Vik Pandya is making a name for himself in standup comedy.
Pandya grew up in Naperville, attending Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora and graduating from DePaul University.
“I was kind of a nerdier kid. I joined cross country and that kind of changed my life because it gave me a lot of discipline,” he said. “I wasn’t doing comedy; I was on a finance track. Not at all comedy or entertainment.
“I was always consuming comedy in my personal life; I grew up on ‘Mad TV,’ ‘The Daily Show’ and I watched a lot of standup specials when I was young. I had one of those uncles who would show us things that were definitely not appropriate. I never viewed comedy as something I could do.”
And yet, after graduating from college, he found himself trying out an open mic night in 2014 … and experiencing immediate failure.
“My heart rate went up, I forgot everything I was going to say. I was supposed to do three minutes, I think I did 35 seconds and got off the stage. It was that traumatizing,” he said. “I didn’t do standup for two months after that. Then I found Second City and started taking classes.”
He took comedy improv classes on the weekends while working his 9-to-5 job in finance and revenue management and started dipping his toe back in the world of standup. He trained at Second City for a year and continued standup on the side.
It was “a healthy sense of delusion” that provided the impetus to try standup in the first place, he said. People told him he was funny and witty. He liked being the center of attention at parties and family gatherings, but he didn’t view what he was doing as standup comedy. He just liked telling stories and assumed that would translate to being a comedian.
“You quickly realize when you do standup, yes it’s related, but you’re trying to make people who don’t know you laugh, not people who understand who you are,” he said. “I think that’s why when most people start standup, it’s such a shock. People don’t even know who you are and you’re trying to make them laugh. It is a huge learning curve, a huge skill.”
He started producing shows in Chicago and even started a production company.
“Ironically, I wasn’t a theater major, but I was still leveraging some of the skills from the professional world in comedy,” he said. “There’s still a level of professionalism you forget you have from working in the corporate world for 10 years.”
Now, he is a full-time comedian — but he still wakes up before 9 a.m. to handle emails, social media posts and content creation. Each year of standup, he’s been able to book himself further and further out, which was his goal.
The next big upcoming date is a headlining date at Zanies in Chicago on Jan. 7, 2024, he said.
Pandya has been featured in 19 comedy festivals across the country; including San Francisco’s Sketchfest, NBC’s Breakout Fest and the SLO (San Luis Obispo) Comedy Festival. His album, “Friends With 401(k) Benefits,” debuted at No. 1 on iTunes and his Dry Bar comedy special, “No Refunds,” is streaming on Drybarcomedy.com.
Funnily enough, the subscription-based content service OnlyFans approached him about filming a short special for their OnlyFans TV (OFTV) “LMAO” series. While OnlyFans is known for its subscription-based adult content, OnlyFans TV is a free video platform that features other original content.
“It’s very funny for a comedian to have a clean comedy special on Dry Bar and also have a special on OnlyFans,” he said.
“I can do comedy for everybody — I can do the clean comedy, I can do political … I can do more risqué stuff.” He gets his ideas for material by observing situations, he said. After that, he takes those notes and observations and talks it through.
“I improvise and riff and try to find it onstage,” he said. “That’s where the improv comes in handy because you can talk about an idea and that process takes weeks or even months. I try to add a little bit each time I’m onstage. Pretty much every show now I try to tweak or add something, just to keep myself entertained, too.”
Now that he’s headlining, he gets to do longer sets and even asks the audience to be a part of the process. He shoots for about an hour of new material a year, he said.
“With all these people putting specials out all the time, putting doing their own thing on YouTube or Patreon — all these places where you can consume content — that is kind of the expectation,” he said. “You’re always writing, you’re always topical, you’re always fresh. Which is a lot. It used to be back in the day in the ’70s, you do your act for 10 years and tour the country and no one would know.
“Now, you must be constantly invigorating and that’s the best and worst part of comedy. You can literally build your own audience and they will support you wherever you go but you’re not necessarily mainstream. I think it’s very hard to achieve mainstream fame right now. That’s what we’re all trying to build right now, we’re trying to build our own audience.”
His act includes a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor as well as a few things people think but wouldn’t say.
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“But I do it in way where it may seem like punching down but it’s always capped with a self-deprecating angle, so I get away with it, if that makes sense,” he said. “It’s fun because it’s super-relatable stuff about working or family or dating.”
He talks about his Indian background and being the son of immigrants, too.
“I went the finance route; I went the more structured route because I didn’t even think about drama or theater growing up as an Indian. We’re not geared towards the arts,” he said. “But now I’m seeing more and more Indian and South Asian comedians. It’s funny just in nine years how much has changed.”
He performs regularly at the Comedy Vault in Batavia and earlier this year performed at Center Stage Theatre in Naperville.
“It felt very nice as a Naperville local to go there and sell it out,” he said. “So I am definitely going to be back there at some point next year but the thing I want to encourage everyone to come to is this show at Zanies Jan. 7. That’s the biggest show I have in Chicago for the next few months. It’s at 7 p.m. so you’ll be home by 9:30.”
Vik Pandya
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 7, 2024
Where: Zanies Comedy Night Club, 1548 N. Wells St., Chicago
Tickets: $30
Information: 312-337-4027; chicago.zanies.com/
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.