Comic Krish Mohan Finds The Funny In Political Divides

Comedian Krish Mohan doesn't shy away from topics that make people uncomfortable, or spark debate. Gun control, conservatives and progressives, and mental illness are all fair game.

The comic is bringing his politically charged set to Greensboro when he performs at The Idiot Box Comedy Club on Friday, November 30.

Mohan spoke with WFDD's Eddie Garcia. He says that his socially conscious comedic style is something he grew into.

Interview Highlights

On developing his comedy style:

When I first started it was a lot of jokes about my mom and growing up in an immigrant household and making fun of cereal commercials and TV shows. And I was a big fan of Bill Hicks and George Carlin and that's the kind of comedy that I wanted to do. I always wanted to address the issues, but it took me a while to learn how to write jokes and make that funny. And then to try to involve various different issues that are important to me in my personal life and figure out what's the best way to talk about it. And there's a lot of failure involved, but eventually you get your footing underneath you. Getting to do more socially conscious comedy, it's always a learning experience.

On addressing political divides:

A lot of it is through storytelling. I have conservative members in my family and I definitely lean further left than they do in terms of my politics. But I also have my wife's family [who is] also conservative. And basically after the election - and even during the 2016 election when everything was happening with the candidates - I had decided that I am not going to attack anybody for the way they choose to believe. I would rather sit down and try to understand where they're coming from, and in turn I hope they understand where I'm coming from. Or make an attempt to it. And even if we come to a disagreement we can have a little mutual respect for each other and our belief systems rather than just be at our throats constantly.

On how audiences react to his stand-up comedy set:

A lot of it is positive. I've definitely had a lot of conservatives show up to the show over the last probably three or four years and enjoy what I'm saying. And some of them even come out and say they've never heard this kind of perspective before. And of course there are some negative ones. I think in eight years of touring I've only been threatened to be killed three times, which I think is pretty good. That's not a bad record. (laughs) One guy has threatened to deport me in recent years, which at least they're getting creative. It's not just threats of violence; they're using other tactics. But the negative reactions are over the top. And I think the positive reactions that I get are also very generous. People coming up and thanking me for saying what I'm saying, and talking about topics like Veterans Affairs, or conservative ideologies, and just getting along with each other, and trying to have discourse and things like that. People appreciate that. And when they vehemently disagree, they like to show it by threatening to pull out an AR 15 in the parking lot sometimes.