Vir Das: Fool Volume (2025)
♪ Nocturne, nocturne ♪
♪ Once again the night ♪
♪ Is coming on… ♪
[audience cheering loudly]
Hey, London, what’s up? Hello. Let’s start. All rise. You actually did it. Sit the fuck down.
[audience laughing]
[chuckles raucously] I’ve always wanted to do that shit, man.
[audience laughing]
[chuckles] Jesus Christ!
[audience laughing]
He’s not here. He’s not here! He sent me.
♪ Nocturne… ♪
[Vir] What’s up, Mumbai? Hello.
[audience cheering loudly]
I have good news, and I have bad news.
Which one would you like to hear first?
[audience] Bad news.
Most Indian answer ever.
[audience laughing]
Because in India, someone else’s bad news…
[audience muttering indistinctly, chuckling]
The bad news is this. I’m really happy. [snaps fingers]
[man 1] Whoa!
Yeah. But the good news is I’ll talk about it and hopefully, it’ll just go away. ‘Cause when we talk about our happiness, Indian people violate a rule that we’ve been taught since the British Raj, “Happiness is silence.” Right? This is why if you ask any Indian, “Are you happy?” we’ll be like… [grunts softly]
[audience laughing]
[grunts] Now, don’t be confused. This is not a confirmation. This is not a denial. This is a misdirection. [audience laughing] This is not us going, “I don’t know.” This is us going, “I don’t want you to know. I only want God to know.” [audience laughing] ‘Cause you got to be honest with God, right, guys? God talks to us, yes? God says things like, “I love you. Be strong. Vote for me.” [audience laughing loudly] ♪ Streets clear up Phones… ♪
[Vir] What’s up, New York? You’re good?
[audience] Yeah! All right, let me tell you a story. Well, a backstory. I just shot my new Netflix Special, man. It cuts between London and Mumbai, and it’s a show I wrote in silence. Well, rewrote. And the silence is my fault by the way. Because the… I don’t know. Things were going well. And… I think I got a little arrogant. And I think the universe can sense arrogance. Uh, I was in a hotel room in London. [laboured breathing] Six weeks before I was supposed to take my new Netflix Special in a church in London and a stadium in Mumbai, something in the Universe went… [laboured, drawn-out wheezing] And I woke up without a voice. [inhales] Hmm… Biggest show of my career, six weeks to go. My voice wasn’t sore, it was just gone. Broken, silent. It’s like the government in my body had changed.
[audience laughing]
And my family was like, “You’ve been sharing too much good news.” [audience chuckles] You’ve activated the evil eye. I’ll explain, American people. The evil eye is ill-wishers. But they do not do ill to you. They just casually wish ill upon you. [audience chuckles] They’ve combined evil with delegation. [audience chuckling] They wish, right? They’ll just blow an eyelash and be like, “Give him erectile dysfunction.” [blows] [audience laughing] Which I don’t mean to mock. I’m sure it’s quite hard.
But, uh…
[audience laughing] [scattered chuckles] But the evil eye’s a powerful force. Right? And in India, we call the evil eye… [audience] Nazar. Family, that’s right. Yes. [audience laughing, applauding] Speaking of family, it is so fucking good to be home. What’s up, Mumbai? What’s up, London? What’s up, New York? Good to see you guys. [audience applauding and cheering loudly] [Vir speaks indistinctly] [audience continues cheering] [“Nocturne” playing faintly] [audience continues cheering] The minute you share good news the evil eye is activated. Observe. I will share some good news. Ready? So, uh, I won a tiny Emmy Award, all right? And, uh…
[audience cheering loudly]
Thank you, thank you. Thank you for supporting my comedy, and, uh, my family thanks you as well. Guys, the artist you’re watching is now critically acclaimed. [chuckles] Except the acclaim comes from white people, so nobody gives a fuck. [scattered laughter] White validation is brown kryptonite. [scattered laughter continues] Everybody is like, “He has betrayed his country.” I know what you’re thinking. “Vir, kryptonite is green.” No, that’s white money, which is a brown magnet, which is why you live here, and you have betrayed your country. [audience laughing]
[Vir] Evil eye.
[scattered laughter] No, I get it. A lot of people were conflicted when I won the award, because I’m an English comedian in India. And we have this post-colonial resentment of the English language. We equate English with privilege. Correct? Falsely so, by the way. There are many countries in the world where people speak great English, who are dirt poor. For instance, the country of England. [audience chuckling] If you speak good English, they’re like, “Vir Das is not relatable. Not relatable.” Yeah, neither was Oppenheimer. [audience laughing] You watched that shit, no? Why’re you so insecure? Why do you need to be “related to” all the fucking time? Did you watch Oppenheimer like, “I just don’t see myself in the mushroom cloud.” [audience laughing] Although give Putin five years… [scattered laughter] But in India, there’s a spectrum. If your English is very bad, we will judge you. But if your English is very good…
[audience] Judge you.
…we will judge you, right? It’s this… this Appu
Vivek Ramaswamy spectrum. [audience laughing and applauding] Right? This… This Mowgli
Rishi Sunak spectrum. [audience laughing] This Kangana
Tharoor spectrum.
Right? They were also–
[audience cheering and applauding loudly] The night that I won my Emmy Award, two Indian critics, mainstream critics got on TV. And one of them was like, “I don’t like Vir Das.” And she was like, “Why?” She said, “His English is too good.” You… you can’t be mad at people because they enunciate. I’m sorry, Mumbai, to enunciate means that you, uh… [audience laughing and cheering] We’re not the best, right guys? This first girl I hooked up in Mumbai… Every time we’d hook up, she’ll be like, “Ey, suno, let’s bang, no, men?” [audience laughing]
“Ey, suno, let’s bang no men”
[audience chuckles] Then we would have consensual sex while assaulting two languages. [audience laughing] You get judged, man. Like I remember once, one of India’s top Hindi comedians came up to me and he was like, “Vir, you’re too global. Indian stand-up is not global. You sound privileged. You have to sound relatable, like us.” And then he left in a Range Rover. [audience laughs] And that’s when you realize the most privileged people in the world don’t speak English, don’t need English. Think about it. Jack Ma
Mandarin. Mukesh Ambani
Gujarati. Elon Musk
X.
No English is required.
[audience laughing] Then I got taken to England’s top vocal doctor. And he informed me that I had massive vocals cysts on both of my vocal cords. [man speaks indistinctly] And he said, “Mr. Das, it could be seven months before you speak properly again. But you know, look at Djokovic. Injured, out for six months. Does so much physio…,” [snaps fingers] “…back in five weeks. You just gotta find a Djokovic inside you.” [scattered laughter] Do you know how patronizing it is to compare a comedian to a professional athlete? That’s equivalent to like, if his patient dies, and I’m like, “I know it’s sad but look at Jesus.” [audience chuckling] “Crucified, out for eternity, does so much physio…”
[snaps fingers]
[audience chuckling]
“Back in three days!”
