Get That Side Hustle Off the Ground with Comedian Vik Pandya
Whether you have dreams of making people laugh on the stage, you want to start an Etsy business, or you want to finally write that book, the hustle requires organization. Take it from this week’s guest, Vik Pandya. Vik is crushing it on the Chicago comedy scene because he knows how to stay organized. Learn how to get that side hustle off the ground with Vik’s tips on today’s episode of Dope Ass Podcast.
Stand up comedy is brutal. When you’re hustling and trying to make it as a comic, you can expect to wait hours upon hours for just four minutes up on the stage. Add on to that a full-time 9 to 5 job and you’ve got a recipe for stress. Not for the faint of heart!
This week on the Dope Ass Podcast, Andrea is talking to Vik Pandya, a rising comic in the Chicago comedy scene. Part of why Vik is crushing it so hard right now is because his corporate job taught him key organizational skills that help him with scheduling and promoting.
Vik and Andrea talk about the dumbest things they spend money on and why being on the stage is such a high. Vik also shares the secret to getting any side hustle off the ground…micro-goals. If you’ve got a side hustle you’re trying to make happen, this is the episode for you.
[00:10] - Living as a white-collar comedian
[04:11] - Starting a comedy career
[06:22] - The ultimate compliment
[07:13] - Private events
[09:56] - Daily development
[12:58] - Following your calling
[17:13] - Audience rapport
[22:34] - Charming asshole
[25:56] - Crowd work
[30:46] - Dating compatibility
[38:58] - Day drinking
Vik Pandya is a nationally touring stand up comic based in Chicago. Known for his sharp self-deprecation, observational humor on dating, & hilarious crowd work, his comedy album 'Friends With 401(k) Benefits' debuted #1 on iTunes & Top 10 on the Billboard Charts. Vik has opened for both Roy Wood Jr. & Michelle Wolf and performs regularly at Zanies Comedy Club & The Laugh Factory in Chicago. He was featured in San Francisco’s Sketchfest in 2020, and NBC's Breakout Comedy Festival in 2018. He's shared the stage with mainstream headliners such as: Godfrey, Dan Soder, Big Jay Oakerson - as well as international acts like Vir Das, Zakir Khan & Atul Khatri. Follow him on facebook/instagram @vpcomedy
If you give a comedian a podcast
On this week’s episode of the Dope Ass Podcast, I sat down with Chicago comedian Vik Pandaya to talk shop.
In a super weird turn of events, this episode ended up being extremely educational and dare I say, inspirational. Obviously Vik and I were also hilarious, but it turns out that several years in the industry has made Vik quite the expert on navigating the comedy scene. And his advice is definitely worth listening to.
First off, if you aren’t chill with living a non-bougie lifestyle, don’t make comedy your day job. It’s a field with pretty big pay and fame discrepancy — either you’re no one off the scene, or you have a Netflix special, there’s no in between. So, if rolling up to open mics in a Benz is more your style (we can relate) keep that 9-5 for now.
That being said, there are some higher-paying opportunities once you establish your routine and break out of the open mics-only circuit. Look into corporate events and high budget parties, they offer the big bucks for MCing and just straight up roasting everyone in the crowd all night. Of course, as Vik would caution, these are north star gig goals. Start small, set goals to master one thing at a time and get organized!
If you take nothing else away from our conversation, it’s that comedy is not all glitz and glamour. It’s a lot of trying to make your mom jokes relatable to white dudes in their 20s and with that comes a high, high dose of awkwardness and discomfort as you learn to master the crowd. Stand up is hard, but that doesn’t mean that there are no tricks to the trade.
Vik’s biggest piece of advice? Lead with confidence. You can say pretty much anything to your audience as long as you convince them that you’re hilarious. And you do that by telling jokes you actually find funny, with conviction. But don’t jump the gun. You have to warm everyone up before you jump into your riskier content. It really just comes down to creating an experience.
And if there’s one thing we comedians know how to do, it’s set a mood.
Not that kind of mood...although Vik did give me some insight into what it’s like to date as a comedian and sh*t sounds pretty wild. So if you’re dating someone funny, start taking notes. First, Vik said that every date can feel like a set — opener, middle and closer, where all you’re trying to do is get the other person to laugh. Turns out I’m not alone in thinking that being considered funny is the highest form of flattery.
However, there seems to be limits on how far funny can go. According to Vik, who co-hosted a podcast on dating back in the day, people you’re seeing don’t love being discussed, or as they might see it, mocked, as part of your content. I can relate because my mom tells me the same thing whenever I bring her up. But the important thing for all of us to remember is that good jokes are good jokes. And if someone can’t roll with the punches, that’s on them.
I could go on about the great organizational and practical solutions Vik gave to mastering the art and science of building a career in stand up (hint: start with improv classes like the rest of us) but he’d probably do a much better job at explaining it than me. So tune in to this week’s episode, or find him on Instagram at @vpcomedy.
On the Dope Ass Podcast, Andrea Levoff and her roster of hilarious, inspirational, and always-opinionated guests are tackling everything from motherhood to fashion to travel and spirituality---with a seriously dope ass lens. But don’t take our word for it. Learn more about your dope ass host and her mission to make everyone see the world through hot pink-colored glasses at https://www.andrealevoff.com/.
This podcast episode was produced by Dante32.