour began in 2023, taking Das to four continents and almost 19 countries. For this show, however, the mindful comedian has decided to set aside the serious stuff, be the fool, and “go for the big laughs.”
Born in India and raised in Nigeria and India, he once described himself as too Indian for the West and too Western for India, a state of mind many a desi immigrant will readily recognize. Das thrives in the discomfort. “I think if I find my peace, my comedy will stop. Part of comedy is being conflicted about things,” he said in an interview with India Currents.
The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
India Currents: The tag line for your Mind Fool World Tour is “33 Countries, One Idiot”.
Who is the idiot and why did this idiot want to embark on this journey?
Vir Das: I wanted to do the largest world tour that an Indian comic has done and I think we possibly pulled that off. The central theme of the tour is not knowing how to be an adult. I’m in my 40s right now and I think most adults are just grown children who are pretending to be grown up and pretending to have their s**t together. There’s this massive class on adulting that I seem to have missed and I’m pretty sure that there are other people like me out there.
It’s a show that is kind of like leaning into the fool that you are.
IC: What do you want to take away from this show?
VD: I hope you forget about your problems for the hour and 15 minutes that I’m on stage. I hope to make fun of myself enough that you feel good about your life. And I think if you’re not from India, it’ll give you a glimpse into India. And if you’re from India, it’ll catch you up with India.
IC: What have you learned from this show? What has been your big takeaway for yourself?
VD: I think to be sillier on stage. I really kind of leaned into how silly this material is and really being an idiot and being foolish on stage. Sometimes I try and bring some depth to my comedy. I think with this one, I was like, let me just have some fun. The last two or three tours have been quite deep. And I’m like, let me just go for big laughs on this one.
And I really enjoyed myself. It’s been fun.
IC: Who makes Vir Das laugh?
VD: My wife and my dogs, that’s it. And beyond that, I’m a pretty serious guy. Most comedians, I think you will find, are pretty serious people in real life. We save the funny for on stage.
IC: Do you have any inspirations?
VD: I think for the West, it’ll be like George Carlin or Richard Pryor and Eddie Izzard. For India, it’s Johnny Lever. You know, I’ve seen him on stage. There are very few people that can follow an act like Johnny bhai on stage.
IC: What do you think about the Indian comedy scene?
VD: It’s great! It’s growing. It might be the easiest scene in the world to break into terms of, you know, which other comedy scene gets to boast that we have an audience of 1.4 billion people that get to watch our stand-up? …As an English comic, there’s a big audience available for you. As a Hindi comic, there’s a massive audience available to you.
IC: Would you have liked to do a show in an Indian language?
VD: I do a lot of Hindi acting, right? I think you need to write stand up in the language that you think in. And unfortunately for me, I was raised in Nigeria. You don’t choose the first language that you learn but it becomes the language you think in. For the first eight years of my life, I was abroad and then I got sent to India, but by that time the pattern was set.
IC: In one of your Netflix specials, you described yourself as too Indian for the West, too Western for India. Many of us in the Indian diaspora are probably nodding in agreement. I often say that being an immigrant is like being in a quantum state of mind – you are here and there at the same time. Have you found your peace?
VD: No, I think if I find my peace, my comedy will stop. Part of comedy is being conflicted about things. For the diaspora specifically, very interestingly, you kind of grow up in this snapshot, time capsule version of India. Whatever India your parents left behind and came to America, that’s the India that you effectively grow up in because it’s frozen in time. So for a lot of diaspora people that come to my show, it’s a bit of a revelation because here it’s now a modern, audacious, today India, which is far less conservative than the Indian values that you’ve grown up with in the West.
Indian parents here are very strict in America; back home, party chal rahi hai!
IC: So does your comedy land differently on your diaspora audience than your audience in India?
VD: I think at this point people are coming because they know what they’re coming for. They know the guy, they know your story, they know who you are. Because the world is so small, now it’s more important to just be authentic and do what you think is valid.
I don’t think it boils down to types of people. I think it boils down to rooms of people. Sometimes the room has a good energy, sometimes the room has a hot energy, sometimes it has an okay energy, irrespective of where you are. Right now, while I am touring America, it’s usually like 50-50, Indians and Americans in the audience.
IC: Has your audience’s reaction ever surprised you?
VD: All the time, especially when you’re working with new material. Whatever you think is going to be amazing, usually isn’t, and the audience finds something else funny and then you go back and rewrite in that direction. So the audience is a pretty good teacher.