[audience chuckling]
“You just gotta find a Jesus inside you.”
[audience chuckling] Can you imagine a brown man with a beard telling a white man to find Jesus? [audience chuckles] The last guy who did that was Jesus. [audience chuckling] [scattered applause] But I’m training. I just fired my American trainer. I got a proper Indian trainer, right? Speaks Hindi, has a paunch. [audience chuckling] ‘Cause this western guy kept saying all this privileged shit I didn’t understand. He said, [in American accent] “Mr. Das, if you wanna get really lean, we gotta feed and fast, feed and fast. We gotta surprise your body.” [in Indian accent] I was like, “Bro, I live in Mumbai. If I wanna surprise my body, I will cross the road.”
[audience laughing and cheering]
“I will be much leaner when there is an SUV on top of my body.” Random privileged shit. “Mr. Das, are you having any antioxidants?” I’m like, “The AQI is 599 right now. What oxygen are you referring to in Mumbai?” At this point, my body converts monoxide into dioxide. I am an antioxidant. We have lost half the crowd, by the way. Half the crowd is gone, right? They’re like, “Why’s he teaching science? Did not come here to learn about oxygen!” [chuckles] “Just make me laugh, bro. Don’t make me think!” This is you! In the comments, “Just make me laugh, bro! Don’t make me think.” Get someone to tickle you, you basic bitch, all right?
[audience laughing, cheering, applauding]
Random privileged shit. “Uh, Mr. Das, what’re your thoughts on probiotics?” Do you guys know about probiotics here? “Your thoughts on probiotics?” And I was like, “I believe in a woman’s right to choose.” [audience chuckling]
“I am probiotic.”
[scattered chuckles] He was like, “Mr. Das, you’re making a mistake.” And I said, “I shouldn’t have to live with that mistake for the rest of my life.” [audience laughing] This trainer… it was so hard not to sound like him when I was talking to him.
Indian people… we have a horrible habit.
[audience chuckles] When we talk to somebody with a foreign accent, like a dementor, we inhale their accent.
[inhales deeply]
[audience laughing] [scattered, amused chuckles] And do their accent back to their face. [audience chuckles] Like, a sweet French guy will come over to your house for dinner. He’ll be like, [in French accent] “This is magnifique. Could I have some more chicken tikka, please?” [in normal voice] You will walk into your own kitchen, look at your Indian mother and be like, [in French accent] “He would like some more chicken tikka.” [audience laughing and applauding] [in normal voice] Your mother will come, look at the French guy and be like, [in French accent] “Beta, would you like some more…” [audience laughing] [in normal voice] Now the French guy is fucking terrified, right? He’s like, [in Indian accent] “Uh, Aunty, I would like some more…”
[audience laughing]
[cheering and applauding continues]
Now, you’re just three racists surrounding a cold piece of chicken tikka. To get rid of the evil eye, six pundits, six priests were sent over to my house, and they did an 8-hour worship ritual, where they built a shivling out of milk and ghee and ice that stood by itself six feet into the air. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I was like, “Can you complete the bridges in Mumbai, please?” [audience chuckling] And the pundit was like, “Now, you need to pray every night.” I couldn’t talk to the pundit, and I was like, “Well, that’s kind of why I hired you.” [scattered chuckles] And he was like, “Oh, we don’t pray for you. We just make sure that your prayer is heard first.” [scattered chuckles] I was like, “So, you are like the TSA precheck…”
[audience chuckling]
“…of God?” And he was like, “Yeah, take your shoes off.” [audience laughing] I don’t pray that much, right? Like, I casually take God’s name during orgasms and deadlifts, right? [audience laughing] Which, for me, are very similar experiences, guys.
You know, my knees don’t cooperate.
[audience chuckling] [moaning] Looking in a mirror… You know, the very… [audience chuckling] [chuckles] But, like… Like, I talk to God. Like the other day, I was praying because I lost my passport. Like, you, sir, can get a new passport in 24 hours if you have contacts in the government. Except for me, contact with the government is why I need my passport. [audience laughing] So, if I lose my passport, I haven’t lost my passport. God has taken my passport. And I just find religion… You know, when I’m desperate, I laugh, right? So, I was like, [chuckles] “God, listen, I cannot tell jokes to a world I do not get to see.” And then all of a sudden, a file in front of me flew open. I heard a noise, which was like… [mimics wind blowing explosively] And my passport, I swear to God, was five feet away, inside that file, like, hidden under this paper where some jokes were written. And I was so happy I cried happy tears over a piece of paper. The last time I did that a pregnancy test came negative. [audience laughing] I needed my passport because I went to Australia.
Uh…
[scattered chuckles] I’m sorry, any Australians in the audience? Make some noise.
[scattered] Whoa!
Good to see you. I like your country. I mean, you guys are, na, you’re like, England’s Bangladesh. [audience laughing and cheering] Is that a… ?
[audience continues laughing]
Sorry, I apologise. I apologise, I’m sorry.
You’re New Zealand’s Pakistan.
[audience continues laughing loudly] [audience applauding and whistling] Here’s what happened. I follow rules when I’m at airports abroad. I never wanna embarrass India abroad unless it’s at a large theatre. [audience chuckles] And this old Aussie lady picked me out of line. Full of white people and she was like, “You sir, you’re gonna check your bag in.” I was like, “Madam it’s under 9 kilos, only one item.” She was like, “No! you’re gonna check your bag in.” I was pissed off. Would you be pissed off? [audience] Yes. I was like, “Are you gonna check any of the white people?” All white people were like, “Fuck! Now she’s gonna check the white people!”
[audience laughs]
[chuckles] She just pointed at me and she was like, “No, just you!” I was delighted. I was. I was like, “Oh, my God! It’s an OG racist.” [audience chuckling] It’s like seeing the Northern Lights. You’re like, “I’ve seen in books and movies, but it’s so much more impressive in person.” You never see an OG racist in a modern setting. It fucks with your brain, right? It’s like seeing a Nazi drink Boba tea. [audience laughing] Which I would pay good money to see, yo! [chuckles] Full SS uniforms… [mimics slurping noisily] He… He… heil…
Heil Hitler!
[scattered chuckles] I really do feel racists are a marginalized community. [audience chuckling] Have you considered the struggle of being a racist? To identify as a bigot but to be trapped inside an intelligent person’s body. [audience laughing] Racists have no public platforms. It’s just 80% of American podcast.
