An Interview with Pittsburgh-bred comedian and filmmaker, Anand Mahalingam
On South Asians pursuing career routes
How did you get interested in comedy and filmmaking?
“Growing up, it was always very hard for me to not make a joke about stuff and not want to get some sort of feeling out of everything that I was saying. Watching Bollywood movies, and doing all those dances, there was always this little part of me that was like, ‘that would be really cool.’ But I was a skinny, Indian kid in Southwestern PA, my high school was in the Boonies, I had acne all over my face…I was like there’s ‘no way I can do Hollywood.’ I was into Bollywood at the time, but I was like, ‘I don’t know Hindi, I don’t know Tamil, so I definitely can’t do that.’ I was kind of stuck in both ways, so I put it away for a bit. What actually clinched it was emceeing shows at Pitt. Small cultural shows and then eventually ending with Dhirana, the classical dance competition that I’m literally always talking about. That’s when I started writing. I wrote my own bits, I wrote my own jokes. I was helping out with marketing so I downloaded Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. At that time it was a guilty pleasure, but I really wanted to do a good job so I looked up tutorials online and I sort of self-taught myself. From there I sort of went backwards through the film process, learning bits of editing and post-production and all the way back through production and eventually settling on development and screenwriting as the thing that would get me out to LA.”
What was your experience like as a South Asian student at Pitt, knowing you didn’t want to pursue a ‘conventional’ career?
“There was a fog over my head since I was a Sophomore in high school until about Junior year of college, where I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just did everything — I took every class under the sun when I was in undergrad, and nothing really grabbed me. But I always wanted to do something different from other people. When you’re having a conversation with other people it’s great if you’re all talking about the same thing, but you’re all talking about the same thing forever. But for me, I think now that people have seen that I’ve done some stuff in this field, that’s a whole new thing that they don’t know about, and they want to discuss it. It’s like learning a new thing. I just wanted to be different from everybody growing up. But also I never graduated from Pitt. I’m a certified college dropout, at the moment. My mom is not happy about that. She’s like, ‘Whatever you do in life you owe me a college degree.’ And I’m like, ‘Sure, but let me throw you this other option. How’s an Oscar sound?’ And she hasn’t answered me, so I don’t know what the status of that deal is.”
How did you make the decision to drop out of school?
“I knew this is what I had to do. I like making people feel things. I’ve made videos that make people cry, laugh, run the whole gambit of emotions. I liked doing that and I thought I was good at it. So I dropped out of school without telling my mom. I just didn’t sign up for classes. And then she got a letter one day and she was like, “Anand, you haven’t signed up for classes” and I was like, “Yes — about that…”
Have you found it difficult to interact with and discuss your career path with South Asian friends and family members?
“For the first 2.5 years I actively avoided any sort of social arrangement, I didn’t go to any weddings, birthday parties because uncles and aunties would say, ‘What are you doing?’ and I would say ‘I’m trying to be a filmmaker’ And it’s either ‘Why?’ or ‘That’s great’ and then they walk away because they have no idea what to say to that. My mom has talked to her friends, they’ll come over for get togethers, when I was first starting out, and ask, ‘What’s Anand up to?’ and she would say, ‘He’s trying to get into film.’ And they’d just be like, ‘Why? Why is he doing that? He should be doing like chemistry or business.’ And I feel bad because my mom was just like, ‘Well, yeah but you know kids will be kids.’
Is it any easier now?
“It’s definitely easier now. I was in line for a promotion at work a while ago and when I told my family about it, my brother’s first question — the first response he had to it — was ‘How will this impact your acting and stand-up career?’ That’s inconceivable, for that to have been a legitimate worry for anyone in my family when on the other side was this possibility at guaranteed security. That was a cool moment. It was like, heads are turning. People were coming around to it. I was here July 4 for a wedding reception. I came because I’ve been lucky enough to have a good run this year and I think when I shared it on social media and other people started watching it, they liked it. All these people at the wedding came up to me and it was the most amazing thing, they were like, ‘I watch your videos all the time. They make me laugh out loud.’ And it’s not just kids, it’s not just people my age, it’s uncles, it’s aunties, it’s kids that are younger than me. I just went to my friends birthday party last night and I didn’t really know that many people there but a lot of people came up to me and they were like, ‘Hey — I love seeing what you’re doing. That’s amazing, I watch your videos all the time.’ And that is cool. That did not happen before — I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. Now I have like this responsibility, that’s why I’m always trying to do better. That’s what motivates me — people back home who are like, ‘I know this person.’
What challenges did you face in your decision process to pursue this career?
