Comedian Sindhu Vee is the latest guest on Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett's new weekly podcast, Dish.
In each episode the pair invite listeners to pull up a seat at the table for delicious food, drink, and unfiltered, hilarious chat alongside some very special guests. While Michelin star chef Angela will be making and serving incredible dishes, sharing tips, and recommending delicious Waitrose recipes, Radio 1 alumni, Grimmy (who put his novice cooking skills to the test on The Great British Bake-Off last year) is sticking to serving the drinks and interviewing their special guests.
They talk to Sindhu Vee about experiences of Edinburgh Fringe, eating slices of pizza to impress a boy and eating fish for the first time as a Hindu.
Here is a 'taste' of what to expect when the next episode of Dish is released on Wednesday, June 22 via all usual podcast providers.
SINDHU VEE & NICK GRIMSHAW ON EXPERIENCES OF EDINBURGH FRINGE
NG: “And do you like Edinburgh?”
VL: “I do I do. I think the Edinburgh Festival is, as a comic, I don't know how I would've made it without having the festival there. And you know, all the practice you get, it's like bootcamp.”
“It’s brilliant. I went to see up there Late’N’Live, which is like going to the Coliseum with the lions, except the, you know, the poor Romans are the comedians, and they'd literally come on in 15-minute slots. And if the audience booed them, they were shoved off the stage for the next one.”
“First of all, these audiences, like I once had at three in the afternoon when I was first starting out, I did a gig, had 10 minutes at three in the afternoon to a husband, wife, and their teenage daughter, they all hated each other. You have those gigs. And then you have spank. At one in the morning where one comedian or person who wants to promote their show will come on and take off all of their clothes. And that's that audience. You learn to play it all.”
NG: “And do you remember like the fear before your first show? Cause I had to, for a Radio 1 thing once, we had to do, we all went up to Edinburg Festival and each person had a different challenge and I got given luck of the draw - you've gotta do stand up.”
VL: “Oh my God.”
NG: “And it was this, I remember it being the most scary thing and I still remember it now, cause it's so scary because it's not like going out to just have a chat. You're going out and I'm funny. Yeah. So, it, it is quite scary. And I remember like just wanting to leave and like genuinely thought about just leaving. How was it for you? How was like that first night? Was it shit scary as my experience?”
VL: “For me, it was never scary. It was from the very beginning; it was this thing I couldn't stop doing. So, every time I died on stage, and I died so much, and I still do, but in those days, I would just get up the next day and go back. Cause I was like, wait, why is this not working? So, I never had, I had a lot of nerves. But I never thought, oh, this is so scary, I don't wanna do it. It was like, I cannot not do this. So strange.”
VL: “Yeah, there was a reason, but for me, the stand-up was just such a pull. And initially when I did it, I, you know, when I, I didn't tell anyone I started doing it now, my husband, not my parents, nobody. But then within a year, when I was doing stand-up in India, she came to watch me once. And of course, there were like 500 people. In India, you open your window and say, please come and 600 people show up. So, it's not like I was a big deal comic. But I did a show. In India, it's crazy. So, the first show I did, it was like a compilation of comics. It was a year after I'd started stand up, I was in India, which I routinely went to so they would take my kids. The parents would take my kids and I could go and gig. And she came to watch me, and I got off stage and she said, “Can I tell you something?” Which is a useless question, right? She was gonna tell me, she always started with, “Can I tell you one thing” and you'd be like, “You're gonna, yes”. She said, “You know when you're on stage, I saw today that you're not my daughter. You are a person on stage who really is your own thing. But when you came off stage, I saw you were my daughter. So, I think you should do this”.
SINDHU VEE ON EATING SLICES OF PIZZA TO IMPRESS A BOY
NG: “Tell me about the pizzas cause didn't you once eat 40 what? 42 pizzas in 42 days.”
VL: “No, 42 slices, just to impress a boy.”
NG: “Every single day? For 42 days?”
VL: “That sounds like Jesus in the desert a bit, doesn’t it? Didn't he have to do something similar?”
AH: “He was fasting.”
VL: “Oh, he was not eating pizza? Yes, that was it.”
AH: “That’s our Catholic grandparents right there.”
NG: “Yeah. Shout out to my mum and dad. So, go, why did you eat? What was the story?”
VL: “Well, you know how you are when you like a boy and you're young… here's what happened. This boy, you know, I, I had terrible- I've always eaten so much junk food. I've gotten much better now. And, and he said something like, you know, I wanted him to like me, I wanted him to think I was cool, and he said something. And I said, oh, I could eat pizza every day. And he said, “I bet you couldn't”. And by pizza, I was in Montreal, so it was sliced pizza, you know, giant slice. Chunky, big slice of pizza, that's what I ate for dinner every day, a slice of pizza. And he said, “Oh, I bet you couldn't”. And I said, “I bet I can”. I thought he would like- in my mind I thought what he would see was just glamour. Anyway, he said, “Sure. I'll bet you”. And the pizza place, it was a dollar for slice of pizza. I went every day, and I was like on a mission. I will never forget you could squeeze it and hold it up and just the grease would just drop on a napkin. And so, I ate a slice of pizza every day. That's all I ate lunch and dinner. So, two slice of pizza for 42 days. Anyway, at the end of 42 days, he was like, you can stop, I get it, you can eat this every day. And then we dated not because of that, but shortly after. He was like, now I will date you. Now I will date you. I don't think my pizza eating had anything to do with. I think my relentless sharking of this guy had something to do with the fact that I dated him.”
SINDHU VEE ON GOING FROM A VEGETARIAN TO PESCATARIAN AS A HINDU
AH: “So, when did you start eating fish?”
VL: “2010.”
AH: “2010. And how was it to start eating fish? Because when you've been vegetarian all your life… big deal.”
VL: “Well, for me, it was a very big deal religiously. I'm a Hindu. We were raised to never eat meat; a lot of Hindus do. I moved to the West and never wanted to eat meat. But when it became medical that the doctors were like, you need to have some animal protein, something to do with vitamin D and my cells. It was a big deal for me, morally, you could say. So, I called my parents, and I was like, ‘I don't know what to do.’ And my mother was like, ‘Oh, shut up. You don't want to die. Eat the fish.’ She was just no nonsense. Initially. I couldn't eat it a lot, it was very strong. But now it's like regular. You know I don't- it's not my go-to choice ever, unless I'm in like, some place where the vegetarian food is, all that kind of virtuous vegetarian, you know, ‘bitter gourd’, I'm like, no, shut up. Then I'll just eat the fish.”
VL: “No, okay, so I have- you know what I've never said this, and my family thinks it's crazy and used to annoy the life out of them, but I'll say it on this podcast. I always say a little prayer to whatever fish I'm eating because it’s given up its life for me. And in another lifetime, we will meet, and we'll have debts and credits to, you know, give, and return each other. So, I always do that. So, whether you have your or don't have your head. You're still having a little prayer. For me, you're a being that's given your life for me, so I like that idea.”