That’s it, right?
[audience chuckling] All of their good ideas have been stolen, culturally appropriated from racists. Racists came up with the N-word, Hip Hop… [mimics swishing] took it. [audience cheering] Racists came up with segregation, pickleball… [mimics swishing] took it. [audience chuckles] Racists came up with slavery, Apple… [mimics swishing] took it. [audience laughing loudly] All their good ideas are gone. Then what is the life of a racist? You make a tiny Paki like me check his luggage. Then you go home and have quiet missionary sex under a picture of Churchill. [audience laughing] What’s… [laughing continues] Picture of Winston Churchill… it’s got to be missionary. [audience chuckling] You can’t do anal under Churchill. [audience laughing] Churchill has never seen, uh… [audience chuckling] …”colon”isation. [audience laughing, cheering and applauding]
I…
[audience applauding and cheering] I’m walking into first class. She keeps smiling at me with victory in her eyes. Something in me snapped. Usually, Indian people, we shut up and take it, right? I was like, “Madam, I hope an Indian marries your daughter.” [audience laughing loudly] I hope her daughter comes home with a beautiful Indian man.
Fucking Dev Patel’s face…
[audience chuckles]
…with Sadhguru’s mustache… [chuckles]
[audience chuckles] …on, like, my body. They have to sleep in the next room and listen to weird Indian-Aussie mix sex coming through the wall all night long. Yes, “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” “Oye! Hoye! Hoye!” [audience laughing loudly]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[chuckles] Just… Just… Hah! Tu! [mimics engine revving] [audience laughing hysterically] Guys, she was 65. You gotta have empathy. It is possible to love an old racist, right? Indians, go to your family WhatsApp group right now. [audience chuckling] Fun fact, if you cannot find a racist in your family WhatsApp group, you’re the fucking racist. [audience laughing] Don’t be… don’t be ashamed. One of my grand aunts, legendary Islamophobe.
[audience chuckling]
Legendary! Platinum member frequent flyer bigot. [audience laughing] Every time she saw me do stand-up, she’ll be like, “Hai Allah!” [audience chuckles] I was like, “Don’t you…” [chuckles] “…hate Muslims?” She’ll be like, “Yeah, but when I’m disappointed, I invoke their god.” [audience laughing and cheering] Why bother our own? Then I got taken to Adele’s speech therapist. [hums and blows] She has the same problem as me, same level of talent.
And, uh… [chuckles]
[audience chuckling and cheering loudly] It’s this tiny Jewish lady who charges a lot of money, and she gave me this.
This is a kazoo.
[scattered laughter] She was like, [in Jewish accent] “When you can play, ‘happy birthday’ on the kazoo, you’re ready for theatrical performances again.” And I was like, “When you can do burpees on a marshmallow carpet, you’re ready for an appendectomy, because I thought we were playing a game where we said fucking nonsense sentences to each other.” [audience chuckling] This is impossible to make a noise out of. [blowing] Doesn’t happen. The noise has to come from within. Every day, 20 times a day, I was like… [blows shrill quacks] Do you know how many ducks have shown up to my house… [audience laughing and applauding]
…looking for action… [chuckles]
[audience chuckles] …and received it… [audience laughing loudly] …because we are speaking the same language?
[audience chuckling]
[chuckles] Duck shows up, I’m like… [plays sultry music on kazoo ] [audience cheering and applauding] [continues playing sultry music on kazoo] [audience cheering loudly] [audience applauding] You got your money’s worth, right? Musical performance. [scattered laughter] But she was like, “Mr. Das, you’ve been using your voice wrong for 20 years.” And I was like, “How left-wing intellectual of you.” [audience chuckling] This is why I like the younger generation. Anybody here, 18 to 25? Make some noise.
[audience squealing]
I like you guys. ‘Cause you’re outspoken, you’re not silent, you share. You’re brave. You put yourself out there. We give you feedback, you get triggered, we laugh.
That’s the system.
[audience laughing and applauding] [Vir] That’s great! That’s… That’s why we… [chuckles] That’s why we let you believe you have your own truth. [audience chuckles]
Your truth is our content.
[audience laughing] Hi, I have two nephews. They are the generation below Gen Z. What are they called?
Morons? I…
[audience laughing] My nephews are 14. I took them to a museum. My nephew is super pissed off that a massive European painting will not fit into his phone this way. [audience chuckling] And I was like, “Fucker! Just turn your phone.” And he’s like, “Vir mama, you don’t understand. The world has changed. Life is vertical.”
[audience laughing]
I was like, “I’m gonna change my will now.” [audience laughing] “I’m not gonna cut you off. I will leave you everything I have if you cremate me vertical.” [audience laughing] “With these eyes open, I wanna look down at the family while I burn, all right? And I want a DJ playing, like, techno music behind me, right? I want it to be like, sunburn meets sati, all right? And…” [audience laughing] “And like, grief meets Glastonbury, all right? Like… Like burning man meets burning man.” [audience laughing] “And I want you to…” [chuckles] “…film the entire thing and upload it to Instagram, and just caption it, ‘Vir mama! Lit!'”
[audience laughing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
Which is almost the perfect caption for a cremation, right? So easily manipulated because you commodify distraction. All you wanna do is have the drop. You can do one-hour show for Gen Z with one punchline. “Just delay the drop!” [scattered laughter] “Vir mama, the world has changed. Life is vertical.” [raps] ♪ The world has changed ♪ ♪ The world has changed, Changed, changed, changed, Vir Mama ♪ ♪ Changed, changed, changed, Changed, changed, changed, Vir Mama ♪ ♪ Life, life, life, life, Life, life , life, life ♪ ♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪ ♪ Is vertical ♪ [rapid vocalizations] ♪ Life is vertical ♪ [audience cheering and applauding] [cheering, whistling and applauding continues]
Look at your stupid faces, right?
[audience chuckling] All the adults are like, “What is happening?” [chuckles] “I want a refund.” Gen Z is like, “Let him cook, bro!” [audience laughing] And that is a perfect caption for a cremation. [audience laughing] Then four weeks before the stadium show, I tried homeopathy. Anybody doesn’t know what homeopathy is make some noise.
[scattered clapping]
Yeah, I’ll explain. So, sir, a homeopath is a lonely virgin man… [audience chuckling] …who sits in a two-foot by two-foot room surrounded by white powder, all right? It’s… It’s like a closet at a Diddy party.
