Radhika Vaz is unapologetically older, angrier and hairier and like all Indians, does think she would have been making more money if she had been a doctor. “I followed my passion and trust me, making money isn’t easy this way,” she laughs. In town to perform at the Trip Tease in Tease, Vivanta by Taj, comedian Radhika seemed calm and at ease. Even though she had come to the city to perform at a private event, she didn’t manage to interact with people in the city.
Radhika graduated from sketch comedy to stand-up and she loves the contrasting genres of comedy. She explains, “Sketch, as the name suggests, is about playing a character. It is like acting. But stand-up is a dialogue with a straight face and these dialogues could be anything from instances one has come across to events in your life. It is a wonderful medium to address tragedy, I feel,” comments Radhika. Her show ‘Older. Angrier. Hairier.’ is a trip through the mind of a woman who refuses to take life too seriously — mainly because that wouldn’t be funny.
Radhika claims she was a late-bloomer who discovered comedy to be her calling as she worked at the managerial level in the corporate world with focus on advertising. The transformation took place when she moved to New York and attended a class of comedy. “While the class was on, I realised I have all this going on in my head all the time. There was a studio that was doing a free improvisational comedy class and I loved it,” recalls Radhika.
After many such classes Radhika began working on sketch comedy and then finally moved on to do her own act as a stand-up.
Did the stand-up comedian ever doubt if her humour was good enough to set the crowd rolling with laughter? “Right in the beginning, maybe. But as I performed I became confident. The audience loves to listen to the truth when it is comedy. Now I have two shows and I am working on new ones. My two shows are ‘Unladylike’ and ‘Older. Angrier. Hairier,” says Radhika.
Also a writer and columnist, Radhika is currently working on a book and as she says “it is painstaking work, never ending, but I am determined to meet my target.”
