Sindhu Vee Talks First US Tour ‘The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh’

Most Americans probably haven’t heard of it yet Sindhu VeeBut he’s spending his autumn trying to change that. The British comedian and actress, who didn’t start doing stand-up until her 40s after a career in investment banking and a stay-at-home mom, is suddenly everywhere if you look in the right places.

Vee stars with Naveen Andrews Pradeeps of PittsburghIt premiered on Amazon Prime Video on October 17. He’s also in the midst of his first North American tour; a tour that tested his patience with several airlines that shall not be named. “Every time I move from one city to another, the show is in a different time zone,” he says. “You really like the red eyes here.”

Vee rose to fame in the UK after a particularly popular set on the BBC. living in apollo (Negative be confused Showtime at the Apollo) and has been steadily raising its profile ever since Sex Education and a role on Netflix Matilda the Musical. Speaking on the phone in early October, he talked about why he chose to use an Indian accent instead of just laughing at a joke, and why his new Amazon show, despite its name, isn’t your typical newfangled story. .

Is this your first US tour?

I came here in March to perform for the first time in my life. The tour was sold out before I arrived; This was a surprise to everyone. My organizer said: “You must come back!” And that’s great, but whenever there’s a gap he says, “Let’s go to Chicago! Let’s go to Houston!” It’s exciting but requires a lot of travel. And I really want to get in front of as many of my audiences as possible; When I say “my audience” I mean the people who buy tickets.

Your special wasn’t broadcast here, was it?

We shot my first special program Sand PigIt’s for Amazon Prime, but there was the odd thing of it only showing on Amazon in the UK – but you can watch it worldwide if you use the Soho Theater player. It wasn’t as easily accessible to people outside the UK. By now I’ve been cutting it up and posting it more on my social media so it’s become more well known. For my second special and we’re still trying to figure out where it will go, my preference is for it to be global and not require weird intros in different places.

Being gross and American and talking about money for a second, what is the stand-up market like in the UK at the moment? Because this is where an event exclusive to a streaming service can be very lucrative.

I don’t think American publishers are throwing money at me yet. From where? Hello? But every UK comic wants to be on a global platform now. Getting a Netflix or Prime Video exclusive is still very important. It’s not easy. So I don’t know how these people who go on tour know about me – from social media? – but I’m glad they bought tickets.

Do you enjoy getting on social media?

Of course, like I did. (laughing). I’m only posting clips from my special promotional concerts and there’s a lot going on with mangoes throughout the summer. You get Indian mangoes in the UK in the summer, I feel the need to talk about them because I love them. There are plenty of tutorials on how to miss a good mango, so I took it upon myself to do so.

Your first special, which fascinated me as an incubator, came from Fringe. Phoebe Waller Bridge flea bagMichaela Coel I Can Destroy YouRichard Gadd baby reindeer… these are all ideas that are gaining momentum in Edinburgh. Is this a path that interests you, the transition from stage to TV show?

This has been an ongoing process since I made my debut. After I shot the movie, the production company Roughtcut came to me and said, “We want to write a series with you.” I was very new. “What do you mean? I don’t write. I’m a stand-up artist.” However, we have started working on something very similar to the programs you mentioned. They brought me into the office and taught me how to write a screenplay. They had to drag me kicking and screaming. I was scared! I always wanted my career to be like a sunrise, not a comet. I didn’t want to force him. But they were very convincing. So we wrote a script and filmed a pilot episode out of Texas (which will not air on TV) for the BBC. But then the Apollo clip went viral, and suddenly I was so busy I was going to Los Angeles to train generals. For me, there is a path to an autobiographical TV show, but it’s just a process.

For now you have this TV show. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh?

No, but I’ve been to Redding, Allentown and Harrisburg.

A weird trio of Pennsylvania cities to visit first! This show is part fresh-off-the-boat story, part Rashomon, part procedural. Was it the shaped game that intrigued you?

Every time I get the “this is why they want you to read” email I get a little wary. I always expect to be excited about a script that features a brown family or anyone brown, because there are so many stereotypes that go on. I find it a lot. I just want to be involved in things that happen ha ha funny and then discover where that laughter comes from. And I laughed at this pilot script. There are lots of jokes. But what really struck me was that this was a family that came to the United States for different reasons than what you normally see. Not every Indian who comes to the US is escaping desperate poverty and knows how to speak English. My character is a brain surgeon. He doesn’t want to come to America. He loves his life in India. This makes perfect sense to me because I moved west to work in my twenties.

You were born in India. I’m curious about your relationship with the Indian accent, specifically when and how you choose to use it in your work. There’s clearly a problematic history in how it’s portrayed in popular culture. And on stage, you use one with varying degrees of potential, and the one you use in this show is definitely not yours.

Just a sidebar on accent… When I talk about my mother, who passed away in 2019 and to whom I was very close, I sound exactly like her. There’s no way I could bring her into the conversation and not sound exactly like her. Same thing with my dad. So that’s the only place where my accent is very strong. When it comes to this show I know he is a brain surgeon. He is from Ahmedabad. He clearly went to certain schools. His accent will be middle of the road. She doesn’t speak like my mother, who didn’t grow up speaking English. I grew up in various parts of the world and learned to speak English in an American school. But I also came back to India and went to a Hindi-speaking school. My accent moves around a lot. If I stay in India for a month, my voice starts to sound more like Sudha. This accent is a part of me. So I didn’t have to sound like a version of that accent that I didn’t agree with. This would be problematic.

Have you ever encountered a problematic scenario?

Playing someone’s mother in a small cameo or two. There is one show in particular that comes to mind. I needed to sound like an older South Asian woman like my mother. Okay, okay. But there was a lot of Hindi added, so it wasn’t exactly a caricature of an English-speaking Indian mother that only people in the West would recognize.

Before I let you go… as a former London investment banker, do you have any thoughts on this program? Industry?

I didn’t watch! I had the idea to write something about women working in this business. Some choose to leave because they have children like me, and some choose to stay. And I want to be with my children! It’s a basic instinct that makes perfect sense in every pore of your body. But then you’re at home and you have no ID. Loving your child is not an identity. Then “Who am I?” you think. You kind of become invisible. So that’s the world I’m interested in, versus all of this transition and the experiences of women who choose to stay. And I have a huge fear that if I watch something in a similar world, it will bleed into my brain.