[splutters]
[audience chuckles] And he gave me white powder to put in my fucking face. I was like, “What is this?” and he was like, “Doesn’t matter.” [audience chuckles] So now, eight times a day, I put white powder into my fucking face. I don’t even do stand-up anymore. I work in finance. [audience laughing] I’m an addict. [scattered cheers and laughter] Here’s the problem with your generation.
Um…
[audience laughing] You got addicted to performative validation on dopamine devices. You guys are obsessed with identity. Not personality. So, when you put yourself out there, it’s what you are, not who you are. So, you’re trying to gather and broadcast labels ’cause they all represent shots of dopamine. from the internet that you’re addicted to. So you’re not just a human being. You’re a polyamorous, ADHD, vegan, juggler, who’s religiously agnostic, but Avengers Adjacent, right? And… listen, I… I don’t wanna patronize you, but as you get older, you discover that the world is really fucking basic. Right, grownups? [murmured ascent] Amulya, there are only two types of people in the entire world. There are assholes and there are people who deal with assholes.
That’s it. That’s the entire world.
[audience applauding and cheering] Let’s not be unevolved, there are intersectional assholes in the world. There are black assholes, white assholes, straight assholes, gay assholes, trans assholes. On the flipside, some vegans are nice people. [audience laughing] People are nuanced. They’re complex. Right, London? I’m just saying even Adolf Hitler was a dog lover. Remember? Side note. How confused do you think Hitler’s dog was? [audience laughing] Dog only understands visuals, not politics, right? If you’re Hitler’s dog, every time your dad is outside, your dad is like… [mimics Hitler’s fiery speech in German] Never throws a ball. [audience laughing] [audience applauding and cheering] Then when you’re silent, what you discover is you make up your own sign language that nobody understands but you. I looked at my assistant. I wanted a decaf black and I was like… [whispers] “I would like a decaf black.” [audience chuckles] [in normal voice] He was like, “What?” I’m like, [whispers] “a decaf black.” “What?” [chuckles] I was like, [whispers] “Your mother is a whore.” [audience laughing] [in normal voice] “You wanna a decaf black?” [audience laughing] Everybody around you gets quiet as well. Everybody is like, “Oh, my God!” [whispers] “You’ve lost your voice!”
[voice fades] “That’s so sad.”
[audience chuckles] [whispers] “Would you like a decaf black?” [audience chuckles] [mouths] “Yes!” [scattered laughter] And you discover that when one person breaks silence is contagious. And I get it because if you ever land into controversy by choice or not by choice, you become a story. And the problem of becoming a story is, uh… you’re milked for attention no matter where you go. Every time I was in New York, or somewhere in the UK, a white journalist would show up and they’ll be like, [accented] “Oh my God! Can we do like a 9000-word exclusive on how you’re being silent on your plight?” [subdued laughter] “I’m sorry, my plight? Forgive me, madam. It feels like you need some sort of eastern-oppression story to feel better about where you live. All right?”
Listen, somebody’s–
[audience cheering] Somebody’s plight is like their erection. All right? I know it’s hard to look at, but it’s rude to point it out. [audience laughing] And she’s like, “You don’t understand. Our audience is huge and they’re gonna sympathise.” I’m like, “My audience is small, but they’re going to empathise, alright?”
Sympathy…
[audience cheering and applauding loudly] Sympathy is a porn video that you watch for pleasure. Empathy is an orgy. We’re all getting fucked together. [scattered laughter] Now, listen, about 30% of you responded to that joke. [scattered laughter] And I need you to stay back after the show. [audience laughing heartily] [chuckles] That was… not a metaphor. [audience chuckles] “How’s the Vir Das show?” “He does a lot of crowd work.
It’s really intense.”
[audience laughing] I genuinely think that if you don’t put them on the spot, if you give them a safe space, if you give them anonymity, most people will have an honest conversation. Tell the truth and they know right from wrong. Would you agree? Right? I think so. Let’s find out. Turn the lights out, Shastri. [scattered chuckles] Kavi, put the lights out. [scattered chuckles] [people whooping and cheering] [audience continues cheering] [Vir] Yeah, so the Christmas tree doesn’t go off. [audience laughing loudly] I have five electricians on my crew, nobody could fucking figure this out. [audience chuckling] And this Special is gonna come out in the summer, behenchods!
So–
[audience laughing hysterically] [audience cheering and applauding] British people, so we be honest with each other, shall we?
[man 2 whoops]
[Vir chuckles] Every time something happens in your country, 80% of the world has zero sympathy for you. [audience laughing] [Vir] I’m sorry. It’s just not been long enough. [audience chuckles] [Vir] You fucked around and found out for so long with so many countries, and now you have the gall to complain about too much diversity in England. [scattered laughter] [Vir] At this point, we don’t even want reparations anymore. Do we, Indian people? At this point, I don’t want your monarch to return the Kohinoor. I want him to swallow it. [audience applauding and cheering] [cheering continues] [Vir] Let’s see if God really can save the King. [audience chuckling] Let’s have an honest conversation right now. Do you wanna try? [scattered] Yes! If we are being honest with each other, you know that since 2019, we’ve all felt monitored and monetised. That we are fed this story of good vs evil, but with every passing year it just makes less and less sense that we are worshiping false heroes and celebrating a lack of intelligence because of a morally bankrupt middle class that is obsessed with consumption and a cult of power. [audience cheering and applauding] [Vir] Every single Indian person here knows that since 2019, there has not been a single good Marvel movie and you know it, all right?
These are bullshit heroes…
[audience cheering loudly] [Vir] …these are false stories. Wait, what did you guys think I was talking about? [audience laughing] Guys, that’s just a joke about the MCU. Speaking of which, right now, nobody can see you. [scattered laughter] Nobody. You’re safe. Not the people above you, who ignore you. Not the people below you, who you ignore. [audience chuckling] [Vir] But they can hear you. Just make the noise you want to be remembered for. [subdued laughter] [audience cheering and applauding loudly] [cheering and applauding continues]
[man 4 chants “Ganapati Bappa”]
[laughs] [audience laughs] [Vir] As an outsider, humbly, I just wanna say, “I think your empire is ending.” [scattered laughter] [Vir] It feels that way. On the outside, you’re kind of like the hot girl from high school, who’s back at the reunion… [scattered laughter] …and now she’s mad that everybody else is hot too. [audience laughing] [Vir] And China is the principal and… [audience whooping and cheering] And I think I know, like, it’s because all the smart people in your country behave like such corrupt assholes, you stop listening to them. You started listening to stupid people, who were slightly smarter than you are, and convinced yourself that those were the smart people. And now the entire world kind of looks at you the way you looked at Joe Biden. [audience laughing and whooping] [Vir] It’s kind of like, [drawn-out] “Ooh!” [audience laughing] [Vir] “He doesn’t know where he is anymore.” [audience laughing] [Vir] Let’s just stay in this darkness for a second. [chuckles] [audience laughing]
[Vir] In case someone has a gun.
