COMEDY: Paul Varghese on Last Comic Standing

I saw Paul Varghese perform in L.A. a few years ago and was thoroughly impressed. Pretty smart yuks. Here's a clip of his recent set on NBC's Last Comic Standing. I like how it ends: nothing like setting a resourceful Malayalee among the Kalahari Bushmen.

 

More of Paul from Comedy Central's Live at Gotham. He's from Dallas, he's 5' 10" and he's straight by the way (or so it says on his MySpace page).

And check out this interview of him, from the Comedy Central website:

Q. Who is your comedy hero?

A. Hero would imply that they saved me from dying onstage which nobody ever has. I do have influences though like Dean Lewis, Clinton Jackson, Greg Giraldo, Arj Barker, George Lopez, Robert Schimmel. I've learned something that's shaped my comedy just from watching and/or talking to them. Stuff that I still remember to this day.

Q. What made you decide to strive for a career in comedy?
A. I just always thought that what was funny to me was never on TV, or stage, for that matter. I felt like I had a story to tell.

Q. What career would your parents have chosen for you?
A. Anything that would allow them to brag to their friends about me and allow me to buy a plasma screen TV for them.

Q. Have you ever tanked onstage?
A. I was performing at an open mike in a hotel bar and had a lady once yell "You're the worst comedian I've ever seen! Can't you take a hint and get offstage?" I didn't take a hint and proceeded on and on and on until the tension was so thick it stuck to the roof of my mouth. It was my stubbornness to keep going and continue to piss off that lady that ended up shutting down that open mike for good.

Q. Everyone's a geek in some way. What kind of a geek are you?
A. I know way too much about sports. Not only can I carry on a conversation about it with another sports fan, but I can also keep going into such detail and mindless information that it creeps us both out into a state of uncomfortably awkward silence...

Q. What song is trapped inside your brain right now?
A. Bobby Brown "Don't Be Cruel" .. trapped? Not so much. I purposely locked and barricaded that song into my head. It makes standing in line or sitting in traffic fly by oh so quickly.

Q. What will you do with yourself after the fall of civilization?
A. Take credit for it.

Q. What is your greatest memory from your time with Live at Gotham?
A. The hooting and hollering that the audience did when they announced my name. I never get that. It's the response that I wish I got when they called my name at high school graduation.

Here's his upcoming schedule, from his MySpace page:

Jun 16 2008 8:00P	Great American Comedy Festival (June 16-22)	Norfolk NE
Jun 27 2008 9:00P	Private Event	Houston TX
Aug 13 2008 8:00P	Comedy, TN Comedy Club (Middle Act: Aug.13-16)	Memphis TN
Sep 20 2008 8:00P	University of Richmond	Richmond VA
Nov 12 2008 9:00P	Marywood University	Scranton PA

Comments

[Vivek Gupta]

Paul Varghese is genuinely funny. Ku Klux Klan guy having a black shadow is easily one of the best I've ever heard. The top clip must be from the auditions of Last Comic Standing 2008. He first appeared in the Season 2 auditions in 2004. he was still funny, but couldn't make it. I know this because we are currently getting Season 2 in India. :) I hope he at least makes it to the house this time.

[Vikas]

We need more people like Paul so that as an ethnic group, we can learn to laugh and stop taking ourselves too seriously!

[vick]

Paul is hilarious!Def a must see! He will be in NYC on July 25th:

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/210/anubf5.jpg

[Indian Stand Up Comedy]

I saw him in Los Angeles last summer and he was so funny! Rather than just performing a stand up routine like a lot of other comics, he was able to interact with the audience members and made the show so much more enjoyable.

I found a ton of his stand up comedy videos here:

http://indianinvasioncomedy.com/stand-up-comedy-videos/paul-varghese-videos.php