Q&A: Vijai Nathan

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IT'S TEATIME IN the 'burbs, and two dainty women in saris are throwing down. "My Lakshmi has multiple houses, in Delhi, London, Paris and Manhattan," the first says smugly. The second counters, "Yes, well, Veena has multiple ... multiple orgasms."

The victor is comedian Vijai Nathan's ultra-conservative mother, and the short film, "Chai Noon," is a glimpse of the deadpan humor Nathan turns on matters of family, sex and growing up as a good Hindu girl with a weakness for McDonald's. Nathan's new one-woman show, "McGoddess: Big Macs, Karma, & the American Dream," comes to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

» EXPRESS: You grew up in a community where you were one of few minorities. How did that influence your early experiences with performing?
» NATHAN:: I grew up in Gaithersburg and Potomac. My school was mostly white and mostly Jewish. I really wanted to fit in, so I tried out for all the plays and musicals. I got my first break in the fourth grade, when I was cast as Martin Luther King. Later, in a musical about oral hygiene, I was cast as tooth decay.

» EXPRESS: How has the reaction to your acts been from the Indian community?
» NATHAN: When I started out [in 1996], I wanted to get Indians to come see me, but it was really hard. ... Other Indians couldn't conceive of an Indian girl doing this. I'd say I was going to have a show and they'd be, like, "Oh, are you going to dance? You're just going to talk?"

Now there are more Indian comedians. Vidur Kapur, who is Indian and gay — I've done shows with him. And then there's Russell Peters. He's been doing stand-up for about 18 years.

» EXPRESS: Your first one-woman show, "Good Girls Don't, But Indian Girls Do," dealt with your family. What about your new show?
» NATHAN: My new show deals a lot with race, religion and beliefs. My mother is a very superstitious Hindu; my dad was an atheist or an agnostic, depending on the day. My sister is a born-again Christian. Growing up, we were very Hindu. We would go to temple, and as soon as we left the temple we would secretly go to McDonald's and eat Big Macs. I asked my mom, "How can we be Hindu and eat beef?" She'd say, "The cow is sacred, the bull is not. And McDonald's is pure bull."

» EXPRESS: You joke about your mom a lot. Do you get compared to Margaret Cho?
» NATHAN: We are both women, non-white women, talking about our families, but every comic talks about their family. The comedians I most wanted to be like as a kid were Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. They invited me into these worlds which were totally foreign to me, and I couldn't believe how they made me feel so connected to them.

» UMd. Clarice Smith Center, University Boulevard and Stadium Drive, College Park; 301-405-2787.

Written by Express contributor Shauna Miller
Photo courtesy Suresh Manjanath