[audience laughing loudly] [Vir] All right, on the lights! [audience cheering and applauding loudly] I don’t think America will ever get rid of guns. Guns are your cricket. [audience chuckling] And I firmly believe that every American should be allowed to buy a gun at any age without an ID.
[scattered laughter]
Hang on. But I think you need to change your gun technology. I think you need to voice activate your guns. Every time you wanna fire a bullet, the gun will not fire until you say something completely and perfectly into the gun in your voice. And I think what you have to say is the entire 2nd Amendment. [audience chuckling] So, it will change gun violence forever, man. Americans will be like, “I’m a fucking kill you after I study for two weeks.” [audience laughing] Two weeks later, he’s like, “In the United States of America…” [splutters] “…a well-trained militia for the security of the state, the right to bear arms shall never be infringed.” Think about how many people can run away in that much time. [audience chuckling] If you make Apple handle your guns, you will solve foreign terrorism forever. With Siri? [audience laughing] If I show up with my accent… [in Indian accent] “Siri!” [audience laughing] “…a well-trained militia for the security of the state, right to buy arms shall never be infringed.” [in American accent] “There are five Starbucks in your area.” [audience laughing and applauding] [audience whooping]
Oat milk cappuccino! [chuckles]
[audience laughing] [in American accent] “Shoot all Filipinos?” [in Indian accent] “No! Hey!” [audience laughing] [Vir chuckles] Guys, it’s a tourist visa. I’m not afraid of you.
Do you understand?
[audience chuckling] [audience applauding and cheering] [inhales deeply] I’m in therapy. My therapist is this woman who holds a cup of chamomile tea two centimetres away from her face the entire session and never fucking sips it. [audience laughing] And her taking a sip is now the only hope I have in therapy. [audience laughing] Fucking Jedi! [chuckles] The other day, she’s like, “Mr. Das, a lot of comedians have cruelty in their childhood. So their definition of love becomes withholding.” And I was like, “Did you know that a lion only fucks for 30 seconds?” And she’s like, “I didn’t know.” And I was like, “Good! ‘Cause that means one of us is bringing new information into this conversation.” [audience laughing] “Mr. Das, I’m just trying to see if you have any childhood trauma.” I’m like, “Bitch! I grew up in India and Africa.
My trauma has childhood.”
[audience laughing] These are my childhood traumas. When I was 12 years old, a bully kicked me in my teeth so hard I swallowed my own tooth, and I was hospitalized and made to hydrate so I would poop out my own tooth, and I never did. And I’m afraid it’s still in there. And one day, I would get an x-ray, and in the stomach of an adult male, they will find a 12-year-old boy’s tooth. [audience laughing] And they’ll be like, “Mr. Das, what did you have for breakfast this morning?” I’ll be like, “No, it’s childhood trauma.” and they’ll be like, “Yeah, for the child you fuckin’ ate.” Listen, my parents knew about mental health problems, but they gave me Indian solutions. [chuckles] I’ll be like, “Papa, I have crippling anxiety.” ‘”Huh huh, you do jumping jacks.”
[audience laughing] “Anxiety will jump out of your body. Then you take turmeric for acid reflux.” [audience chuckling] Before the stadium show, I tried something called myofascial release. Has anybody tried it? [scattered] Yeah! Yes! Let me tell you about this. I was in Copenhagen, and this muscular 6′ 4″, beautiful German man with blonde hair and blue eyes walked into my hotel room. I was like, “If there’s more of you, you deserve a Ryke.” [audience chuckling] And then he took his elbow, which was the only non-muscular part of his body, and shoved into my buttock and started to move it around. And he started to stroke my hair. And he was like, [accented] “You have a sadness deep inside you.” [in normal voice] And I was like, “No, I have a German deep inside me.” [audience laughing hysterically] And he was like, “Your throat chakra is fully blocked.” And I’m like, “That’s ’cause you’ve shoved my small intestine upwards inside it.” [audience laughing] And he’s like, “You must let go.” [whimpers] And I was like, “I feel the same about you.” [audience laughing] And he was like, “Release! Surrender.” And I surrendered to these beautiful, strong German arms. I felt like France. [audience cheering] And then, New York… [chuckles] I had this beautiful emotional release. It was just shattering. I… I didn’t cry. I farted for 42 seconds. [audience chuckling]
And then his throat chakra was blocked.
[audience chuckling] There’s just coriander everywhere in the room.
[chuckles] I was mortified, right?
[audience chuckles] So I did the one thing every Indian does when we’re embarrassed abroad, right?
I was like, “Sir, I’m from Pakistan.”
[audience chuckling and cheering] [audience applauding]
[loudly] It’s fine!
[audience laughing and cheering] Can I tell you why I went to therapy?
[scattered] Yeah.
So I left and I did 186 shows abroad. Burnt myself out. My final show was in Singapore. I was flying home, first class.
And…
[audience laughing] I woke up, the pursur was there and I was like, “How long till we land in Mumbai?” And he was like, “Oh, Mr. Das, this flight is to London. It’s 10 hours to LHR.” Fuck you! “Not London, Mumbai.” [loudly] “We are flying to Mumbai!” He’s like, “Mr. Das, calm down right now.” Because you know, when a brown man with a beard starts yelling a new destination for the plane… [audience laughing and applauding] [Vir] He was like, “Situation! Situation!” [chuckles] I had put a show on sale in London last minute. It had sold out. Right? I had bought a ticket, boarded a flight. Seventy-two hours of my life blacked out. Just gone. And then I got disoriented, and I started to cry in first class. [audience chuckling] It’s tragic, guys. I cried and I drank Dom Pérignon champagne, and then… Then I whimpered and I put caviar on melba toast. [chomps noisily] [audience laughing] I cried all the way to England, wishing I was India. I felt like Lady Mountbatten. [audience laughing] A lot of you did not get that joke. [audience chuckling] Shall I explain? I’ll explain, all right.
So guys, caviar is fish eggs. Uh…
[audience laughing loudly] [audience applauding]
Study your own history, behenchod!
