As part of We Own The Laughs.com’s Comedian of the Day, have a few laughs and get to know comedian Vishal Kalyanasundaram. The San Jose, CA native shares some of his favorite moments in stand-up comedy and explains how he always owns the laughs.
Name: Vishal Kalyanasundaram
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Snapchat/Tik-Tok: @vishal.kal
Years in Comedy: 5 (but it feels like less cause of some breaks in there)
Haven’t we seen you somewhere before: Netflix, ABC, random-ass commercials, TikTok, behind a desk coding
Comedic Influences: John Mulaney, Louis CK, Dave Chappelle, Hannibal Buress, & Aziz Ansari
Favorite Comedy Album: John Mulaney “New in Town”
Favorite Comedy Special: How is an album different from a special these days? Anyway I’m gonna say “New in Town” again
Favorite Comedy Movie: Man maybe Tropic Thunder, that was the first R-rated movie I watched in theaters.
Favorite Comedy TV Show: Is Atlanta a comedy? If not maybe Parks and Rec, I was a day one fan. WAIT maybe New Girl I also started watching that day one.
Favorite Comedic Character: Schmidt from New Girl just cause he was so relatable to me.
Favorite City to Perform In: Probably NYC still. But I’m just saying that because I haven’t toured enough across the country yet.
Favorite Topics to Joke About: Really niche high-level concepts like Albert Camus or very specific stories about interactions I have with people that have long build ups
Favorite Type of Audience for a Comedy Show: Ones that are hot but honest. Ones that laugh at anything are too nice and the dub feels fake.
Favorite Comedy Club: I really liked QED in NYC
How did you discover your passion for comedy:
remember watching a bunch of standup in middle school and high school and loving it and being in awe of it but thinking I could never do it. It wasn’t until I watched John Mulaney’s New in Town did I feel like I could do it – here was just a guy who looked like he just wandered out on stage after being stuck in a room for 29 years (his words not mine) and then crushing it. But I wasn’t hooked until I started doing it years later, and even then it took a few months.
What do you remember most about your first time performing stand-up comedy:
The first time I ever tried it was at an open mic in college. And I wrote the cringiest, most offensive jokes I could and doing it in the most liberal environment possible (I went to college in Berkeley, CA) – and I just remember getting absolutely hammered after.
How would you describe your comedic style:
I’d like to say I skew silly but kind of bro-ish. I’m actually probably frattier on stage than I am in real life, but for some reason I accentuate that part of myself.
Describe your process for comedic writing:
Lately it’s been having inspiration strike and then knowing where I want to take the story and then taking it to a mic and finding my way into the punchline on stage. I think after a few years of doing it you start to get a feel for how a punchline should feel on stage, and so I think it’s better to work your way into that feeling on stage (the building and breaking of tension) vs. writing it out beforehand, which risks it coming out too written.
Describe the comedy scene in your area:
It’s NYC, what can I say about it that hasn’t already been said? I will say it was an adjustment coming here from other scenes – It’s massive, and it feels like there’s several scenes here that only minimally overlap sometimes. It can be overwhelming at first if you’re not strategic about it.
How do you judge success in the world of comedy:
Brother I’m still trying to figure that out. It’s gotta be different for everyone, based on if you’re meeting your level of artistic expression you want. I think for me I’ll be happy if I can build an audience that seems to enjoy more of the “deeper” stuff I’d like to be saying someday.
Who are some of your comedic peers that you enjoy watching perform or inspire you personally and professionally:
Too many to count in New York City, I’m inspired so much by both my peers and people one or two steps ahead of me whenever they crush a set. I’m not going to name names right now cause I don’t want to risk leaving someone out and regretting it later.
What’s been your most memorable moment in comedy:
Probably the first time I ever got *big* laughs in a room. It was at Comedy Oakland in the Bay Area about 3 months into comedy – my jokes were terrible but it was a hot crowd and it was the first time I ever got the feeling of being sonically drowned in laughs. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
What have you learned most from your failures in comedy:
Write more. Just keep writing more. Push through the crap and just get better. The stuff that was serving you until this point is no longer serving you – write again, write more, and go deeper.
