Comedian-academic Nick Pillow on finding work in Indian showbiz, rubbing shoulders with Salman Khan and gaining overnight stardom online
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 20, 2016)


Nick Pillow was faced with two choices for his traineeship after completing a degree in English and Theatre in England - to teach drama in either Peru or Chandigarh. And since he didn't speak Spanish but had dabbled in Indian literature during college and knew that Chandigarh was one of India's relatively cleaner and safer cities, he chose the latter. Sustaining on a stipend of Rs 8000 a month over the next 18 months, the comedian found himself falling in love with the country. He travelled extensively, visiting Mumbai for a five-day getaway in 2005. He was blown away by the Maximum City's "explosive" nightlife and the contagious energy that Bandra and South Mumbai exuded.

Mumbai meri jaan

Eleven years on, Nick is sitting comfortably in the canteen of one of Bandra Kurla Complex's most posh schools where he teaches Literature and Theatre. He is friends with his barber whom he teaches English, and enjoys drinking tapri chai. He lives in Chunabhatti; taking the harbour line local train to work is part of his daily routine. Interestingly enough, the Brit academic admits that he's managed to find friends with a geographic advantage, friends who live in more hip parts of the city like Bandra and Juhu so he can crash and shower at their place once in a while after a night of socialising. His after-hours pursuits, stand-up comedy to be precise, have earned him the unique moniker of being India's first blonde comedian.

"I was teaching in London. The rent was so high and everything so expensive, I was saving lesser that Rs 10,000 a year. I would never have been able to buy a house or travel the world on that wage. In Mumbai, my lifestyle is better. I can take off to Singapore and Sri Lanka for a vacation without spending 600 pounds on airfare. I've never regretted my decision to move to Mumbai even when it is 44 degrees outside," he guffaws, admitting that despite living in Mumbai for the last four years, he is yet to get used to the heat. When his gora friends remark that he's become whiter than a Norwegian, when people get tanned in India, Nick quips, "It's because I never go out!"


Being Salman's co-star

The heat recently got the better of him while he was filming with Salman Khan at Mehboob Studio for a commercial. "I had got the role on the basis of an audition tape. When I arrived on the set, everyone was a thorough professional. I was even assigned a trailer. Everybody called me sir. I was so sweaty; the make-up man had to do touch-ups between takes. They had to eventually resort to keep a fan directed at my face," Nick reminisces. In the ad, Nick is seen dressed in a Scottish kilt playing a bagpipe when Sallu walks in. The ad follows Salman on his quest to figure out if the Scots wear underwear under their kilts.

Not everything has been easy for him though. "Trying to get even the simplest of things done over the phone is impossible because my accent is difficult to decipher. Also, the way I phrase a sentence is different. When I cannot order food, I get very wound up. I lost my credit card once and I couldn't cancel it," he sighs.

Along the way, he's also figured out hacks to survive Mumbai. "I started taking notes and did a stand-up routine. That helped me become a better teacher," he says, adding, "In UK schools, students form gangs and smoke pot before lessons, bring knives to class and have phone conversations while you're teaching. With them, you have to earn their respect and only then you can teach them. Whereas here, education is a traditionally respected profession, so if a push comes to shove, I know I'm going to win. But I can do a lot more with humour. The students are engaged, relaxed and learn a lot more," he reasons.

Will the real comic please stand-up

Nick notes that there's a new audience for Hinglish comedy that is hungry for intelligent humour. "When I started four years ago, it was all about Indian weddings, Gujratis and car accidents, but now, that's just not good enough," he points out, recalling one of his first blunders during a stand-up gig.

"It started with two, three shows. I realised that there were less than 100 comedians in the country and no one cared if an outsider switched from working with East India Comedy (EIC) to All Indian Bakchod (AIB). There are thousands of me in London, but here, I'm the only foreign comedian. I audition for a part, and get picked because I look and talk a certain way," he says, quick to add that everybody still thinks he is Samwell Tarly from Game of Thrones. His stand-up journey in India has been fraught with faux pas.

"I made a set about how the elephant God had come into existence, and made a conversation about two drunk sculptors who knocked off an elephant statue's head, and boom! That's how Ganesh was born. It was going really well but in that one second, I lost the whole audience. Two hundred people just stopped laughing. When I think about that first year of exploring comedy, I realise that it was neither funny, nor good. It was offensive, and I did not understand the religious connotation," he reflects.

Stardom central

Nick was recently seen in AIB's Independence Day Video: The Day India Resigned. He sports a red British uniform, and is seen interacting with fellow comedians, Utsav Chakraborty and Tanmay Bhat, who had also directed the video. "Honestly, I felt that my role was actually offensive to my home country, England. Making fun of the Brits really works in India," Nick laughs.

His first brush with fans happened after the video hit the one million mark within days. The last video Nick had featured in had been a TED talk at the BKC school and he had until then treated his 587 views of the video as a medal. "I grossly underestimated how popular and powerful AIB was. I knew them as the guys backstage at a gig," he says, recalling the shoot that had a professional cameraman and 40 people as part of the crew. Nick had been running a high fever that day but decided against cancelling on the gig. "Before I got into my uniform, some guy from the unit took my t-shirt. When we packed up he returned it to me and it was ironed! That t-shirt had not been ironed in four years. That's AIB for you, they never cease to surprise."

Today, he is a role model for 16-18-year-old students and admits that the key is to encourage freedom of expression but not freedom of insults. "I don't make any money from comedy, it's all for fun. My online presence just went through the roof because of AIB's controversial video. Unfortunately, that comes with its own conflicts, the social media loves you but there is a huge wave of people who are traditional and find your humour problematic. But I think I can continue without burning any bridges," he smiles.

Now that he has found his groove as a teacher and an actor, does he hope to find love in Mumbai? "I'd be silly to walk away from India but I am too independent for that kind of a life. My mom is secretly worried that I would never come back to England because my spirit of adventure is here. Mumbai meri jaan hain, lekin England..." he trails off, lost for words, "India has given me so many opportunities, I think I might just be the next Tom Alter."