[audience chuckling] All right. Sorry, white people…
Uh…
[audience laughing]
Behenchod, uh…
[audience laughing] When you’re happy, behenchod is kind of what the N-word is amongst black people. Right? Fair? Say, “What up, behenchod?” “Hey! He’s my behenchod, right?” But when you’re unhappy, behenchod is like the N-word amongst white people. [audience laughing]
Look at that, behenchod. Uh…
[audience laughing] And I went to my therapist, and I’m like, “I’m blocking out entire days.” [splutters] “Am I crazy?” And she’s like, “Mr. Das, it’s 2024. We don’t use that word anymore.” I’m like, “I don’t use dental floss. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” [audience laughing] She’s like, “Mr. Das, you have a problem sitting quietly with your emotions. Have you ever been quiet and happy at the same time? Why don’t you tell me a story?” [chuckles] I’m like, “I cannot believe I’m paying for storytelling.” [audience laughing] And then I paid her the money to tell her the story I just charged you for.
[audience laughing]
This fuck all business model. Two weeks before the stadium show I broke. [muttering indistinctly] You just cry. And the thought that breaks you is… I’m a storyteller. What if I don’t get to… Or what if I do and it’s not as… You just cry silently. Which looks pathetic on a man. It looks like an orgasm on mute.
[audience chuckles]
[audience laughing loudly]
It’s the noise that lets you know which one it is, guys. [scattered laughter] I was like, “I know you can’t hear me, but can you see me?” When I was 24 years old, I was an illegal immigrant in Chicago. I’d overstayed my visa. I worked in a kitchen with Mexican cooks. Brutal people! They called me, “Los plastos Kollega.” Sometimes, I’d sleep on the train. My working hours were 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. and you’d freeze. And this guy called Sirquet taught me this trick. He’s like, “Hey, Kollega, come here!” [speaks Mexican] [in English] If your nipples are warm, your body will be warm. Then he put hot soup from the restaurant into ziplock bags, put every ziplock bag into a black garbage bag, tied them together behind my neck so that the soup hung over here. I wore a jacket and I was insulated and warm all night long. Everybody left me alone on the train because I was a brown man with gigantic tits. [audience laughing] And you know, this was a couple of years before the trans conversation. [chuckles] But a couple of years after 9/11. So, you know, even the Mexicans were like, “Maybe kollega…” [drawn-out] “…terrorista.” “Maybe… ” [speaks Mexican] [audience chuckles] [n English] “Really massive, tasty black tits.”
And…
[audience laughing] Some nights you wake up on the train, man. It’s fucking beautiful. It is. You know. You’ve got Coldplay in your ears, warm soup on your nipples. [subdued laughter] Your head’s on the window. You come out of a tunnel… you feel sunlight on your cheeks, they get warm. Your eyes go into this non-religious shade of orange… [audience laughing and applauding] …and there’s golden light on your face. You feel seen. And you can’t move because there’s a… massive homeless man sleeping on top of you. [audience laughing] Now, Indian women, some of you know this… [audience laughing] [breathlessly] …having been compressed under a heavyset man. Don’t look at him, eyes front, eyes front. Look at me right now. The only thing that will move that man is food, right? So, I put this man in the window seat. His name was Eugène. I fucking put him under the sun, and I pulled out soup.
[audience laughing]
He laughed his ass off. He was like, “Hey man, what else you got in them titties?”
[audience laughing]
[Vir chuckles]
And I was like, “More soup.”
[audience laughing] And then his friends surrounded me. Like five black guys. I gave them all soup. And they all called me “a little soup titty N-word” for five hours. “Hey, man, look at this soup titty N-word.” I have had Shah Rukh Khan tell me he was proud of me. I’ve had a woman call me the love of her life. Nothing comes close to five black guys calling you the N-word. [audience laughing and whooping] It’s also the most maternal I’ve ever felt in my life. You know, to pull your tit out and nourish somebody. [audience laughing]
Ladies, I get why you do it. [chuckles]
[scattered laughter] And I told this story to my therapist, and my therapist was like, “Mr. Das, that was not a quiet story at all, and they’re happier than you are,” and I’m like, “Madam, you don’t understand what I fucking do, do you?” Look, happiness watched is greater than happiness lived, alright? Do you know what every crowd has in common? They look different. They sound the same. Because happiness is a universal noise. A human being is just a noise. We die when we’re silent. If I could take every audience member and put them in a suitcase, and put them up on stage with me and take them around the world, so that they see it like I see it, and feel it like I feel it, you would understand why people like stand-up. Nobody is watching the comedian. They’re listening to the audience, to happiness leave their body. Because happiness, when yelled, Joy, when not protected, but joy projected is hope. It is strength. People with power understand that. The scariest thing to them is not the words that come out of my mouth, it is the noise that comes out of theirs. Comedians just say words, the audience tells the truth. And this is what I don’t understand. Why is no one arresting the audience?
[audience laughing and applauding]
[audience cheering]
They are the problem. Look at them. They’re so stupid. [audience chuckles] So easily motivated by some eloquent flattery. [chuckles] And my therapist was like, “Mr. Das, you have an aggressive dis-associative disorder. that is motivated by extreme PTSD.” And I was like, “You have passive-aggressive tongue twisters that are motivated by chamomile tea.” [audience laughing] She’s like, “Mr. Das, your anxiety is out of control. I need to put you on medication. What’re your thoughts on beta-blockers?” And I was like, “I believe in a woman’s right to choose.” [audience laughing] That joke gets better if you think about it in Hindi. [audience laughing] “Also, I have an addictive personality. I’m not gonna take pills.” She’s like, “All right. Then you need to work out seven days a week. The endorphins will carry you through your depression.”
“So I should do jumping jacks.”
[audience laughing] [audience cheering and applauding] She’s like, “No, also take turmeric for acid reflux.” [chuckles] [audience laughing] Ladies and gentlemen… We’re on a train. That’s all this life is. It’s a train in a fucking circle. And one step on that train, one stop is unhappiness and utter despair and sorrow and an ass whooping. Whether you’re quiet or whether you’re happy, or whether you’re careful or whether you’re reckless, the train will stop at that station once in your life, I promise you. Stick your tits out and share your soup, all right? That’s all I’m gonna say. You could play every card in the book right and one day, for no reason, your voice will just [snaps fingers] go the fuck away. And then, one day, for no reason, it will… [snaps fingers] Ten days before my stadium show, something freed. I don’t know why this happened. [splutters] But… [sighs] Do you know what I think freedom is? When you’re not constantly thinking about whether you can speak, you can speak. Like, my voice came back not for doctors, or for healers. It came back for a food delivery guy. [scattered laughter] [audience chuckles] He handed me a package of food, and instinctively, without thinking, I was like, “Thank you, bhaisaab.”
