Monday

Comedy

Rasika Mathur: A Spoonful of Humor With Every Bite

By: Tanya Sangpun Thamkruphat

 

 

 

While trying to write up this interview, I felt that everything comedian, Rasika Mathur, had to say was a great read. To sparingly use a few lines here and there didn’t feel like I would be doing justice to Mathur as a comedian because everything that Mathur had to say was like a tasty morsel of humor. Many know the Indian comedian from Nick Cannon’s “Wild N Out” show on MTV, which she has been on since 2005. However, it took a lot of perseverance, hard work, and, of course, talent, before people had the chance to be enthralled with the lovely Rasika Mathur.

Mathur grew up in Houston, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in creative advertising and minoring in Japanese. After college, she moved to Chicago to work as a copywriter for a big advertising company while juggling her comedy improvisation studies at Chicago’s infamous The Second City Training Center. During that time, she also performed with the Asian American sketch comedy troupe, Stir-Friday Night!.

After that, Rasika moved to Los Angeles to film a pilot show, which unfortunately, didn’t get off the ground. Soon after, Mathur was working various jobs just to make a living, but that never stopped her from wanting to still make it as a comedian. She always had her head held high – always making every situation she was in entertaining. And, as Fate would have it, all that hard work paid off in 2005, when she was casted to be on “Wild N Out.”

With her success on ‘Wild N Out,” she still continues to do standup comedy, touring around the country, and working on various projects.

Bravura Artist got the chance to do an e-mail interview with the funny Mathur to get her thoughts about her career, what really attracted her to comedy, and what she has been doing lately.

So, sit back and enjoy your Rasika Mathur experience!

What aspects of comedy attracted you to it? Why do you enjoy being a comedian?
I don’t think most kids know when they’re young “why” they’re attracted to comedy. I think they are just aware that when they laugh, it feels good, and if they can get that grumpy guy or sad friend over there to laugh, it feels good to know you’re making someone else feel good! As an adult, I can tell you that what I love about comedy now is that you have the chance to say something very poignant, and make people think–but!–get to them in a very palatable, sometimes choking-on-their-food kind of way. That’s exciting. It’s just communication. I also like being able to set up one thing, and go a totally different route — surprising people. It’s a very joyous exchange of energy with an audience. I really get off on knowing I’m the cause of that kind of electricity.

And that people are pursuing what they’ve been suppressing, because they’ve seen me fall on my face and not give up yet either. That’s sweet. Oh hell, farts are funny, too!

In your own words, how would you describe yourself as a comedian?
My own words. I am: Spazzed. Goofy. Witty. Having dynamic stage presence. You like that? Having? Ridiculous energy. And…crazybouncyawesome. That’s when I’m on. Do you want the words for when I have an off-night?

Before you were able to break intro mainstream entertainment, I read you faced a lot of difficulties when you first moved to Los Angeles. Looking back on that period of time in your life, which wasn’t too long ago, what are your thoughts on it? How has it affected your outlook on life and on you, as a person?
I am so happy that the interview is up so publicly for all to read. It allows people to get to know what I’m doing, or the heart behind what I’m doing, truthfully. It obviously sucked while it was happening, but I think it’s never about how you make it to the top, bottom, middle. It’s about if you could pass on what was thrilling about the journey, if you could live to tell about it, not give up and slit your wrists and thus, have nobody to tell…. It’s triumph. Period. I love that side of eggs. Shit man, because it’s true.

I still have those broke-ass moments, too. I don’t think I’ll ever really satisfy the hamster in the wheel. It’s always going to want more and I’m always going to push harder, and want more, bigger, better, funnier, something-er. Maybe next time, I’ll be talking about “I really wanted that duvet that cost $44, but I had to settle for the cheap $28.”

Besides performing comedic roles on television, you do a lot of live stand up comedy routines around the nation. One in particular act I’m curious about is your own one-woman show called “Sack of Pennies.” Can you please talk about that? Can we expect any more one-woman shows from you?
“Sack of Pennies” never went up. It was a work in progress of very honest stories about my self, such as “I Got Called Gandhi on the 5th Grade Playground.” I really enjoyed that style of writing, but I haven’t performed it anywhere. Would you like me to perform it sometime?

