Watch | Interview with stand-up comedian Vikkals Vikram
| Video Credit:
Thamodaran Bharath
‘“Vikkals,” someone calls out. Vikram turns — because he is quite used to the name now.
Chennai-based stand-up comedian Vikram Arul Vidyapathi aka ‘Vikkals Vikram’ has just returned from Amsterdam, where he was touring his stand-up comedy special, and is gearing up for his Chennai show this weekend.
‘Vikkals’ Vikram, stand-up comedian
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharan Bharath
Known for his relatable style of humour and fun music-based Instagram reels, Vikram loves the limelight. It is something that this once-introvert boy who had a chance tryst with the theatre world thrives in.
“In theatre, I used to get small roles, but in stand-up, the focus is entirely on me,” he explains.
This weekend in Chennai, Vikram will take on a subject that is based on his life experiences — how college changed him as a person. “It will be shockingly funny,” he stresses. An adult comedy show for about 100 minutes, it will talk, among other things, about caste and sexuality. “But it will make sense,” he assures.
‘Vikkals’ Vikram, stand-up comedian
| Photo Credit:
Thamodharan Bharath
While some comedians opt for safe topics, Vikram’s strength is to take on a bit of social commentary in his sets. “I got inspired after watching American comedians George Carlin and Dave Chappelle talking about issues like police brutality. Stand-up comedy is a weapon of sorts; when you weave in a societal issue, the audience will start a conversation after laughing. If my art makes people converse about it, it will live on for a long time. Also, in a selfish way, I want to stand out as a comedian.”
But it’s not all serious business alone; Vikram does a fair bit of ‘amma appa’ jokes, as he refers to it, and ‘when you speak Telugu in Chennai’ kind of videos. When it comes to Reels, Vikram’s comedy is often exaggerated and draws from a lot of everyday things we see and experience. “I rely more on honesty than relatability. There is exaggeration — no parent is going to really talk like the way mothers converse in our scenes — but the emotional honesty at its core makes it believable and clicks with the audiences,” he explains.
Vikram and Vikkals, which is close to clocking a 2 million subscriber base in YouTube, also has a separate fan base for their ‘recording session’ Reels. In these viral videos, a few members of the Vikkals team depict how a film song might have been recorded, albeit in a funny manner. Music composer AR Rahman re-created one of their videos, something that catapulted them to greater fame. “We can force-fit a concept or we can discover an organic concept hidden in a song. We work on the latter.”
The stand-up comedian is also eyeing the film industry for comedy roles. “I’m hoping something clicks,” he says, “You cannot plan cinema. I hope I become someone like Koundamani or Vadivelu or Santhanam. I don’t think content creation or stand-up comedy is any less than cinema, but the film business is big business.”
But wherever he goes, ‘Vikkals’ is a title that is bound to travel with him. It’s a sobriquet he got in 2019, when he was crowd-sourcing a name for his YouTube channel. “Someone suggested this interesting word ‘Vikkals’, which was a combination of Vikram and nakkals (sarcasm in Tamil).” It continues to be his calling card.
Vikkals of Vikram will be staged on February 17, 7.30pm, at the Music Academy, Chennai