“This is the career advice I give everybody: find out what you’re good at, find out what you like to do. Cause if you’re good at something you can absolutely make money doing something you’re good at. You might not be good at what you like to do, but you do like doing it — and don’t give up on the thing you like to do. So just keep doing that until you get good at it and then you can switch careers, and make that your new career, and then the whole world changes.”
What is your advice for people who face difficulties with their parents accepting their career paths?
“I think it was probably easier for me than it would be for other people, which is just a testament to how amazing my mom and brother are. It’s very easy to understand parents’ point of view: they just want what’s best for you. And their only knowledge of what’s best is a certain career path, because it’s all they know. All you need to do is be real with your parents. When I told my mom I wanted to do this, I knew exactly what the roadmap was going to be, I knew exactly how difficult it was. I researched it like it was my job. I did everything that I could to find out what LA was like and I demonstrated an understanding of what this path was. And the next thing they want to see is if you’re any good at it. So I think for dealing with parents, show them that it’s what you love and that you’re good at. And if you’re good at it you can make money.”
A lot of South Asians, particularly men, have taken the route of comedy as a form of activism — for example, Hari Kondabolu, Aziz Ansari and Hassan Minhaj. What’s your take on that?
“For me, my responsibility is to be funny first. That’s the first thing I have to be. Because that’s already a hard thing to do. I didn’t learn how to properly write jokes until after I started doing standup. I’d love to get political and be an activist, but I’d much rather be funny before either of those two things. Because if you do that without being funny, it’s just a TED Talk. Of those three comedians I think Aziz does the best job because his dialogue is more universal. He can talk to so many people at one time, but watching Hassan Minaj’s special I’m like, ‘This is just for brown people.’ It’s just brown people saying, ‘That’s what I’m saying! That’s what I’m saying!’ But no one else is listening to them. What difference does that make if one side is just like, ‘I told you so’ but the other side is like, ‘Well, I don’t know, I don’t get it. I don’t know what you’re going through.’ But Aziz is able to broaden that audience and get white people and brown people and Black people to be like, ‘Oh that’s messed up.’ I don’t like calling myself an Indian comic. I’m not a comedian or a filmmaker for Indian people. But I think about how Aziz made Master of None Season 2, which I cried at, at the end of every episode — because brown people are not supposed to make that, brown people make the Bollywood movies that get laughed at. That’s what we make, that’s what we’ve always made. Here we are just watching our popcorn Bollywood movies saying, ‘Oh this is the best thing!’ And it is great, I love KG3, but there is so much more. I don’t know what it is, why we’re ok with it. I think in terms of comedy too. People talk about Hari, Aziz, Hassan and I’m glad it’s not just Russell Peters. I liked Russell Peters… in 2006, but I haven’t liked any of his stuff since then, because to me it’s just base level comedy. We couldn’t go anywhere without anyone comparing us to the accents guy. Doing accents is fine, but there should be more to it than that. For so long we were okay with Russel Peters because that’s all anyone was giving us. So I think now we’re in a really cool spot, where I get to hear Aziz Ansari’s thoughts on Donald Trump as president, but also his thoughts on the latest Childish Gambino album. It’s like, for years we were simply one-note. There was one thing that was expected from us. Now we’re in the space where we can do these things that are different.”
“And one other thing, I’m doing a show in February at the Funhouse at Mr. Smalls in Millvale. It’s on February 10th. It’s my first ever stand-up special, first time I’m doing more than 15 minutes. I’m doing a full hour. I really want to sell that out. I’ve signed up for one slot out of the two that they have. But I have the option to also get the other slot, which I would really like to do. If I sell out a show, I’m donating part of the proceeds to Dhirana. It depends on how many tickets we sell, but I want to clear at least $1,000 to Dhirana this year. I think a lot of people are wondering, “Anand why do you care so much about Dhirana?” but literally I have no idea where I would be without it. My whole career started from Dhirana. I learned how to write, edit, perform live comedy, literally everything that’s happening in my life has a line drawn back to that dance competition.”
“Hopefully some kid will see this and be able to feel okay going off and doing their own thing. That’s the hope in all of this I guess, is getting kids more comfortable in saying, ‘I’ve always wanted to do this, so I’m going to at least give it a shot.’ And whoever is reading this interview and is thinking these things, maybe something in entertainment or even just a different career field than the norm and you want to talk to somebody about it, I am absolutely available to talk to anybody who needs any sort of resource. Because it’s hard. But it’s so much harder if you’re afraid of it. But if you learn to embrace it and learn to love it, there’s nothing cooler. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life right now. Even though all those things with the not sleeping and not eating are happening…this is the happiest I’ve ever been.”
Email: contact.anandmahalingam@gmail.com
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Twitter: @yanandbhai
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