Vignesh Vijayan is quite a popular name in Chennai, not just in the stand-up comedy circle but also in the corporate sector and the film industry. Not surprising at all, for Vignesh is someone who likes to try doing as many things as possible — he is a mimicry artiste, an actor, a comedian, and well, also a fitness trainer!
“I started with mimicry; and then I began doing stand-up comedy in 2010. I saw different kinds of people coming for my show. So, I didn’t want to streamline or restrict myself to only CBFC rating U/A kind of jokes, which a lot of people believe is what standup is all about,” begins Vignesh, and his sense of comedy clearly comes to the fore.
Vignesh’s comedy is clean, and it is by choice. “I want everyone to enjoy it. Moreover, it is like a self-deprecating kind of observational humour. I do not like to streamline my jokes to any politics or sarcasm. Mine is very generic observational comedy,” he says, adding, “I believe stand-up comedy is not just cuss words, otherwise you will be missing the authenticity on the stage. There’s no need to hurt anyone with offending topics. Comedy is more than that. Isn’t it?”
His upcoming show Mike And Muscle, a solo special, is an observational humour where ‘EnterTrainer’ (because he is an entertainer and a fitness trainer; you see the pun?) Vicky (as he is fondly called) narrates about his ‘Journey Of A Freelancer’ on different professions and lifestyle tragedy in a comical way. “My material is all to do with normal day-to-day life; I just happen to look at them from a different homourous perspective. Basically, all those tragedies that happened in my life, I just turned them into comedy,” he says laughing.
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The title seems apt. Vignesh explains, “Mike (because I am a voice artiste and I speak a lot) and Muscle (because I am a certified fitness trainer) are the two things that I am identified with. Previously, I was working with a software company. I am also an actor, I do voiceovers too. Collectively, the show is about an ordinary guy who had a transition from a one BHK flat to three BHK and how it all
happened.”
Vignesh is, in fact, famous for mimicking celebrities with sound effects and impersonations, the current favourite being Vijay Sethupathi. “I wanted to be different. So, what I did is I’d create my own videos and then use celebrity voices and live sound effects to do the mimicry.”
How does he get the time to do all of these, we ask, and he replies, “I always knew I would leave my full-time job, but I had to be financially stable. So, I started building my career while I had a job. Initially, I was doing only mimicry. I didn’t know that we had a Tamil comedy scene here. I mean, my role models are Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, because all these guys play with their voices, and their humour is observational. And I could relate to them. Since my talent is that I only know how to talk, I thought I would spend more time on a show. So, I thought of doing a combination ofanchoring, mimicry and standup. I came up with a combo, you see!”
Tickets at Rs 299.
October 21, 8.30 pm.
At Medai – The Stage, Alwarpet.
Email: rupam@newindianepress.com
Twitter: @rupsjain