Vir very excited

Stand-up comedian Vir Das's new Netflix show is his third international special

Usually, when people travel around the world for a long period of time, they look forward to getting back to sit and relax.

Comedian Vir Das decided to make a show about just this. And to his luck, Netflix picked it up; ‘Vir Das For India’ is now his third international special.

He’s been a standup comic for 12 years now and the one habit he continues to have is to spend at least an hour and a half every day to write. “It could be a movie script, music or comedy — there’s always some form of writing on the laptop every day. If nothing else, it’s good to know that there’s some exercise on a daily basis,” Vir tells Showtime.

Comedy is rewriting
According to him, the easiest and the hardest part of comedy is letting the audience surprise you. “Performing in front of the audience is really just listening. You write about 10 minutes of jokes and you think five of those are winners and the remaining five have to be worked on. And when you go up in front of the audience, they will want something else.”

He adds, “But you continue to perform and take mental notes when the audience reacts. So comedy isn’t really writing, it’s more of rewriting. You rewrite, record, get feedback, rewrite again and again till you get all 10 jokes to work.”

However, there’s always a possibility that the audience will not laugh at all his jokes, especially if you’re not watching it live.

“I mean, yes, it’s part of it. I don’t think you can guess what people are going to laugh at. I don’t think of people collectively. I also don’t think their intelligence drops just because they are in a collection of people. I do enough shows where my jokes haven’t worked at all,” Vir says.

He adds that if the audience don’t laugh at all, then he’s probably not the comedian for them. “And that’s completely okay. There are plenty of others who are interesting,” he adds.

Falling in love again
More than a decade into the industry, Vir admits that he started taking comedy seriously only about five years ago.

Though he performed on stage several times before that, it was when he did his first Netflix special that he fell in love with the craft.

“I wasn’t really saying what I wanted to say or understand how and if a particular joke could work. All the people I looked up to have been doing comedy for 30 years now. There’s a focus to their craft that I hope to achieve someday,” says Vir.

Showbiz work culture
Vir is also part of the American TV-series ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ where he plays an Indian parent. Preity Zinta plays his wife on the show.

He says, “I absolutely loved working with everyone on the show. The work system there is very good. They have everything ready before the shoot begins. You just have to stick your head in and join their space.”

He points out that the Indian industry isn’t too different as “we are also using the same technology”.

More from Vir
While he’s soaking in the success of the Netflix special, Vir has his hands full this year.

“I am doing a world tour this year. There’s a show about love that I’m working on. There’s also a dark comedy web series. Then there’s a Bollywood movie that I’m part of, and of course, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’.”

And will there be a ‘Go Goa Gone’ Part 2? “Well, we’ve only heard what you’ve heard. And hopefully, there will be something more to announce soon,” says Vir.