The funny man from India

Vir Das is provocative.

- VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR

You cannot sit through his shows or his online specials without feeling strongly one way or another — even if you are laughing your guts out.I have watched two of this Emmy award-winning comedian’s live performances — MindFool and Sounds of India. And all of his seven specials on Netflix, several times. I have even seen a couple of the 18 films he has starred in - Revolver Rani (2014) was a blast and so was Delhi Belly (2011). Going by its trailer, Happy Patel: Khatarnaak Jasoos, a film Das has directed and acted in looks like another wild party. He is witty, thought-provoking and, arguably, the only comedian from India who has a global audience way beyond the diaspora. He has performed at some iconic stand-up venues like the Comedy Cellar in New York or the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and also big mainstream ones like Carnegie Hall in the US and the Royal Albert Hall in the UK among others. That is why, picking up The Outsider: A Memoir For Misfits was a no-brainer.

It is the story of his life till his current age of 46. But you can be forgiven for thinking that you are at a Vir Das show. It has the sassy tone of his stand-up acts making for a stream-of-consciousness kind of read. Once you get past that, the book speaks. It tells the story of a boy who couldn't shut up and the influences that shaped his witty bone.