Vir Das says he's 'nervous' about hosting the International Emmys: 'It's a weird month to be a foreigner in America'

Comedian-actor Vir Das is going to be the first Indian to host the upcoming International Emmy Awards. In an interview with AP, he shared that he is feeling ‘nervous’ about hosting the show. He won the International Emmy in 2023 for his Netflix special Landing. (Also read: Vir Das invites emerging talent to design outfit for International Emmy Awards: ‘Not going to wear a fancy designer’)

On hosting International Emmys

During the interview, when Vir was asked about his thoughts on hosting the International Emmy Awards, he said: “I’m very nervous. I’m not going to lie. I, you know, it’s a weird month to be a foreigner in America hosting a massive award show, you know, in a room full of foreigners in a hotel in New York City. I don’t think it gets quite as timely as that, you know. And so I think I’m nervous about capturing the feeling in the room and capturing the feeling of the country and making it a celebration of underdogs, which is who I think the people who come to the International Emmys are, underdogs.” He was referring the recently concluded US presidential election results, where Donald Trump was elected as the President.

On how comedy has changed

Vir also gave his comments on how comedy has changed over the course of the last five years. “I think comedy turned a corner five, six years ago. I started coming to America to kind of just learn how to be good at stand up in 2015-16, right after this sort of a nine-year stint in movies in India. And you still at that point had to kind of bend to the local version of you that Americans understood, you know? So it was a lot of like, ‘Here’s the five things they know about India and do jokes about those five things,’ right? So doctors, blah blah blah, etc. etc.. And then Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc. etc. and now it’s kind of more important to do you. And no matter where you are in the world, can I take you home with me? Not literally, but, can I – like a (Dave) Chappelle takes you to Ohio, and I’ve never been, you’re coming to Mumbai with me.”

It will also be interesting to see what Vir chooses to wear for hosting the award show. In September, Vir took to Instagram to share a statement where he request interested people to reach out to his team to ‘wear something Indian from home.’ He stated that he will not wear a fancy designer for the occasion.