We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vishnu Vaka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vishnu below.

Vishnu, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

No, I have not yet reached a point to earn full-time living from my creative work. I quit my job two years ago when Russell Peters took me on the road to open for him in 7 countries through out Asia. At the time, I was working at Bank of America, as a contractor at BOFA, you can only work 18 months consequetively after which you have to take 3 months off. At the time when Russell gave me the offer, my contract was already extended to 22 months. So when I asked my boss if I could take a month off. He said, instead how about we expire your contract now and I could come back after three months if I wanted to. Then my boss went on to say, ‘man you are opening for Russell Peters, you are hitting big time. I will be very sad if you have to come back to this job after that experience’. This statement of him, stuck with me. Ever since I have been resisting a day job. While my ex colleagues picked multiple jobs during covid while working from home, I quit my existing job and spent all the money I made touring with Russell, all my savings and chasing my dream, with hope as my fuel.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up moving a lot, my Dad is a government doctor in India and as he would be placed in remote areas and my parents dragged me through 14 schools before I hit fifth grade. So it was hard to have friends and books became my permanent friends. I loved reading and narrating those stories to my classmates became my tool in making friends. Then my parents moved to America, this threw a wrench into my strategy, forget telling stories, I had to relearn how to communicate.
After college, I joined film school in New York. In search of an actor for a comedy short I was planning. I attended a variety mic. Initially I didn’t know my entry fees include 5 mins stage time, so when the organizer asked me if I want to perform something on stage, initially I said no, but then the Indian in me didn’t want to waste my five bucks and also refuse an opportunity. So I rescinded my earlier decision, got up on stage and told everyone a story of me watching these two elephants have sex on discovery channel. That got so many laughs and multiple people approached me after the show to tell me how funny I am. But, that was not the start of my standup comedy career. Years later I acted as MC for my brothers wedding and after watching me, my wife insisted I pick up standup. It’s either now or never. At the time, the only person in the world I had to impress is my wife and if she is saying I should take up comedy. What’s stopping me now? I read a book written by Kevin Hart called ‘I can’t make this up’ and signed up for an open mic near my house. Best decision I ever made.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think the biggest pivot in my life is for me to leave a career which pays my bills and pick up a career which don’t. Most of my life, I made decisions by convenience. I was not happy, but since every one else is doing it, this must be the right path. It was the hardest decision to break from the proven path and explore a path, that doesn’t reward me in traditional sense but traversing it in itself gives me the fulfillment I seek.

I was doing bare minimum to get by, though I am bright and am good at the job I was doing at the time and my future seemed secure. But, I was not happy, it felt like I am not serving my purpose in this universe. I had lot of hope as a child and expectations on myself to make a difference in this world, but it was breaking my heart everyday to watch myself wither away while living to survive. The scariest decision was for me to go sign up for an open mic and keep going back to sign up for more. But now that I found my path, my future don’t seem secure any more but I sleep in peace everyday.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started my standup career almost 20 years behind schedule. And this is not an easy profession. People struggle for decades to receive any recognition. Especially as an aspiring standup, you spend decades hanging out at clubs getting your reps fine tuning your craft and hoping for an opportunity to be booked by the club which in turn will help you build your audience. Most great comedians have put in 20 plus years before they saw any success.
Through all the inconsistencies in my life, one thing that is consistent is no matter how tough the situation is, if I only focus on finding a path, there is usually a path. Initially it felt very disheartening, here I am at the door steps of 40 competing with 20 year old kids for stage time, hoping some club booker will notice me and give me an opportunity. Then I discovered social media, (it was still relatively new for comedians to post their content on social media at the time as they are afraid of losing their content). For me that seemed to be the best way to build my audience. Historically it was the clubs job to get people to the show and it’s the artist’s job to bring the talent. But thanks to social media, I could vertically integrate. So I started taping my jokes where ever I could, sometimes at open mics, with no audience and posted them to internet. I am still struggling through this journey but if not for social media, I would not have seen the success I am seeing right now. I think sometimes you have to break with tradition and evolve with change to find success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vishnuvaka.com
• Instagram: @vishnuvakacomedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comicvish
• Linkedin: Vishnu Vaka
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VishnuVakaComedy

Image Credits

I own all my images.