The stand-up comedy culture has taken off
in a big way and if the packed house that Zakir Khan’s show witnessed a few
weeks ago is anything to go by, Goa has just found its new fascination. The latest
on the roster of stand up comics to be performing in Goa, Varun Thakur is
currently busy giving every possible city a taste of ‘Vicky and Varun’ before
he retires his special. Varun has been a massive hit of late, primarily for his
alter ego, Vicky Malhotra – a struggling actor, whose success may well have
made him Varun’s toughest competitor in the race to fame.
On a serious note though, Varun is
currently juggling multiple priorities. He says, “I’m in the process of writing
a horror comedy web series. As for my comedy collective SnG, we have just set
up a new studio and are going to be getting back to our podcasts and stand up
uploads very soon. But the thing that keeps me the busiest is staring into an
empty page, wondering what to write next.” For the uninitiated, SnG Comedy
(Schitzengiggles) is a comedy collective from Mumbai put together by Varun
Thakur along with Karan Talwar, Aadar Malik, Kautuk Srivastava and Neville
Shah.
Speaking about how Vicky Malhotra came to
life, Varun says, “Snapchat taking away the face filter was a big loss to my
character. That’s when I decided to bring Vicky Malhotra out of Snapchat and
into the real world. It is a bit of a tedious process because I am a
perfectionist and don’t want the look to be even slightly different from
Snapchat. The usual process is to put lenses, a moustache and somehow make my
skin tone four shades lighter. And last but not the least, I have to pull out
my inner brash, foul mouthed and sexist alter ego.”
Easy as it may appear, making people laugh
is one of the most difficult things one can attempt. And while the ease with
which Varun takes absolute control of the mic and the audience may make it look
like child’s play, a lot goes on behind the scenes. Speaking about all that
goes into creating his content, Varun says, “For the longest time, my friends
and family have been my initial bait. I always test out my material with them
before anywhere else. Once that’s done, I start trying it out at open mics. I
slyly incorporate my jokes in regular conversations with people to see how they
react. This constant talking about it helps me remember my material better and
gauge reactions.”
Thakur confesses that the stand up special
that he is going to be performing in Goa tomorrow, is probably his best work
till date. Thakur says, “For the first time Goa will get to see a comedian and
his alter ego perform on stage. This is the first time in India that a
character from a digital medium has made it into real life. It’s going to be a
high-energy show full of non-stop laughs and antics.”
Varun Thakur will be performing his stand
up special – ‘Vicky This Side, Varun That Side’ at Institute Menezes Braganza
in Panjim on June 23, 2017, 8 pm onwards. Looks like everybody in Goa is going
to have an amazing time!
