BUST Magazine: Nathan's Famous

October/November 2005

NATHAN'S FAMOUS

Discovering the wicked wit of Vijai Nathan

"My comedy is the equivalent of showing my balls," says Vijai Nathan. To illustrate her point, the comedienne recalls a comedy festival performance she gave in South Africa. "There was the 'Mainstage' and then there was 'The Danger Zone' where all of the performers were men, and two of them got naked," says Vijai. "After one Mainstage performance where I talked about sex as an Indian-American woman, however, they switched me to The Danger Zone." This last bit makes her smile wickedly. Apparently the festival organizers weren't hep to the fact that Vijai's standup covers it all, from her father's Playboy collection to her dating habits: "For a plate of curly fries, I'll blow you."

Negotiating tricky race relations is also a hallmark of the 33-year-old's work, since she credits racism for bringing her to comedy. "I use humor to get back at the racists I encountered growing up," she says. Vijai was raised in a predominantly white Maryland suburb, where she faced various challenges because of the way people saw her. "I was the only 'black' person in my elementary school, so I once played the role of Martin Luther King, Jr." She pauses. "I also played Tooth Decay." After college, Vijai saw an ad for a comedy workshop, took two sessions, and was hooked. "Comedy freed me. Onstage, no one could tell me that I couldn't be who I wanted to be." After a few years doing "really bad Clinton impressions," Vijai started talking about her family, and she hit pay dirt. "I connected with audiences by telling my truth." For Vijai, that truth includes hilarious anecdotes performed lovingly in her parents' India-inflected accents, like the one about the day her mother overheard her singing along with Madonna, and put a stop to it by insisting, "Vijai, you are not like a virgin, you are a virgin!"

Last year Vijai was named one of the "Top Ten Standup Comics of Color" by NBC. She recently adapted her one-woman show, Good Girls Don't, But Indian Girls Do, into a screenplay and is "dying to write a musical called Bollywood Bitches." But despite the strong ties to her heritage that she retains throughout her many projects, some audience members still just don't get it. "At one show in the South," Vijai recalls, "a drunk guy in the audience hollered, 'Woo! Keep it going for the Cherokee!'"