College

I didn't go on my first date until I was like 22. I'm not ashamed to say that. I don’t really care what anybody thinks about me and am honest about everything. When I was in college, all I did was hang out at comedy clubs, write jokes, tell jokes. I wanted to absorb everything I could about stand-up comedy and thought that everything else would slow me down. (I see that same hunger amongst new comedians in L.A., and they seem sociopathic to me.) I remember I was in a dorm elevator, a girl followed me and tried to start a conversation. She was super pretty. Some girl from Dubai who had this long curly hair and giant blue eyes. I smiled politely before walking away. While my peers were getting blackout drunk I was sitting in the back of the Comedy Connection, hoping the booker would notice me. An NYU professor once drilled me and kicked me out of class because I was so far behind on my work. He said I wasn’t taking “creative arts” serious enough. What he didn’t know was that I was working the door at a comedy club the night before and got the esteemed, 1:15 a.m. slot.

The real adults I hung out with were intriguing. They weren’t the Indian doctor and tech engineers who I was surrounded by at my parent’s Indian parties. Some had drug problems, some never finished high school, but they were all on this journey, which tests your human spirit in front of drunken strangers. I wonder if it’s a pathological disorder or maybe we all weren’t hugged enough as children? I was a spoiled prep school kid mixed in with a pack of wolves. It felt right. Which is weird to me now because how can anyone know what they want when they are 19?

I wish i lost my virginity in college, I wish I partied, I wish I had my first girlfriend. I wish I spent time doing anything other than comedy. These are all ephemeral dreams. I made decisions based upon how I felt in that moment in time.

SUCCESS is an ambiguous word. However, I think real life experiences make an artist’s work more complete like a piece of iron being shaped by a blowtorch. I still fantasize about moving to Montana and living in a log cabin off the grid.

Every step is the right step. Not trying would have been far worse, I think.