Moontower Just for Laughs Headliner Vir Das on Belonging and That Monologue

Vir Das (Courtesy of Moontower Just for Laughs Austin)

Vir Das was already a comedy superstar when he headlined the 2019 Moontower Comedy Festival. But as he celebrates his return for the rebranded 2023 Moontower Just for Laughs Austin, he arrives at different level, courtesy of when he delivered a six-minute monologue at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in 2021. Called "Two Indias," it's been referred to as a poem because of how he delivered it, "but what people don't realize is that the reason that there's paper in my hand through the speech is that it's something I wrote it at 3:30pm and then performed at 10:30pm."

It didn't seem anything special at the time. He'd just finished a regular show, and then delivered this extra bit, like he'd done several times before, "where we talk about politics and governments, et cetera." He hired a wedding photographer to capture the moment, as he discussed the split nature of India: its divisions, hypocrisies, dichotomies, diversities, and possibilities. It was simultaneously a love letter and a charge sheet, representing the same complicated feelings anyone has about their homeland – and it became a viral sensation, sparking conversations, applause, and fury. "I don't think you get to predict when you create a conversation or when you become a conversation," he said. "You just have to run with it."

The video became a cause célèbre, sparking what Das described as "seven or eight days of outrage" (a polite response to death threats and calls for his arrest). Yet as people had time to absorb what he was saying, he saw a subtle change in his audiences: not in the who, but the how. He said, "Earlier on they were coming in the door because you made them laugh and that's great, but now they were coming through the door with maybe 10% more emotion – either way, happy or sad." For Das, that change came because there was a new connection between him and his audiences "and that has been a privilege to have across the world," he added, "and then you want to work doubly hard to honor that."

And he truly is a world talent. While the "Two Indias" recording took place in the U.S., "98% of those views came from inside India," Das said. "It was very much a domestically viewed video in that sense."

That reflects something unique that Das brings to his comedy, what he calls the "perpetual outsider prospective," as someone raised across the Indian diaspora. Born in India, raised in Nigeria, educated in public and private schools in India, "and then I went to Galesburg, Illinois." He's been a star in Bollywood, "where I was the kid from American drama school, and now I work in Hollywood where I'm the guy from Bollywood.

"I've never really fit in," he added, "and I've never really had a sense of belonging. So you transition through all these bubbles, where you try to take something from the bubble without the bubble taking the best of you."

Yet because of the conversation around "Two Indias," he's now become part of a special club, his name mentioned in the same breath as Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin, "and I always find that a little bit daunting because my mission is a little bit more basic. ... I want to be an authentic Indian voice that is unapologetically global."

Vir Das at Moontower Just for Laughs Austin 2023

April 13
Ten on Ten With Vir Das, Cap City Comedy Club, 6pm

April 14
Headliner Event, Paramount Theatre, 7pm

Moontower Just for Laughs, April 12-23. Tickets and passes at austintheatre.org/moontower-comedy.