The Funny Indian Newsletter, Vol. 206
November 2023: Thanks, G
Welcome
Welcome to The Funny Indian Newsletter!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you’re already enjoying the Holiday Season, which now seems to last a few days before Halloween till right before the College Football Playoff National Championship.
I went on a two-week Eastern Time Zone run, with two more gigs for P&G, an update on my Hasan Minhaj story, encounters with Kamala and Kumail, a semi-viral video on the world’s most controversial topic, and a fleeting appearance on Good Morning America.
Finally, I’ll be launching a separate newsletter dedicated to the topic of happiness. It’s the subject of my recent talk at P&G for all 1,000 IT employees in North America. After rave reviews (98%), I’m inspired to share this knowledge with as many people as possible. The first topic? How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions. As you know, I’m extremely careful about protecting your privacy. I plan to add you to this new newsletter’s distribution list. LMK if this is not OK. But I encourage you to give me a chance. :)
Musings
The Saga Continues
What got lost in the whole Hasan Minhaj debate is just how good he is at standup comedy.
I ended up staying an extra night in NY so he invited me to come hang; I ended up catching three of his sets, running back and forth between the original Cellar and the Comedy Cellar Village Underground.
Super fun night watching Vishnu Vaka smash his own set and kickin' it with my recent podcast guest Jocelyn Chia, too; you might recall she herself went viral in this new age of cancel culture.
A highlight was when the legendary comedian Jimmy Carr sauntered over to our table to chat.
And to my jealous NY friends, this is why you should reply to my texts.
Hasan and I got a lot of time to chop it up at the Olive Tree Cafe and deep-dive into the whole controversy. Hasan pointed out what's so striking is that most of the audiences didn't seem to know much about the New Yorker article at all.
And again, what we have to remember is my guy is FUNNY. He killed all three 20-min sets, two of which were fairly similar but one of which was quite different.
So, yes, by all means we can continue to discuss what's right and what's wrong. But I just felt I had to point out the key thing: he's really good at his job.
Two-Man Tribute
During what was otherwise a great weekend in LA and SF, I received two heartbreaking pieces of news:
Two men who helped give me my start in comedy had passed.
On Saturday morning, Harsha and I had taken Naveen to a Halloween event here in Burbank. Near the jungle gym, a man named Dario Konjicija recognized me: "I think I opened for you 20 years ago at the Comedy Caravan in Louisville, Kentucky." I didn't remember him, unsurprisingly as my terrible memory is perhaps my most endearing trait. What helped him remember me at all was that I was decked out in Bengals gear, which sparked him to think of Cincinnati. Turns out Dario is now a TV writer out here. And a father. He wasn't just creepily posted up at the playground. Got to meet his wife and kid. But then he hit me with something out of the blue:
Tom Sobel died in July.
Tom Sobel started the Comedy Caravan back in the '80s and booked a ton of standup one-nighters around the midwest. In the early '00s, I played all sorts of venues, including the Caravan, a bar way the heck down in Corbin, Kentucky, and West Virginia University.
So sorry for India's loss in the ICC Cricket World Cup. I feel horrible for my Dad, who watched every ball. That said... Congratulations to our mother country for the fantastic run and to the Aussies for their victory!
Updates
See
Future:
02/01: Thrive State Summit (Virtual) (pic): I’m doing a session for this online mental health event.
Past:
11/01: The Ice House (Pasadena, CA) (pic)
11/03: P&G Global Alumni Summit (Washington, DC) (pic)
11/04: ICC Diwali Night (Greenwich, CT)
11/14: P&G APA Event (Cincinnati, OH)
Watch
Spot right before @kumailn on 11/1. Fun night. Amazing crowd. Good to know people can still appreciate jokes. Still can’t believe this got 80K views in 4 days with virtually no blowback.
Listen
Loved this conversation with Sophia Toh for the P&G Alumni Network podcast. Great advice. Listen on Spotify or on Apple.
Like
During my east coast swing, I reconnected with comedian Godfrey. We finally snapped a good pic after our adventurous Austin night this year. And below was our whole crew.
Like
Like
When your Christian friends send you a pic of you and a Muslim friend posing at a Hindu festival. On 25 October, I attended the "Mela on Melrose" party in LA. As I walked in, I saw my friend, Bushra Khan, at the step-and-repeat so I asked her for a pic.
Major shout-out to Audra & Kyle Schlegel for sending me the pic and the video, which, btw, is on Good Morning America.
Took me a while to figure out what this even was. I still don't recognize what I'm wearing (other than the occasion-appropriate Bengals hat). And it took me even longer to figure out who the woman was... which is exactly what I told my wife.
This angle really makes it look like we're standing closer than we actually were. "Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear." Or something.
ANYway... Shubh Deepavali!
#diwalivibes #HappyDiwali #happydiwali2023
Ask
Could anyone recommend a book that sums up the world's religions*?
[Click here for some good answers on Facebook.]
Love
Thanks so much to our friend, Avani, for inviting us again to the Diwali Play Date. It's so nice for our son to celebrate Diwali with our people, play with Modi Toys, wear clothes from Hava, and become far more captivated by stickers than by us.
Laugh
Since this is a FUNNY Indian Newsletter, I present here the 5 funny things that I saw, heard, wrote, or remembered for the last month... otherwise known as FIVE - Funny Indian's V Events.
5. It’s not funny but The Beatles are my favorite band, so I have to mark this point in time: their latest release (even if Now is no comparison to Then).
4. I love Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s newsletter. He included this amazing piece of athleticism.
3. An extreme rarity for me to include myself in this list, but as I’ve said for years onstage: “Screw you guys, that was funny.”
2. Comedian Nate Bargatze’s best SNL sketch was all up in my DMs.
1. Pretty much every Between Two Ferns episode is ingenious so this compilation was fire.
Close
THANK YOU to all of you for your support. You are my true core of fans — I couldn't do this without you. Happy Holidays! But one more Halloween pic…
Love,
- Rajiv