Vir Das Quotes

I feel a bit like when we came through the doors on the first day of rehearsals of that play, from that minute on, my whole life changed.

I've seen people that get onstage and sing while they have tears running down their face - I can't do that. When I cry, it starts like in my throat, so when I have something that's really emotional, sometimes if I access that too much, I can't finish the song.

If you interview people or friends who work with me, they would say I'm private or internal or don't emote a lot. Yet I do it every day for 10 million people. I just don't do it for the 30 people I'm in the room with.

Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.

I lost my temper on stage.

In school, my biggest fear was that I couldn't produce emotion on cue.

I've always had a problem showing fear on a film.

I suffer from a more complex, persistent fear. It manifests itself in nerves, and on film the camera sees even the tiniest evidence of this. So you have to learn that when the director calls 'Action,' you don't go to this place of tension, but somehow you become free.

Showing fear is like having comedic timing because I think actors have a tendency to go way over the top with it, and that sort of loses steam for what's going on. The audience sees right through that and laughs at you, so it is something that I'm aware of.

There's an audience that is paid to laugh at my jokes. I'm playing a character while I'm doing stand-up. Real stand-ups, man, they're playing themselves. I'd be far too terrified.

I try to show a little bit of excitement, only when I'm on the court, but off the court I'm just chill.

My emotions are usually my weakness, but they are my strength while acting.

All actors are terrified - they just learn how to control it.

It's a sick thing, right: people are afraid of public speaking. I do public speaking, except my public speaking involves the audience only having one type of emotion and one type of reaction. If they have anything other than laughter, it's a failure. That's an absurd thing for a human to try to seek. The main thing to realize is that whatever I say, it's my truth and I believe in it, and if I don't get a laugh off that, then it's not working.

Sometimes you feel in control, and it's great, but sometimes you just don't feel in control and you really have to struggle to get laughs.

I came to Nantes two-years-ago and it's much the same today, except that it's totally different.

When you're accustomed to doing stand-up, so often you're the only person onstage and it's all your thing. It's very gladiatorial. Obviously, when you're in a scene with somebody, you're supposed to listen and react - and that's a bit of a transition.

The basics of acting are really better in America than in Europe. Just the basic "fake laugh" is impossible to get in France.

I remember thinking as I was doing the jokes for the first time, "If I can hear that very clearly, I'm not hearing laughter." It just became deafening, this buzzing noise. I mean, it was brutal. It was really terrible. Then I remember thinking, "At least nobody important, or anyone who I really respect, saw that." And then literally right when I went off the stage, Jerry Seinfeld got up and went on. So I was like, "Oh great. Seinfeld saw me bomb." On the other hand, I thought, "At least no one will be thinking of me anymore. They'll just be focusing on him."

For me, pressure is self-imposed, and it's good for me. The best actors are the most prepared because it's all imaginary and you have to know the character inside out.

I’m not mad. I’m in a perfectly happy mood, you asshole.

Margaret Kochamma's tiny, ordered life relinquished itself to this truly baroque bedlam with the quiet gasp of a warm body entering a chilly sea.

Having to stand in front of an audience and have it be your job to make them laugh, you can't really look to anyone but yourself. It's what you wrote, what you said and how you said it, so it's kind of terrifying, but I liked it. When it goes well, it's the best feeling in the world. When it doesn't go well, it's the worst feeling, but once you get into the rhythm of it, I think it's really fun.

It's depressing sitting at a comedy club all night, waiting to get on to do your five or ten minutes of material.

Most people here don't have a wide emotional range. It's just the type of people astronauts are, they're required to be level.