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Fame is so weird.
Because youre still just that person that made me stand in a bookstore quietly.
She takes a long pause to look at Peter HayessWhy?
Explaining the Holocaust.Hmm, that seems like a lot to take on.
It is a constant companion and you cannot take a break from it, she wrote.
If youre an anxious person, this is what we trained for.
This is our Olympics.
Its like all those nights awake: Its showtime!
All the scenarios at once.
She started taking antidepressants, which, in a way, pushed her to try stand-up comedy.
When I first went on meds, I got this initial burst of euphoria, Nancherla recalls.
I was full of like,I can do anything.
I can be anything, and thats probably what first gave me the confidence to try stand-up.
She performed her first set in the summer of 2002, during college.
I was like, what do I have to say to these people?
Even in those early days, Nancherlas comedic sensibility comes through.
The art I like the most is not as mainstream and not as marketable, she said.
Donald Glover is someone who she sees has having cracked the code.
But I think early on he came up through the system, she says.
Its a critique of capitalism while also being a product of it.
So, its like, okay, one battle at a time.
Today youre dealing with depression, tomorrow you might do capitalism.
Ive always been really bad at office jobs because I have trouble not seeing the pretense of it all.
My brain cant buy into whatever were supposed to believe to get through the day.
For herself, Nancherla is content with steady work that stays true to her sensibility.
Its kind of the dream.
I dont feel like I need another thing beyond just different versions of this.
Weve spent an hour or so dawdling in the bookstore, and pleasantly, no one has interrupted us.
I like bookstores because no one ever bothers you in a bookstore.
you’re able to just look, but no ones like, Do you need help?
the way they do in other stores, she says.
But she should head home, she says, because shes procrastinating on doing her taxes.
Shes dreading it, but she knows shell get it done.
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