‘Audiences today have destroyed stardom’: Vir Das on stand-up comedy audience and how they keep him humble

At the Express Adda, comedian Vir Das spoke about his journey, the reality of stand-up comedy and his love for the audience of the current generation.

Vir Das was a guest at Express Adda along with Shefali Shah and Jim Sarbh. (Photo: Vir/Instagram)

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Second-time Emmy-nominated Vir Das was a guest at The Indian Express Adda on Monday. He was joined by other nominees from India — Shefali Shah (Delhi Crime 2) and Jim Sarbh (Rocket Boys), while Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, moderated the session. At the event, the comedian spoke about his journey, the reality of stand-up comedy and his love for the audience of the current generation.

Speaking about how the audience makes comedians humble, Vir said, “Earlier comedians were like, ‘Here are my jokes, if you are offended, I am off to the next city.’ Now we have to be humble about the fact that the audience has a voice and we have to deal with them in the most humble manner. I love this generation. They have destroyed stardom and they value artistry.”

He added, “There’s nothing worse in this world than the silence of the audience. There’s no greater teacher than the audience. There’s no greater editor than the audience. They will change the lines. Our evolution comes from the audience.”

Speaking about the audience getting offended by comedians, Vir Das said, “We are like this big joint family having dinner together and someone is going to hate the bhindi and somebody may want chanas. What I love about my art form is that we can fundamentally disagree about it and laugh about it at the same time. These are just words at the end of the day. Whether I am right or wrong, it doesn’t matter in a stand-up comedy setting.”

Explaining the one rule of stand-up comedy, he said, “The premise of the comedy show is that I promise you 600 percent. I will leave 600 percent of my life on stage so that you go home flying on a cloud, so that you forget your problems. None of the things I say about the world would be half as terrible as the things I say about myself, that’s the rule of stand up comedy. I will ask the audience, if you don’t like a joke, wait for 30 seconds and there will be a joke about somebody else. My job was created so that kings could be humanised for their subjects.”

Vir Das earned an International Emmys 2023 nomination for his Netflix comedy special titled Vir Das: Landing. He shares this nomination with France’s Le Flambeau, Argentina’s El Encargado and UK’s popular comedy show Derry Girls Season 3. This is his second Emmy nomination, with his first coming in 2021 for his special, For India.

After the nomination was announced, the comedian posted on X (former Twitter), “Crazy! Our special #VirDasLanding got an Emmy Nomination for best comedy 🙏 Thank you to anyone who showed it love and laughter, and to @NetflixIndia for putting landing on the map! See you at the @iemmys.”

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Vir Das has dabbled in various formats — stand-up comedy, theatre, TV and film. Das has featured in Bollywood films such as Badmaash Company (2010), Delhi Belly (2011), Go Goa Gone (2013) and Shaadi ke Side Effects (2014). He has also performed in many stand-up specials, including Abroad Understanding (2017) and For India (2020).

In addition to these individual nominations, producer Ektaa Kapoor will receive the prestigious International Emmy Directorate Award at the 51st International Emmy Awards Gala. This grand event is scheduled to take place on November 20, 2023, in New York City.

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