Had to find unique ways to entertain during lockdown: Vir Das

Like all Shows on Snapchat, episodes average three to five minutes in length, are full-screen vertical and paced for mobile.

New Delhi: Comedian Vir Das, who premiered his new Creator Show on Snapchat this week, says that his viewers are getting younger — “an audience that I don’t know how to engage with, and I’m kind of full disclosure about that in the show”. Titled “Vir Das — The Most Epic Max Show”, this local and original Indian Creator Show will see Vir engage with a new audience in a fresh format.

According to Snapchat, he will take on seemingly impossible and new challenges in the show, pushing his boundaries and trying different things. Each challenge is either ‘Epic’ or a complete ‘Fail’, but either way, Vir makes it a fun learning experience. The weekly series premiered June 24 with episodes coming out every Thursday and each episode will give viewers a glimpse of the real comedian and a sneak peek into his life and friends.

“I’m coming from a place of not knowing and I’m coming from a place of willing to learn but also willing to fail massively and gloriously. So I think that’s where this comes in. As performers are content creators, I think people are starting to recognize that we have nuance to us and that we have layers that can go on different platforms. So yes, maybe me doing standup goes on one platform and maybe me acting goes on another platform, but me just marking about the house, doing stupid stuff — There’s a platform for that too, because it’s relatable and fun,” Das told IANSlife about the show in an interview.

“While the past year was extremely challenging, with being stuck at home for long periods of time, the one thing that the pandemic gave me was time. Time to recharge, rethink and revisit some of the things I had only thought of but never had the time to actually do. While in lockdown, I had to find unique ways to entertain my audience and most importantly, myself. This show is just one of the ways I managed to do that. Through the course of this show, I take up tasks that are seemingly impossible, a little bit ridiculous and according to my friends, an absolute waste of time. It’s my mission to prove them wrong by just innovating a little, and having fun! I hope that Snap audiences across the country enjoy these light moments of fun as much as I enjoyed making them happen,” says Vir.

Asked how his personality gets reflected in the show, Vir shares:

“The show that we’re doing with Snapchat is very much a simple concept, which is that you don’t have to do epic things to feel epic. I think it’s been a rough year and everybody in the world deserves to do epic things and feel like they accomplished something great. So, whether that’s me trying to beat the most popular noodles in India, see if I can do it in under two minutes or me taking only vanilla ice-cream and five basic ingredients that you could find in your fridge as well in making the most epic dessert, or me recognizing that my wife has married me and creating the most epic apology or something else. Just things that you can do at home, you don’t have to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.”

“All you gotta do is head to your kitchen maybe with me or to write this song with me or to do something stupid with me and we can both feel epic together. And I think that’s really where all good comedy comes from. It comes from minutest and from small things.”

Like all Shows on Snapchat, episodes average three to five minutes in length, are full-screen vertical and paced for mobile. Each series is authentic to the creator’s passion and is available to more than 70 million viewers in India who have watched Snapchat Shows in the last year.