{"id":1182,"date":"2012-04-28T11:23:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T11:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2012-04-28T11:23:15","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T11:23:15","slug":"anyone-telling-girls-to-be-ladylike-in-this-age-needs-a-smack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/anyone-telling-girls-to-be-ladylike-in-this-age-needs-a-smack\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Anyone telling girls to be ladylike in this age needs a smack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WHO: <\/strong><em>Daughter of an air force pilot, stand-up comedian Radhika Vaz was born in Mumbai and moved to New York in 2001. She created and performs her one-woman comedy routine Unladylike: The Pitfalls of Propriety.<\/em><br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1185\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1185\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/phychology.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1185\" title=\"Radhika Vaz, 39, Comedian\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/phychology.jpg\" alt=\"Radhika Vaz, 39, Comedian\" width=\"250\" height=\"454\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1185\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Radhika Vaz, 39, Comedienne<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>How did you get to be a stand-up comedian?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt probably came from being surrounded by people who had a good sense of humour about themselves and life, and who appreciated a good joke. And so, to get their attention I had to be funny too.<br \/>\n<strong>What do you think of the term \u2018lady\u2019?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s just old-fashioned and silly. Anyone telling their daughters to be \u2018ladylike\u2019 in this age needs a smack.<br \/>\n<strong>Is your audience mostly men or women?<\/strong><br \/>\nDefinitely more women. I do get a lot of guys from time to time. Guys dragged there by their women!<br \/>\n<strong>How do men react to you off the stage?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe smart ones get it. Others think I shouldn\u2019t be \u201cso over-the-top\u201d. Hey, not everyone is going to love me, right?!<br \/>\n<strong>What are you like off the stage?<\/strong><br \/>\nA wound-up, high-strung, naggy old cow. Recently I bought two books by Osho. I\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll teach me to calm the f**k down.<br \/>\n<strong>Where do you get the material for<em>\u00a0Unladylike<\/em>?<\/strong><br \/>\nFrom my life. I have a piece about my delayed puberty. I was probably the last girl in my dorm to get her period or wear a bra (or it felt like I was). It made me wonder if I was a proper woman in the first place.<br \/>\n<strong>It\u2019s easier for men to embarrass themselves for a laugh. Women are supposed to be \u2018dignified\u2019.<\/strong><br \/>\nAbsolutely! I address this in my show too. We are expected to be \u2018ladies\u2019! Dignified, pretty, perfumed, all our dirt hidden behind a veil. I got beyond that because I was raised by two people who clearly thought \u2018dignified behaviour\u2019 was overrated! They never made me feel that as a girl I had to speak or act a certain way. I was a spoilt little sh*t, running about, shooting my mouth off.<br \/>\n<strong>Where do you find a better or easier audience? New York or Mumbai?<\/strong><br \/>\nI can\u2019t choose \u2014 it\u2019s like picking a favourite child. Both cities have similar vibes and people.<br \/>\n<em>Aradhna Wal is a Sub-Editor with Tehelka.\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:aradhna@tehelka.com\">aradhna@tehelka.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHO Daughter of an air force pilot, stand-up comedian Radhika Vaz was born in Mumbai and moved to New York in 2001. She created and performs her onewoman comedy routine Unladylike: The Pitfalls of Propriety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":51376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[7051,7064,7065,7066,7067,7068,7069],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}