[audience laughing]
It just came out. And I… I just fucking… I held him, and I… I wept. For 20 minutes straight, I just wept in his arms. And he was like, “You’re very passionate about kung pao chicken.” [audience laughing] And I was like, “Your back is very tight. You have a sadness deep inside.” [audience laughing] Don’t think about what you say, and it will get you into trouble. And when you’re in trouble, do not think about what you say, and it will get you out of trouble. Here are three quick stories to end my show that prove that. Are you ready? [indistinct chatter] Number one. I was 18 years old in the city of New Delhi on the back of a motorcycle. My friend Shusheel is driving us home from a Delhi party at a farmhouse where we have both dropped acid. If you’ve ever driven in Delhi at night, you know this, you do not need the acid. [audience laughing] There are preexisting illusions like safety. [audience laughing] We get up to a red light. While we’re getting up to the red light, a cat crosses the road. It fucks with my brain. All of a sudden, at the red light, I see standing a 20-foot-tall pussycat with one eye. And there was light shooting out of the cat’s eye. And the cat was morphing and dancing and changing and as we got closer, the cat morphed into a Delhi policeman… [audience laughing] …with a torch in his hand. The Delhi police will shine a torch in your eyes, we know this. They’re like, “On the off chance you haven’t had an accident yet…”
[mimics taunting laughter]
[audience laughing] We get up to this policeman, who is 6’4″, a sardar, and I swear to God, his name was Hunta Singh. [audience laughing] And as we start to flee, he tries to flag us down. I’m told, 18-years old, high on acid, I make direct eye contact and go… [meows shrilly] [audience laughing] If you think running away from a Delhi policeman pisses them off, try meowing at them. [audience laughing] They go insane. He followed us for 3 kilometres. We get to another red light, and I still do not know why this is when my bastard friend starts following traffic laws.
[audience laughing]
He stops. Hunta Singh got off and beat me with my helmet on. It still hurt. I was like, “What is this helmet for?” Then he beat me with my helmet, and I understood what the helmet was for. Then he started hitting me with his torch, which I thought was a magical light and kept catching with my face… [audience laughing] …to taste his rainbow. [scattered laughter] [chuckles] Then, he looked at my friend, and he was like, “Show me your license.” And my friend Susheel pulled out a learner’s license. [audience laughing] I don’t mean to stop the show, but does that… does that joke work here? Yeah, let me explain, So, uh, guys, in India, on a learner’s license, you’re not allowed to do acid. [audience laughing loudly] Same? I see this license go past my face and it’s got like colours and an aura and energy. I have an idea! I also pull out my learner’s license. [audience laughing] I’m like, “Inspector Hunta Singh, if we combine…” [audience laughing loudly and applauding] “…the power of two learner’s licenses…” [audience chuckles] “…they will become a full license, sir. Which is like saying, if two college kids fuck each other, they will become a professor, sir.” [audience laughing] And he laughed so much, he let me go.
[audience laughing]
Second story. I was 35 years old. I was in a nightclub in Mumbai. Thirty-five is old enough to know how absurd the Indian fighting ritual is. I bumped up against this alpha male when I was dancing, right? Bro got angry. He was like, [loudly] “Bro! Are you okay?” [scattered laughter] I was really smashed. I was like, “Yeah, it’s really soft.” Bro went insane. He was like, “Fucker! Meet me outside after this song.” [audience laughing] After this song? Then… Then for four minutes, we just awkwardly danced…
[audience laughing]
…while making eye contact until “Tunak Tunak Tuun” finished, which is the longest song in the world. Legit, yo. This is one out of five choruses of Daler Mehndi’s masterpiece.
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, tunak tunak tuun Tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, tunak tunak tuun Tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, tunak tunak tuun Tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Fucking tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
[scoffs] Then it goes higher.
[in high pitch] ♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
[panting] Then it goes lower.
[in low pitch] ♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
Last one.
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
I lied.
♪ Tunak tunak tuun, Tunak tunak tuun tunak tunak tuun ♪
Fuck the song! Think about the emotional journey we just went through right now. So they don’t fight first. First, they will stand around in a circle and tell you how many people in your family they will fuck.
[audience chuckling]
[in Hindi] I’ll fuck your mother, your sister, your brother. [in English] I will fuck your mother, father, gardener, your executive assistant.
I’m like, “Am I needed for this?”
[audience laughing]
“You have a concrete plan, bro!” [audience laughing and cheering] “I feel like…” [chuckles] “I feel like we’re just gathering to abuse a family.” The fight began, right? Fucking, I thought I’d land a punch. This Punjabi guy stuck his chest against my chest and started rubbing his chest against my chest. I was like, “Sir!” [audience laughing] My nipples do not know the difference between sensual friction and aggressive friction. He got both of them equally perky like a cathode-anode situation.
[audience laughing]
Then he stuck his fucking face to my face. His pupil touched my pupil, and he saw my memories, all right? He was like, “Is there a tooth in your stomach?”
[audience laughing]
[applauding and cheering continues]
[Vir speaks indistinctly] Then he fucking started breathing hot air into my mouth. [mimics rhythmic breathing] I started breathing hot air into his, just becoming the thing I despise, which is how I feel about elections in India. Then he was like, [in Hindi] “What will you do? Will you do something? Do it, fucker! I want you to do it!” [in English] Which translates to, “Do it! I want you to do it! Please do it. Do something. Do it! Do it now!” [scattered laughter] So I licked his ear.
[audience laughing]
It was right there. [chuckles] I was like, “This is not confrontation. This is consent.” [slurps noisily] Oh, don’t you judge my palate, all right? You have Bombay sandwiches from Mithibai. That’s ball-scratching bread, all right?
[audience cheering and applauding]
And a wave of confusion went over that man’s face. You just saw him realise, “I don’t know if we are fucking or fighting!” Which is how I feel about elections in India. [audience laughing] And he went to his friends and he’s like, [in Hindi] “But he is that.”
[audience chuckling]
[in English] Translation, “But he is that.” You’ve ever been so confused, your grammar deserts your homophobia? And then we didn’t even fight. We just went inside and danced for four more hours.
[audience cheering]
Fuck me. I just wanna take you in. There are four minutes left in the show right now. You know, I… I came to Mumbai with a suitcase and no contacts, no money, no comedy scene,
and there’s a stadium here today.
[audience cheering loudly] [cheering continues] And then, you have a voice again.
[man 5 whoops]
I did both shows. Right before the show, you’re standing backstage at a church, you’re putting your foot up on the stadium and your voice is different. And when I say your voice is different, I mean your voice is different. Six weeks ago, I didn’t know if I was gonna be here on stage.
