Vir Das On Hosting The International Emmys And Why He’d Never Anchor An Indian Awards Show Now

After 15 minutes of sweating my way through the winding streets of Chuim Village in Khar and pointing at various houses as I wonder aloud whether they could possibly be the pink house, I finally arrive at Vir Das’s lair. And by "lair," I mean a small room that appears to have been designed with the same precision as a well-packed suitcase: a desk, an ergonomic chair, an air purifier, and a comfy sofa, all fighting for space with a lone amplifier which, once we settle in, seems to take up the remaining air in the room. It’s cozy to the point of being intimate. The space is the kind that doesn’t allow for anything that isn’t supposed to be there — intentionality is one of Das’s many qualities.

On the wall in front of me is a softboard, a visual representation of the flow of his recent Mumbai stadium show. It’s neat — almost obsessively so — except for the squiggly handwriting. A bright pink sticky note is on the front wall. Over the course of our conversation, I discover several more around the room. It all feels like a work in progress,  representative of a mind in constant motion. When you dig deeper into his process, it makes sense. Sort of.

There’s a quiet confidence about him, a sincerity that doesn’t need to shout. As he settles into his chair, his expression is calm. “So, what are you doing here exactly?” he asks. Then he laughs. He knows exactly what we're doing.

The last time we spoke, you mentioned how you’re always refining your material. I’m curious — what does that process of tightening a joke look like for you? How do you know when to stop?

I think the minute you start getting laughs across 80% of the people that you're performing it for, it's probably in good shape. But then things will happen that are just organic. You feel like the world has changed suddenly — a punchline will be outdated. If you're striving for authenticity in the manner of telling, which I think is the measure of modern standup — it is now no longer just, is it funny? But is there authenticity in the telling of the punchline, in the telling of the joke? Then you owe it to yourself to lean into that.

For instance, the universe has a great sense of humor. You know, eight weeks before the stadium show, my voice disappeared (snaps his fingers).

The big question was, will we be able to do this? It was strange. On that day we sold out NSCI Dome in 20 minutes, and we had two sold-out shows in London that night. And the voice just went, boom. I didn't get it back until nine days before the stadium show. At the stadium show, I did three-and-a-half hours of stand-up. The longest I'd done stand-up before the show in that prep time was 35-36 minutes because my vocal doctors wouldn't let me do any more. I didn't even know if it was going to be possible to do the stadium show. But all of a sudden, you're silent for six weeks and you're like, oh, I guess this is the show now.

You know, the show was about happiness, but now it's about how silence means happiness and happiness means silence. You do that for no other reason than telling that story will probably be the most authentic thing to come out of your body because you just lived it.

To bring it back to the Emmys, so much of what I do depends on who’s won the (US Presidential) election. Because you will have a room full of artists and producers, who are usually of a pretty Democratic bent, but it's the International Emmys, so there are people from various countries of not such a Democratic bent as well.

I think that's the tricky thing. A punchline can stay a punchline, but the manner of setting up the joke and the premise and the tags, all of that just changes really organically.

Tell me about working that room. These are people – artists, directors, producers from all around the world. How do you get the pulse of that room?

I have 17 shows before that evening all across America, so I can definitely run it for a pretty wide audience. I'm going to go to the Comedy Cellar at night and be like, ‘Yo, I'm hosting the Emmys and this is my monologue. Can I work it out in front of you?’ The Comedy Cellar has a pretty wide, diverse audience because it's everybody from New York, which is a hardcore comedy crowd, to every tourist that has landed in Times Square and wants to watch standup. You will find Europeans, you'll find Indians, you'll find everybody there…

The International Emmys would still be a very different scene from the Comedy Cellar, no?

But there is still a lot that we have in common that evening. We're all underdogs, right? We’ve all gone to the American embassy to get a visa (laughs). You know what I mean? There are like five, six things that we all have in common that if I just do that, then I think it would work.

It's a bit strange for me also because I get asked every week in India to host something. Whether it's a publication award or one of the film awards – because we used to write the Filmfare Awards for Imran Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Shah Rukh Khan when I was starting out. And now, touchwood, one has an audience so they want you to host something. We never do it because the kind of freedom that I'd want to do the jokes that I want to do would not be possible at an Indian award ceremony. There'd be a lot of ruffled feathers. At the same time, the International Emmys have told me to just do my thing. Even for me, I don't know how it's going to go because I've not had this kind of freedom as a host, ever.

That's tough because you always want to remain gracious and conscious of the fact that you're representing your country  but visiting another. At the same time, you don't want to be too pandering either. I'm also trying to find that line.

I'd be lying if I told you I knew where it is yet.

To be the first comes with its own set of pros and cons. There is no precedent, so you get to set the benchmark, but then there is also no reference, right?

Look, it's about the same duration as a Ricky Gervais monologue at the Golden Globes or a Dave Chappelle monologue on SNL. I've also been watching that stuff.

Chappelle came out after the American election last time. I will be coming out after the American election in a much smaller manner this time. So that's the stuff I'm watching to prepare. You know, it's a weird thing to go all this way over there for really eight minutes of work (laughs). Do you know what I mean?

Is that what it is for you? With hosting, 80% is getting the monologue right. Then you do small bits — like when Jimmy Kimmel came out and read Trump’s tweet.

