Vir Das is a sizable star in India, where his every move is covered by the press. Three years ago, he caused a stir in India after making a comment in Washington, D.C., that went viral.
Within a poem, he said, “I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang-rape them at night.”
Several Indian politicians called for his arrest and filed a police complaint against Das for insulting the country.
Das endured that controversy without any jail time and has continued to build a fan base with his smart observational comedy not just in India but worldwide, with a major boost from four Netflix specials. A fifth one is forthcoming.
He last performed in Atlanta two years ago at the Buckhead Theatre, with a capacity of 1,200. Now he’s coming to The Tabernacle, which is twice that size, on Sunday, Nov. 17. The show is largely sold out but stray tickets remain at livenation.com starting at $39.50.
Das, 45, grew up in Nigeria and now resides in Mumbai. He also went to college in the United States in Illinois and Alabama about 20 years ago. “I dropped out of the University of Alabama in Montgomery,” he said in a recent Zoom call from New York City. “It was five years after 9/11. Montgomery was a lovely place but I was just broke and had an interesting experience there.”
Credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
Credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP
At the time, he thought he could be a Shakespeare professor with “wall to ceiling books, a tiny office and hopefully a sabbatical every year.”
Instead, he went into comedy and acting. “Between undergrad and grad school, I went back home and did a professional gig. Four hundred people showed up and I sold out a theater. I think the minute you taste what it means to be a stand-up comic, it’s hard to go back to academia.”
Though he loved theater, he found stand up as a “more organic rebellious form of theater. There’s a larger spectrum of emotions and a larger content base. The adrenaline is something that is hard for theater to compete with.”
He returned to India, where he was briefly a VJ on an MTV-style network, then did comedic commentary nightly on a popular news program that was watched by the prime minister and important politicians. This led him into acting and a role in the 2008 hit film “Delhi Belly,” which he described as an Indian version of “The Hangover.”
He spent seven years focused on his Bollywood career but had the itch to go beyond India, signing with Creative Artists Agency, which represents A-list talent such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Lady Gaga. He spent a year back in the stand-up world traveling the United States, hitting comedy clubs like the Punchline in Atlanta trying to understand what makes Americans laugh.
“I had no frame of reference what Americans or Indians in America wanted to hear at first,” he said. But he gradually figured out jokes that could work without taking away from his own culture.
“I want to be the equivalent of what Dave Chappelle does for me,” Das said. “I want to take you to a place you haven’t been before. I don’t know anything about Ohio but Chappelle takes me there. You come to my show, you’re coming to Mumbai and Delhi I don’t care if you’re from Georgia or Alabama, you’re coming with me tonight.”
The show at the Tabernacle will include much of his material that will air on his upcoming Netflix special as well as some material he’ll use in his hosting gig for the International Emmys held in New York Nov. 25.
“In a weird way, this special ended up becoming about joy,” Das said. “I was reluctant as a comic to lean in that direction. But comedy I feel like is starting to be about despair and shackles. I want to do a comedy show that sends you flying on a cloud. When I lean into that, I’ve had much broader appeal than I thought I did.”
He plans to spend six months next year in America but has no immediate plans to purchase a home stateside, preferring the ease of hotel living. “I have this fantasy of settling in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a country cottage,” he said. “I like the energy. They’re funny and they like Indian people. It’s a place where I’m happy.”
IF YOU GO
Vir Das
7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17. Tickets starting at $39.50. The Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. Livenation.com.