This is insane, you know the–
[audience cheering] I was watching that… you know, you remember Freddie Mercury in Live Aid, where he had no voice and he’s like… [mimics high-pitched vocalization]
[audience mimics Vir’s vocalizing]
Oh shit! [chuckles]
[audience laughing]
It’s not the same. And there’s this whole other Special that Netflix paid you lot of money to do, where you thought about everything that you wanted to say, and you just don’t feel like thinking that much. All you can think is just…
[mimics Freddy’s tune] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
[audience mimics Vir] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
♪ Behenchod! ♪
[audience] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
♪ [in Hindustani classical] Behenchod! ♪
[audience mimics Vir] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
♪ Behenchod! ♪
[audience] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
♪ Behenchod! ♪
[audience] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
[drawn-out] ♪ Behenchod! ♪
[audience cheering, applauding]
[audience, drawn-out]
♪ Behenchod! ♪
I was summoned by the Mumbai police.
[audience chuckles]
[chortles] I was accused of stealing a joke from myself. [audience chuckles] This is very confusing. I wrote two shows about India, and they both had one common topic with different jokes. Right? So I had to go and explain joke structure to the Mumbai police. Which I’m about to explain to you now. Are you ready, yeah? Mumbai, every joke has three parts. Number one, undeniable factual information. Number two, a premise. Number three, a punchline. Observe. Undeniable factual information. Not all nipples are the same size. Right? Here’s a premise. My nipples are like India and Pakistan. Punchline. They used to be a lot close, but over the years, they just grew apart. It’s an okay joke. I’m just illustrating… By the way, any Pakistani people here? [scattered responses] Yes! Listen, I love you guys. You’re always welcome in my show, alright? Don’t put this on social media. [audience chuckling] [chuckles] What’s your name, buddy from Pakistan?
[man 4] Shehzaad.
Shehzaad, I do believe that one day our countries will be friends. I do believe that. Genuinely. Yeah.
Uh–
[audience cheering and applauding]
I don’t know. I just… [applauding continues] We just gotta find some common… enemy. [audience laughing] Let’s go blow up the Maldives together, huh? [audience chuckles] Fuck the Maldives. Fucking, both our navies together, Shehzaad. Let’s do it, alright? Sixty-five of our ships, two of your jet skis…
[audience laughing]
Even Shehzaad is like, “Two jet skis, huh?” [audience laughing] [chuckles] The point… The point I’m trying to make is in a different joke, part one never changes. Observe, Mumbai, here’s a different joke. Undeniable factual information, “Not all nipples…” [audience] “…are the same.” Here’s a different premise. My nipples are like politics in India.
Punchline. [chuckles]
[audience chuckles]
For as long as I can remember, the right is way more sensitive.
[audience chuckling]
Now, that–
[audience cheering and applauding]
[cheering and applauding continues]
That joke is very easy to explain to a comedy crowd in a stadium. Very tough to explain to the Mumbai police at 8 o’clock in the morning. My lawyer and I are getting our files together in front of this Mumbai policeman called Inspector Tapse. He wants to get our attention. He’s like, “Hey!”
[smacks lips lewdly]
[audience laughing] Immediately, every molecule in my body just goes, “Daddy!” [audience laughing] And he looks at me and he’s like, “These jokes you do… Are they funny?” [audience laughing]
[sighs softly]
[scattered chuckles] “Inspector Tapse, it’s like, not all nipples…” I do the entire routine. I look at my lawyer who looks like she wants to quit the profession of law because her client is pinching his nipples in a police station. Zero response. Now, when a joke’s not going well, a comedian turns the gun on themselves. That’s how you get the crowd. [splutters] So I’m like, “Inspector Tapse, why am I actually going to jail for jokes? Please just give me two months to commit a real crime.” [audience laughing] “And grow a real beard because I am too tiny and too pretty for jail, sir. I will be humped in 15 minutes.” [audience laughing] Finally, this man laughs. I get the laugh. He’s like, “You? You will be humped in one minute.” [audience laughing and applauding] “Wait. I will be humped in one minute, or I will be humped for one minute?”
And he said, “Both.”
[audience laughing] “But listen, you cannot copyright topics in India. I’m gonna take your statement. Tell me everything you said in Marathi.” [audience laughing] I don’t… So I’m like,
[speaking Marathi falteringly]
[audience laughing] [in faltering Marathi] My chest testicles… [audience laughing] My chest testicles are different…
[audience laughing]
…heavy. [in English] He’s like, [in Marathi] “Okay.” “West Mumbai and East Mumbai…” [audience laughing hysterically] “Coke studio, tunak tunak. Me, man, man, man… testies spread, spread, spread.” [in English] He’s like, “You should do that on stage. It’s very relatable.” [audience chuckling] I’m like, “Yeah, but it’s not really global.” He said, “Don’t be silly. Indian comedy is not global.” [audience laughing] He writes it all down. [chuckles]
[audience chuckles]
Every word. He’s like, “Now I need to confiscate your passport. Hand it over.” I hand it over. He puts it five feet away, inside a file, under this paper where some jokes are written. [audience chuckles] “You lose your passport. God has taken your passport, man.” I prayed in that police station. And when I’m laughing… When I’m desperate, I laugh. And he’s like, “Is something funny?” I’m like, “Inspector Tapse, you’re writing my joke down word for word in your file. Technically…” [audience chuckling] “…that’s copyright infringement.”
[audience laughing and applauding]
[applause continues]
And he laughs. He’s like, “You’ll write a joke about anything, huh?”
I’m like, “Sir, if you let me.”
[audience chuckling] “Sir, I don’t know, but I promise you when I write the joke, I will be the punchline.”
“And what about me?”
“Sir, you will be an undeniable fact.” I promise you. “Sir, please, I just need–” [mimics shushing] “I will never forget this. Thank you.” “You make me look good.” [audience laughing] [chuckles softly]
“I’m gonna make you look like a God.”
[audience chuckles]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[cheering and applauding continues]
“Go now. Are you happy?”
[audience cheering]
[grunts softly]
[cheering and applauding continues]
I wanted to do this before we leave, because, you know, um, I was told I have to.
[plays “Happy Birthday to you” on kazoo]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[kazoo continues playing]
[upbeat music playing]
[audience continues cheering and applauding]
[kazoo music fades]
♪ Life, life, life, life, Life, life, life is vertical ♪
[fast-paced music playing]
♪ Life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama, life is ♪
♪ Life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Life, life is, life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life ♪
♪ World is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama, life is ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is , life is ♪
♪ Life is, life, life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama, life is ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Life is, life is, life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama, life is ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life is, life is ♪
♪ Life is, life is, life is vertical ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ Vir mama, Vir mama ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing, Vir mama ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life, life, life, life, life ♪
♪ The world is changing ♪
♪ Life is vertical ♪
[barks]