How do people react toward you when they realize that you can make people laugh:
“Why isn’t he being funny right now?” I hate that shit. Let me live!!! Sometimes I wanna be pensive and deep y’know?
Describe building a career in stand-up comedy:
It’s a long, arduous journey. And ultimately I believe it’s about being good, yes, but also about building your brand and being capable in a variety of contexts and arenas.
If you could change one thing in the world of comedy, what would it be:
Honestly, it would be really ice to remove the pressure that new comedians have to post online. People should have the freedom and liberty to be able to grow in private for the first several years of their career.
Best advice you’ve ever received from a comedian:
Man there’s so many things I could say write here… but honestly the thing that’s most pertinent to me right now is going back to basics, but it’s “Write every day”. Everything else falls by the wayside if you don’t write every day. You lose your creative spark, your will to do it, your ability to do it. Writing (in whatever form you do it) provides you with the new material you need to be inspired and excited to go on stage, which in turn maintains or builds your confidence and presence on stage. It helps you stay sharp and keeps your head in the game. The more you write, the deeper you will go faster, and the sooner you’ll be able to find your voice.
If you were releasing a comedy special this week, what would it be called:
“Professional Unprofessional”
Funniest encounter you’ve ever had with a celebrity:
Man me and a buddy ran into Earl Sweatshirt at some random bar outside Space Miami at like 4am one time. And my buddy goes “Are you who we think you are” and he goes “No” and dips. Honestly, it might not have been Earl, it might have been some homeless looking dude, but everyone else was dressed real nice so the fact that he was a homeless looking dude in a really dressed up place probably means he was a celebrity and therefore Earl Sweatshirt.
Weirdest place you’ve ever performed any form of comedy:
I’ve done tons of terrible bar shows but the weirdest one (that also happened to be really fun) has to be the Naked Show out in New York. It’s at a sex club and the audience is also clothing-optional, and I gotta say the crowds are fire every time.
A Vishal Kalyanasundaram Fun Fact:
I’m super into space and astrophysics. When I was in high school, I interned at NASA Ames, and I really wanted to be an astrophysicist. I sucked at physics, though, so my dreams were shot. The only thing I think I would still want to do more than perform right now is to study space, but alas I’m too dumb.
Where would you like your laughs to take you:
I would love to have a sitcom that I write and star in.
What would you tell a potential comedian if they ask you how they can own the laughs:
Perform every day and be comfortable on stage. Being comfortable on stage goes hand in hand with writing every day as the most important thing you need to do to be successful at comedy. As someone who loses their comfort on stage very quickly if I don’t perform consistently, it’s clear just how valuable it is and how much your sets differ from when you are vs. when you aren’t.
What are your thoughts on the future of comedy:
I think it’ll be great to see artists taking power back into their own hands vs. relinquishing control of their art to gatekeepers and corporations. Even now, every special released on Youtube is way way way better than anything released on Netflix, and I believe that’s a direct result of artists being in control of their art and not getting pressured from external influences in any way.
If you could write an episode for ONE classic TV sitcom, which show would it be:
Okay not sure if this counts but one thing that’s always bugged me was like how on animated shows, there’s hundreds if not thousands of episodes that go by and yet the characters don’t age at all. Even if we assume each episode takes place in less than one day (which is not even true cause some episodes take place over SEVERAL days), that’s at least a few years. So I’d like to see like an episode of Pokemon or Spongebob where like the characters wake up and they’re suddenly like 30 years older. Actually now that I write it out I feel like The Fairly Odd Parents did an episode like this where it turns out secretly Timmy was wishing for everyone to never age….
If you could choose ONE comedy club and THREE comedians to perform with on your perfect comedy show, how would it go:
Me, Mulaney, Louis, Eddie Murphy, the Cellar.
What’s next for you:
Continuing to try to grow my career in as many verticals as I can while continuing to get better at the craft!
Why should a person always laugh at life:
Should they always? It’s okay to be serious. It’s okay to cry. But after that at a certain point you start to realize everything is stupid. What we’re all doing is pretty silly. And if that’s not a reason to laugh I don’t know what is.
Follow Vishal Kalyanasundaram’s comedic journey on these social media websites:
Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Snapchat/Tik-Tok: Vishal Kalyanasundaram
Personal Website: Vishal Kalyanasundaram
