Comedian Romesh Ranganathan's Mum's New Celeb Status Has 'Gone To Her Head, Mate'

Romesh Ranganathan is quickly becoming one of the most well-known voices in British comedy, but his relationship with the stand-up stage hasn't always been straightforward. "It's something that I couldn't really relate to initially," he says, "because when I started doing gigs I wanted to believe that comics were just going up and doing it off the cuff. You don't really want to believe that they've worked on it and that they've written it and stuff like that. But I think people have become more savvy to how comedy works, and I think the whole idea of failure leading to success and stuff like that, there's something interesting in hearing about somebody struggling before they make something of themselves."

"She's doing things like having a go at me because I'm not moisturising my elbows or whatever, and I'm thinking, 'I'm a father of three, mate. This is mad.'"

For Ranganathan, that struggle came when he left his life as an educator behind to pursue his dream of performing comedy. "I made the decision to quit teaching and do stand-up full-time, and for a while, it did not go right. I basically put my family into poverty, and we couldn't pay the bills for a while. So that was a challenge for me in terms of going from a secure job into doing stand-up, and as a result we were struggling. It's quite a difficult thing to feel okay about." He continues, "I made a mistake in making this decision after I had children. What an idiot! But that's just what happened. And it has worked out in the end and I hope it continues to work out. I think it really tests your resolve and how much you want to do something."

Of course, the gamble has more than paid off for the UK-based comic, who since making his career switch has been seen on the likes of Live At The Apollo and celeb game show QI. He also recently made his own TV program, Asian Provocateur, which saw him travelling around the world alongside his mother, Shanti. "With the first series, my mum was sort of having a go at me because I didn't know anything about my Sri Lankan heritage. So I basically went to Sri Lanka and did a crash course in Sri Lankan culture at the behest of my mum. It was sort of a trip that my mum was just in charge of, which is horrendous," Ranganathan laughs.

"And the second series, my mum came with me, because unfortunately, she became really popular after the first series. I wanted her to enjoy it, but what I didn't want is for her to get equal billing - but of course that's what happened. Anyway, for that second series we went to the States, and we hooked up with some of my family over there. It's sort of become this thing where, over here [in the UK], my mum has become a minor celebrity. It's irritating, it's gone to her head mate, I'll be honest with you, she's not being humble about it."

On the subject of having his own mother in the spotlight, Ranganathan says, "She's doing things [on the show] like having a go at me because I'm not moisturising my elbows or whatever, and I'm thinking, 'I'm a father of three, mate. This is mad.' It was fun, though. But I was in the States with my mum for six weeks - I don't care who you are or how well you get on with your mum; that is a test of the relationship."

With his family regularly at the core of his new stand-up show, Irrational, Ranganathan is acutely aware of what's in store for him as his young children get older. "The problem is, I'll be honest with you, that there's going to come a point where they are going to start watching it, and then I don't know what's going to happen. I've definitely got, in my future, a stern conversation with my kids. But at the end of the day I do buy them stuff. Maybe in years to come you'll see me doing a show about how my kids asked to divorce me."