IC: Is there something that you could share with us where you were really surprised?
VD: No, no! If you want to know my stand-up, you have to buy a ticket. I won’t be funny for free. No chance! (laughs)
IC: Fair enough. Speaking of surprise reactions, when I first heard your “I Come From Two Indias” monologue, I thought it was phenomenally powerful. But not everyone agreed, especially in India. In an interview with Conan O’Brien, you said your biggest learning from the controversy was what it meant to be a comedian. So what kind of comedian is Vir Das?
VD: It changes every year. I’m not the comedian I was when I spoke to Conan, and when I spoke to Conan, I wasn’t the comedian I was the year before “Two Indias”. When you see a comedian, it’s kind of a snapshot into who they are at the moment in time. I just hope to be memorable, that’s all. If you go away from my show feeling that you know who I am, that’s important. Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, at least you don’t feel like it’s a joke that anybody could have done; it’s a joke that this artist could have done because he put himself or herself into that joke.
IC: You have spoken on feminism where you defined it as not for a woman to be what a man can be but for her to be whatever she wants to be. Lately, gender roles and feminism are in the crosshairs of cultural and political wars across the world. Do you see any humor in this? How should we laugh about this?
VD: How you should laugh about it and how I should laugh about it are very different perspectives. I cannot speak to a female perspective on it. Your perspective will be coming from a full understanding of it, and my perspective will be coming from a lack of understanding about it and trying to figure it out…I’m trying to listen instead of talk at you. So, I think the funniest thing about feminism from my end, which is the male end, is how quick men are to explain to you what it is.
IC: Do you feel comedians are under pressure today to censor themselves? We hear a lot about it in the Indian context …
VD: It’s in the U.S. context as well…But I think you can never predict what the thing is going to be that gets you into trouble. Whatever you thought it was, it’s never going to be and it’ll be some random s***t that you never thought it was going to be. So your best bet is just do it and then deal with whatever happens after because you can’t second guess. Otherwise you’ll end up being a terrible artist if you second guess.
IC: So there’s no place that Vir Das wouldn’t go…
VD: I’ll go there and then you let me know whether you like it or not. You’re in charge of the line. I’m not in charge of the line. The audience moves the line. There are things you could get away with saying 15 years ago that was slightly more unevolved that you cannot say today because we’ve evolved. But you, the audience, moved that line. My job is always to walk straight up to it and I’ll learn through you. You let me know, accha laga, nahin accha laga. I’m not going to think about where the line is. You show me.
IC: So when it comes to topics like politics or religion, some comedians can be cautious. But that’s never been an issue for Vir Das?
VD: It’s also not my mainstay. If you come to my show, it’s an hour and 15; There’s five minutes of politics, five minutes of religion. After that, you want something else because you’re already inundated with both at a social media level. So you want a new experience.
IC: So what’s next from Vir Das? I know there’s a new film that’s coming with Amir Khan…
VD: I got to co-direct it and write it and star in it. It’s called Happy Patel Khatarnak Jasoos. It’s a madcap spy comedy. There’ll be a series that will come out soon, three or four acting projects that will come out and then one or two independent projects – Indian, American and with Netflix.
IC: How was it working with Amir Khan?
VD: He’s great! I did Delhi Belly with him 13 years ago. This time I was one of the directors he hired for this and I was writer and I was also the actor, so it was like going to university – I don’t think there’s anyone who understands cinema at a level that Amir does.
IC: And who’s co-directing with you?
VD: My friend Kavi Shastri who’s my creative partner. We were in Love Aaj Kal together. If you look at Love Aaj Kal, there are two boys dancing on either side of Saif (Ali Khan); one was me and the other was Kavi Shastri. That’s where we met and we’ve been making stuff together ever since.
IC: So you dance too?
VD: Yes.
IC: Between stand-up comedy and films, what gives you more satisfaction?
VD: It depends on where you are. I need to do an acting project a year just to be sharp as an actor, but I also couldn’t do it all year. And I couldn’t do tours all year as well. They use different sides of your brain; one is solo, one is collaborative. It’s a very different skill set. So I’m okay with either one.
IC: So if you were not a comedian, what would you be?
VD: Unemployed!
The Mind Fool World Tour comes to Brea, California on March 28, 2025. The tour concludes on April 12 with a performance at the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For tickets visit https://www.virdas.in/tour