Comedian Amit Tandon, who calls himself ‘the married guy’, recently released his first solo special on Netflix. The Hindi special titled Family Tandoncies is a refreshing take on family life. With two kids, and a wife, Tandon’s humour is observational and relatable at a universal level. The 70-minute special will have you in splits thinking about similar situations with your parents or your kids. We chat up the comedian to find out more:
Tell us about the subject/topics of your solo special Family Tandoncies.
I talk largely about my family as the title suggests. A lot about my wife, my kids, my parents, my siblings, my relationships with them, the coming of age of these relationships and how they’ve changed over time.
What is one of the most endearing things and one of the most annoying things your family does?
The most endearing thing is they’ve never really complained about my lifestyle because as an artist you know, it’s sometimes very demanding for the family. When I am on international tours, I am away for 45-50 days. My wife shifted the house twice, literally without me. In one case, I was not around at all and another time, I came in at the last minute. She handled the construction and everything. And she’s been handling the kids whenever I’ve been away.
The most annoying thing that they do I think is when I’ve said a joke and then they turn around and repeat it on me to remind me that I’m doing the same thing, that I said on stage about someone else.
What do you miss the most about your family when you are on tour?
I just miss talking to them, annoying them by cracking dad jokes at home which they make faces at, and I miss hugging them because I am a big hugger. I just hold them and sit, whether it’s my kids or my wife. I just miss all the hugs so much.
What made you think that the special will work better in Hindi?
That’s the language that I am comfortable in. I’ve been doing my comedy in a mix of Hindi and English and that’s kind of worked for my audience. I wanted to keep the same vibe. As the reach of Netflix is increasing in India and is finding more and more acceptance, I thought let me keep my material in Hindi. If people who don’t understand the language but are interested to watch it, they always have the option of turning on the subtitles.
Tell us about the experience of taping the show in Mumbai.
It was very challenging. The experience was very different because we were doing it at a studio, so we had to set up an entire auditorium as a set and all of that. The other challenge was that we recorded in August 2019. We were very nervous because in Mumbai rains, anything could happen. We had extra padding on the roof so that we could have enough protection.
We sold tickets for the show, we didn’t do it with a guest audience because I wanted to ensure that there was honest, sincere laughter and not any form of forced laughter during the show.
What are some Netflix specials by comedians that you like?
The specials I like are Paper Tiger, Eliza, Ali Wong. The list is actually quite long if I consider the ones that have come out recently. The special called Lobby Baby which has come out is excellently written. The one by Ray Ramano was fantastic. Just the vibe in that special was very warm. These are just the ones that I recall at the top of my head.
What was the experience of working with Netflix like? Did you have any restraints, what sort of a budget were you working on, what was the production like?
Working with Netflix was quite a learning and eye opening experience for me because the quality of production they wanted from us and the kind of planning they wanted us to do, taught me a lot. Because, at the end of the day, I had to take the call on the director, production house and the design of the set. Everything was my responsibility. In terms of the budget, they don’t spare costs for producing content. That way I learnt a lot — if you want to produce quality content, you can’t compromise on cost. We had a lot of support and guidance from them on how to shoot the special, what to include, what to leave out, and so on. They were great.
What are you anticipating about the release of Family Tandoncies?
I just hope that it’s not just a ‘haha’ funny special for people. There’s also something that I’m trying to say in this special, there is a message and feel to it. If you watch the entire 70 minutes, you’ll get it. I took a lot of time to write and weave it into a funny story, I just hope that people like it and listen to it.