The more recent live effort is called “The Sari (W)rap,” a musical comedy concert. I have been training with Second City LA’s musical improv department and my guitar teacher (who is white) to enhance my skills in that arena, to bring people a fuller, bouncier show. It’s a good time! Currently on the list are “The Sari (W)rap,” “Ode to Saag Paneer” (a classic), “Barry White’s Kama Sutra,” “Hater: A Love Song,” “My Guitar Teacher is White,” “Cremation” (only by request) and “The Trilogy.” That one’s about Vishnu, Ganesh, and…I haven’t written it yet. It’s a work in progress.

Can you talk about projects that you’re currently working on and the tours that you’re doing?
Aside from that, I just finished travelling with my 3-man Indian sketch comedy troupe, Siblings of Doctors, made up of the original 3 Indian members of Stir-Friday Night! (myself, Danny Pudi from the “Gilmore Girls,” and Ranjit Souri, a writer for India Currents). We had a sold out house at the Chicago Sketchfest, and 2 sold-out houses in the San Francisco Sketch Comedy Festival. We intend to continue this and get ourselves booked at as many colleges as we can – and, maybe some doctors’ conventions too. We did a line up in Mill Valley and Robin Frickin’ My Spastic Idol Williams was there! He saw us, shook our hands, and then improved and f’ed around with us in the greenroom! It was a dream. But just remember, “The Sari (W)rap” came from Rasika.

Also, “The Sari (W)rap” was screened at the SAIFF in NYC last year, and I’ve submitted it to IFFLA ‘08 and Tongues on Fire in London. Let’s do the film circuit for a while.

I am also using up about 10 minutes of DJ Bijal’s precious airtime on his weekly “Everywhere Radio” gig, and I’m performing live again! I’m just getting my songs out, playing around with Harvin (Sethi) and his band of characters with DesiYou, and more video projects, both on my own and as partnerships. Superdeluxe.com and producing Sourced Out has really encouraged me to keep doing my own videos – instead of waiting for someone else to come along and give me the character role of my dreams. You want something done? Gotta do it yourself. Yeah Bobby Brown! Ghostbusters!

Also, I am going to get to perform at this year’s Yoni Ki Baat in San Mateo, on March 8!

It may be a bit premature to ask, but do you feel satisfied with what you’ve accomplished so far in your comedian career?
There are days when I don’t feel like I’ve done anything worthy in the last 6 years. BUT I had a moment of clarity in Chicago. Within 2 weeks of each other, I had 2 experiences where I was cited as the inspiration for something that someone else finally put up on its feet, or finally published. The first was my uncle in India, who put out a book about all of the Naqdiwal Mathurs, tracing lots of lineage, and sharing lots of personal family history. He wrote in the front page, “This book is inspired by my Grandfather, and by the inquisitiveness regarding family roots shown by Rasika.” I was like, “WHAT?” All because I came in all boisterous to Jaipur in 1998 wanting people to fill out the branches on my loose-leaf papered family tree???

The second was a director we had worked with in Chicago at Stir-Friday Night! Mr. Jonathan Pitts was training us in a new form called mid-form back in 2002. Now, he had an amazing show called “Storybox,” completely improvised, performed at the Piven Theater in Evanston. We saw it, we were amazed, and then we read of the show’s conception, and the first sentence in the bio says it was all born out of that summer with SFN! I was like, “WHAT THE F IS GOING ON!????”

So, the point of this story is even when you think you don’t have ANYTHING going on, ANYTHING in front of you, no tangible results, no money to show for your hard work, no partnerships, no love, no respect, no nothing, never lose sight of the fact that that is just your narrow illusion of how it’s going, and what’s reallllly happening is that you are leaving a TRAIL of inspiration in your wake. And you may not even KNOW about how you are affecting people left and right for YEARS to come…everyone should be so lucky. So, yes, so far, I am more than satisfied with what magic has been accomplished over the past 6 years. Ta-da.

What are your thoughts about South Asians slowly emerging into mainstream, American entertainment?
I’m insanely jealous of Kal Penn and Mindy Kaling. Ahem.

What do you hope to be doing, in terms of your career, in the next couple of years?
I hope to work with Ricky Gervais on a comedy movie set in Greece. I stated in an interview a few years ago that I’d like Christopher Guest to call. He still hasn’t. Can I still use that one?

I’d like to be someone who conducts all her comedy (recordings, tapings, meetings, brainstorming sessions) via some sort of portable, hand-held, futuristic, catch-all device. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to buy a new SIM card for this here Motorola VRazr.

For more information on the ever-so entertaining Rasika Mathur, you can check her out at www.myspace.com/ras76.