For his debut treks to Australia and New Zealand, UK comic Paul Chowdhry is going in with bold ambitions. “I’ve only heard stuff about New Zealand through Jemaine [Clement] from Flight Of The Conchords,” he explains. “He told me there’s like one comedy club there which is why he left. So I’m looking to double the market.” On what’s he most looking forward to about the trip, Chowdhry says, “It’s my first time in Australia and New Zealand, and I always like performing to new sets of locals and seeing what the local people are like. So if there’re any expats out there, don’t come.”
While many will know him for his years of stand-up, Chowdhry has recently gained further acclaim as a contestant on the Foxtel comedy series Taskmaster. “It’s the most natural comedy show in the UK, I think,” Chowdhry says of the experience. “You’re set these tasks to complete, but you can’t hide behind any of your material or anything like that. It’s your true self out there, you know what I mean? It’s all as real as real can be.
“I hadn’t really seen the show before I was on it, then even now a couple years after we filmed it people are still talking to me about it. One of the eps I was in even got nominated for a BAFTA, which was well exciting.”
Although the show attracts a slew of comedic talent, Chowdhry says that it’s not something that all comics necessarily have a knack for. “With the format, I don’t think some comedians would be very good at it,” he ponders. “Some comics are really reliant on their material – one-liners and stuff like that – [so] that the performance can be lost with them. It’s all about how you react to these weird tasks, so you’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there.” On who surprised him the most as a contestant, Chowdhry says, “I was on with Al Murray, which was interesting. He has a character he does called The Pub Landlord, so seeing him handle all that out of character was cool. And to see someone you’ve idolised while starting up as a stand-up do that is pretty funny, too.”
From a club comic to a star of the small screen, Chowdhry has gone on to sell out stadium shows with his show, Live Innit. Taking the title from his quintessential London patois, Chowdhry is well aware that this may not resonate so well overseas. “'Innit' is a slang term that we use a lot in England as a shorthand for ‘isn’t it’, so the fact that the show has gone international now is sort of ironic because no one knows what it means,” he laughs. Live Innit skyrocketed the UK comic to international acclaim and has seen Chowdhry take his show all over the world. For Chowdhry, the highest point in the tour came a little closer to home when he performed at the iconic Wembley Area for 12,500 punters. “It’s quite a legendary venue,” the comedian humbly states. “You know, Chris Rock just did a tour show there, and Kevin Hart has done it as well, and I think it works well as a venue. Once you go over 10,000 people you have to have the screens and stuff, and people are watching them instead of the actual comic who is there, so that part can be difficult,” Chowdhry continues. “One of the biggest things about that sort of venue is you can’t play around with the audience in the same way – you have to change your mindset from the 200-seater clubrooms. You have to remember that the back rows are going to hear your punchline, like, a full second after the front row so you have to stagger a bit and give everyone time to catch up. Doing an hour and a half in places like that is a challenge, but it’s one that I really enjoyed doing.”
Along with his ever-growing fanbase, Chowdhry has the modest claim of being endorsed by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Khan is on record as a fan of the comic’s work and the two have even “supported” one another on stage. “I often do an event for a Muslim charity here in the UK and for a couple years in a row it was him and then me. A year before that, though, it was me then him, but he swapped it on me! He made he follow him instead, so he ribbed me a bit and then I went on and did the same to him. But, you know, he’s the Mayor of London now so I can’t really heckle him that way anymore. Although he recently put in a new tax on diesel cars and it was just after I bought a new diesel car! So next time I see him I’m going to tell him he owes me a lot of money.” Chowdhry adds of Khan’s monumental rise to Mayor, “It’s an interesting change in dynamics. He has been attacked online by Trump a lot, whereas Boris Johnson didn’t get that, for obvious reasons. It’s all changing out there and it’s exciting to see such a diverse range of people in power.”
Chowdhry admits that he wasn’t always interested in the political side of things, but since hitting the age of 40 a few years ago, he’s grown up a bit. “I’d say that the older you get the more mature your comedy becomes, hopefully,” he laughs, before adding, “You can take on some more serious issues and try to analyse more stuff like that. I think comedy really reflects who you are as a person and that becomes more true as you get older, so it’ll be interesting to see where I go from here.”
Paul Chowdhry presents Innit, from 21 Apr at the Athenaeum Theatre, part of MICF and from 19 Apr at Factory Theatre, part of SCF.
