Vir Das / Last Night

Vir Das

Went to Vir Das’s stand-up show on Saturday and was somewhat disappointed.

Saw him on ‘We the People’ once – an episode about how parents hire detective agencies to spy on their kids and was really impressed with the (what seemed like spontaneous) comments that he made. In fact, I was so excited about his show that I went all the way to the IHC and bought the tickets way in advance.

Took the Jokester with me. (Am attempting to give names to the people in my life, the Jokester is the ‘F’ of previous posts). The Jokester is the best stand-up comic I personally know. He is quick with smart-assed, hilarious responses and is a great mimic. Of late we have been connecting on an intellectual level, and I have got the feeling that he finds this particular talent of his a bit of a strain, as if he feels he needs to perform all the time, that people won’t want to be around him if he doesn’t.

Anyhow, I digress.

This is why I didn’t like his show:

a) A lot of the jokes I had heard before and so did not originate in his brain.

b) The theme was the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ and the notions of how men and women perceive things differently were quite old-fashioned. For example, men not being interested in shoes – jesus, all my male friends are more into shoes than any of my female friends! And several other stereotypical attitudes which don’t really hold true anymore. I personally think a stand-up comic needs to be more with the times.

c) A lot of the situations wouldn’t really occur in the Indian context. For example, a girlfriend insisting that her man give her the key to his apartment. Yes, maybe amongst a very very very low percentage. But the thing is, there are so many things in the Indian context which would make great material for humour.

Now that I have actually typed all this out, I do feel I am being over-critical. I guess I expected much more from him. Plus I have been to the Comedy Club in London, and so am judging him against the very best. These guys were awesome – reacting to the audience, changing their act accordingly.

The Jokester felt that he must have felt somewhat constrained in his routine since he was dealing with an audience which may not be very aware, and so that he may have felt the need to dumb down his act.

I sensed that this was going to change into an excuse for him not getting into it – I have been trying to persuade him to try stand-up professionally. And so I gave him a brilliant suggestion – the Jokester is also a prodigious drummer and bassist, and is in a band. So I told him he could do his routine at gigs, during the interval between two bands. There is so much that’s funny about the Indian rock scene, and since the audience would consist of musicians and people who hang with musicians he could make very specific jokes and they would get them! I think I am quite brilliant to have come up with this :) But he is a lazy 22 year old so I wonder if he’ll work towards it…
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Last Night

Last night I felt I was dying.

It was awful. I’d gone to a jazz concert at a club – the greats Jonas Hellsborg and Gary Husband. I didn’t drink too much – was in the middle of my third drink – but someone was passing a spliff around and I think that was what did me in.

I felt dizzy. It felt awful to move even just a little and my sense of touch was so heightened that even a friendly tousling of my hair felt like a tsunami wave.

It was a really bad trip – I really thought that it was the end. I broke out in a cold sweat and my extremities turned numb. Thank thank God, B was there to look after me.

I felt so bad that I did what I have never done before – the old finger down the throat and puked all over the floor. This made me feel much better and I went into hysterical laughter next.

Puked again in the car – not in thankfully, out the window, but while I was in it.

Yuck. Awful.

Earlier that evening had a great time though – Gary Husband was phenomenal and the Jokester was hanging around him getting him water, adjusting his stands etc. and when Gary said he kind of liked a woman there, I think the Jokester would have even agreed to pimp for him. The Jokester was totally awe-struck and was just staring at Mr. Husband with an open mouth and an I-don’t-believe-this expression, nervous laughter escaping at intervals!

During the break he came and sat with the Jokester and me and we had a nice conversation during which I quite embarrassed the Jokester in front of his idol – ha ha!

In fact, it was really cute how all the Delhi bassists stood to the left of the stage so that they could see Jonas clearly, all the guitarists were to the right of the stage and all the drummers at the back! I really enjoyed watching their expressions! Just shows how starved for good music Delhi is.

I have never understood the purpose of a drum solo – they have always bored me. For me, good drumming is about holding a great groove. But Gary’s solo yesterday really rocked – he can be so gentle with regular sticks to make them seem like brushes, real dexterity. Was quite blown.