I'll come out four or five times and I'll do small things like housekeeping and all of that stuff. But it's eight minutes of work. But it's got to be a pretty sublime eight minutes. You know what I mean? Because like you said, it's about the monologue. For the host, at least.

But you're the first thing on stage and you gotta set it up.

It's a very strange audience also because of how specific the jokes can get. When it's the Oscars or the Emmys, these are all shows and films that everyone's watched. So when the joke is targeting something specific in a filmmaker, an actor, a performance, it works because everyone is in on it. With the International Emmys, it's a little more difficult because how many people have actually watched all the shows and films that are there?

I don't know if that's the angle I would take. And I'll explain why.

Yes, not everybody will be aware about the show from Portugal or the show from France. I think that works for Golden Globes or an Emmys because you're kind of punching up. These are massive shows, so you can make fun of Succession or you can make fun of people at The Irishman table. You can make fun of them because they are legends.

The International Emmys room is different. This is a room full of underdogs.

You wouldn't want to punch down.

I would much rather honor them and celebrate them, but there are other things to make fun of. America is right there. That's the one thing we have in common. We all showed up in America. I would definitely make fun of myself quite a bit.

I think that's the way to do it because I remember being in that room during Vir Das: For India. I do know what it feels like to be in that room and be thinking, ‘How the hell did I get in this room?’ I don't want to take that experience away from anybody.

Tell me about what your general process is when you only have eight minutes. Isn’t it scary? It’s not a lot of time…

No re… Eight minutes is a lot. You can come, bomb, recover and kill. It's enough time to do all of those things. Hopefully you'll only do one of them, but it's enough time to do all three, I promise you.

So tell me about how we got here. They called you?

I'd won an Emmy (for the comedy special Landing in 2023), and then went back (to the US) two months later to play Carnegie Hall. They were there and they were like, listen, we want you to do this. I've known about it since January.

It's been almost a year in the making…

Yeah, pretty much. You think I'd have written more jokes by now, but I haven’t.

So is this the board for the Emmys?

This was the stadium show…I had to prepare because I was also directing, and we shot in different locations so I had to think about how it would all cut together, etc. The Emmys will be different. I will put on an outfit and they'll shoot that and I don't have to worry about anything but eight minutes. Only my eight minutes.

Let's talk about the outfit. Your fashion is something that we've all been watching very closely. There are very few people who will actually walk the talk…you are actually supporting young designers and helping them grow…

My manager gets calls saying, ‘Will he walk for Fashion Week?’ And as much as I'd love to now, I kind of went down this road. I can't do it even if I wanted to. Now I can’t be a showstopper at Fashion Week (laughs).

The way I see it is that if you have underdog energy, which I do, and you wear the outfit of someone who also has underdog energy, I feel like it's an underdog energy force field. I think it compounds your underdog energy.

Like, I'm from Noida, you know what I'm saying? Like, I went to Delhi Public School Noida near Atta Bazaar. That this is happening is insane. And it is because other people were like, ‘Look at this scruffy little idiot, let's put him on TV. Let's put him in a movie. Let's give him a newspaper article.’

If you consider the odds of being where I am, given where I come from, it's almost disingenuous and ungrateful to not do that for other people given how much it's been done for me.

I talked about it in the Netflix taping. There was no comedy scene when I showed up. And then this city kind of embraced us and look what we built, man! In 16-17 years. If you're not giving back, what kind of a person are you really?

You're putting a lot of faith in the young kids, which is so rare.

What could go wrong? Think about it clinically. Let's say I'm in a fantastic outfit? Or let's say I'm in a terrible outfit. You're going to remember the jokes I do.

This isn't the Cannes red carpet. This is not the life I lead. If anything, my office should be indicative of that.

That’s fair. A lot of your audience already knows your vibe. But now when you're doing the Emmys, that audience has changed. That room is suddenly not the room that you are usually in. Even at the Comedy Cellar, these are people who are walking in for comedy. At the Emmys, these are not people who are there for the comedy. They walk in because they're nominated. A good host is a plus. So are there nerves?

Yeah, for sure. But I believe nerves are a very good thing. I believe wanting to throw up before a show is a damn good thing because it's humility and energy you will use. But with respect, that's literally my career — people not knowing who I am. And hopefully, by the end, they will. I'm used to walking into rooms where I'm unknown and preferably underestimated. And we'll see at the end?

How much of your monologue have you written?

30%.

Since January?

No, no (laughs). I've been working on it for about a week and a half. But a very large part of my monologue will be about the feeling in the room, given the election. Who wins an election is one thing, but the general feeling is another thing. They're both very separate issues. And my monologue will be about the second.

Since you're doing this in the US, is that liberating? Because after your stadium show many people were worried about you…

What was so inflammatory about the show? It was pretty chill (laughs).

Keep in mind, only 50% of that will be on Netflix. The rest of it is for the room. But what would you rather I do? Talk about going to the gym?

Absolutely not.

I'm at an age and standup comedy is at a point where anything overly performative is immediately rejected. You can smell a comedian doing “comedian” and whatever this modern form of stand up comedy is, it's like, ‘Bro, do I believe you? Do I know you? Do I believe that you believe what you are saying?’

Whether your audience confuses what you're saying with the truth or not is really in your telling of it.