Romesh Ranganathan Photo: Wikicommons
When British comedian Romesh Ranganathan finally decided to quit teaching and try his hand at stand-up, things didn't go quite to plan.
"I ended up leaving teaching, handed my notice in, you have to give half a term's notice.
"And then three days before I was due to become a full-time stand-up and leave my teacher's job, that's when my dad passed away, all of a sudden, obviously I didn't have the teacher money coming in."
He and his wife Lisa were at their wits' end, the multi-award winning comedian told RNZ's Sunday Morning.
"It was a real difficult thing for me to reconcile, because I put our family in a lot of financial difficulty, and we were struggling to pay the bills.
"But I wasn't doing it for something noble, you know? If I'd been doing it to go off and become a doctor or chase my dreams of curing a disease, that would have been one thing, but to say I've thrown us into jeopardy so that I can say what I think on stage out loud and be paid for it, a bit of a narcissistic thing to do."
Complicating matters further when he went professional was the fact the family also inherited a pub his father had bought.
"He was working as an accountant for this book company, and then he took over the book company and bought it, moved it to near home, because he didn't like the commute.
"And then when he was working at the book company, he was going to this pub for lunch. And then one day he came home and he said, 'I'm enjoying it more at the pub than I'm at work.' So he sold the company and bought the pub."
Photo: Romesh Ranganathan
After his father's fatal heart attack, the pub was left in their reluctant hands.
"My brother and my mum and I ended up sort of inheriting this pub from my dad that we didn't want, and so we ended up running it for a little bit, realising that we had even less ability to run it than my dad did."
He used the experience for his sitcom The Reluctant Landlord.
"The whole premise of that sitcom was imagining the sliding doors thing of, if that guy continued running the pub, how his life turned out?
"Because running a pub is difficult enough when you're really passionate about it. When you're completely indifferent and dealing with the death of your father, I'm going to tell you now, it's impossible."
Ranganathan's life, happily, has turned out very well, and his comedy and television career took off. But he was never entirely satisfied, he said.
"I've not achieved true happiness yet. And maybe when I do, that's when you won't hear from me again. I'm not the comedian I want to be. I've not done a stand-up show that I'm completely proud of yet. Always the holy grail for me is trying to become the comedian I want to be.
"So, I think in the quest for that you keep your edge sharp."
Early on in his comedy career, there was a time when his car was impounded because he could not pay the road tax.
"I phoned up the place, and I said 'I'd like to get my car back'. And they said, 'well, first of all, it's a 500-pound fine, and then for every day that you don't come and pick it up, it's another 150 pounds'. And I genuinely said, 'enjoy the car'."
When things picked up, that was the biggest thrill for him, he said.
"I don't think there's ever been a time where my happiness increased more than when I was able to comfortably pay the bills from doing comedy.
"That was an incredible thing. And nothing since then has given me that increase in buzz. Paying for my electricity, paying road tax with comedy ... that was an amazing thing."
It remained a privilege to earn a living doing what he loved, he said.
"If tomorrow I got a phone call and they said, look, we found out, turns out nobody does want to say you're not very good at this. I would still be happy with my lot in life, because it's an amazing thing.
"And genuinely, I'm not just paying lip service. There isn't a day that I don't wake up and feel very lucky that I get to do this for a living. It's an amazing privilege."
Romesh Ranganathan is bringing his show Hustle to New Zealand in October.
