Interview: Kanan Gill

As far as Indian stand-up history goes, Kanan Gill is one of the OGs.

“Sorry I’m late, my boat was delayed,” he says via Zoom, from the grounds of a hipster deconsecrated church where he’s sipping coffee and squeezing in an interview while on holiday in Venice (Kanan Gill is cool, that way).

Gill has been on stage for “12 long years” – well before he and a handful of self-starter comics became overnight sensations in India thanks to a whole lot of grit, some viral YouTube videos and the well-timed entry of Amazon Prime into the subcontinent.

Back then, there was no stand-up industry and certainly no money in the game, he reminisces, but things have come a long way.

In just the last few years, he’s been on a world tour, performed sold out shows everywhere from Australia to America, starred in a Norwegian rom-com, penned a screenplay and published a sci-fi novel. Yet, somehow, he’s never made it to the Fringe.

“I finally decided I can’t deal with the FOMO anymore!” he jokes. “I’ve heard the mythology of the Fringe being high pressure, but I’m not stressed. For me, it’s about the challenge of putting my act through a trial by fire. Doing a funny show is one thing, but can it be funny 22 times in a row?”

Challenging himself seems to be something of a theme with Gill, right from the onset of his comedic career, when he quit his job as a software engineer to perform full time.

“I took it very seriously from the start. It’s that Indian education mindset – you can’t be bad at anything, even when it seems like there’s no future in it. I was hungry to get good fast.”’

Yet the very drive that renders his artistry so prolific seems to spawn an undercurrent of anxiety and existential dread that pervades his routines.

In Is This It?, his last special, he confesses, “I had anxiety back when it wasn’t cool, OK? I had anxiety back when they called it worrying!”

It strikes a chord; even while watching on YouTube you can sense the live audience unravel a little – Gill’s quarter-life crisis has infected everyone and the nervous laughter suggests the whole room has made a collective decision to break the tension.

Gill characterises his upcoming Fringe show, What Is This?, as a spiritual successor, where he’s challenged himself (there’s that word again) to take some “really esoteric ideas” and make them funny.

One topic he attacks is the ubiquitous advice to ‘settle down’. “You know how you’re always told ‘you’re in your thirties, now it’s time to settle down? Own a house, settle down. Find a partner, settle down. Have kids, then make them settle down.’ I take that idea and really blow it up.

“It’s deeply personal, but I’m not trying to sermonise. It’s more like I’m inviting people to go on a thought experiment with me.” He pauses, then laughs. “Of course, what I think the show is about might not be what the audience thinks the show is about.”

If the reception to What Is This? at the Melbourne Comedy Festival (where it was nominated for Most Outstanding Show) is any indicator, Fringe audiences are in for a treat.

Back to his feelings about his upcoming Edinburgh debut. “I’m just going to experience what it’s like,” he reiterates. “I want to challenge myself and go beyond what I’ve done before. I’m not too worried. Well – maybe about the weather. I do like to see the sun everyday.”