Comedian Vir Das sure as hell wishes he could choose his audience. It would have saved him the trouble of being harassed by cops and being forced to get off the stage at Delhi’s Siri Fort auditorium on Sunday night.
His latest act UNBELIEVABLISH featured a tribute to Dr Abdul Kalam, who in Das’s opinion is India’s coolest president ever. It also happens to be an outrageous sketch about Kalam hosting MTV Cribs and defending himself against a fictitious lesbian assault.
It’s stupid, immature, I take full ownership of it and I think it is funny. Musicians write songs, artists paint, I parody.
– Vir Das
A guy in the audience took it way too seriously. Unfortunately he happened to be a pseudo-influential and called the cops like a true spoilsport.
It’s not the first time cops have showed up to my show and it’s not the last time they will show up.
– Vir Das
He’s pissed off though (understandably) and voices his angst in an open letter, the point of which he claims is not publicity, but to stand his ground. In a nutshell, here’s what he has to say to one and all:
It is strange that instead of giving us feedback, commenting on our work, critiquing it, rejecting it (all of which are welcome)….it’s just so much easier to just make life difficult for us with a phone call.
When you come to see a comedy show, that’s someone else’s vision of the world, not a service to yours. This is comedy not Karaoke.
Understand this: If we’ve offended you…that’s all we’ve done. We’ve offended you. That’s it. Accept it and move on. Much like we accept every single political troll who tells us to go to Pakistan or threatens our life and abuses us on twitter/facebook/letters/emails. If you didn’t like it, that’s not a crime, that’s just a waste of your ticket money which most of us would be more than happy to refund.
Das has a hectic schedule ahead of him. Making 25,000 people across 14 cities laugh is no joke and that’s why he says in all seriousness:
The next time I’m in town, if you’re a powerful, influential person, please just don’t come.
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