Sitting across from British comedian Paul Chowdhry on a Zoom, it is hard to believe that he was once banned from a U.K. dating app. With his steely gaze, elegant authority, and leading-man presence, he radiates a distinctly James Bond–like charisma.
But unlike James Bond, Paul is profoundly funny—and willing to be both provocative and vulnerable in service of comedy and its ability to help us navigate impossible times.
Over the course of his twenty-five-year career, Paul has become one of the U.K.’s most celebrated comedians, with frequent appearances on British television and film roles in Color Me Kubrick and Cruella. His 2023 run at the Edinburgh Fringe was so popular, he had to add show after show to meet demand.
He tours internationally and his performances are consistently sold out, including recent appearances at London’s Wembley and O2 Arenas. (For scale, the O2 also hosted the Olympics and Madonna’s Celebration Tour.) During Paul’s run at the O2 in 2025, the arena’s calendar featured two names: Paul Chowdhry and Usher.
As Paul notes, “It’s an interesting thing to be playing those venues and then starting fresh in America where I’m largely unknown,” which brings us back to our Zoom—and to his upcoming Chicago appearance on Tuesday, January 13, at Park West. Chicago is one of the stops on Paul’s first-ever U.S. tour, titled Artificial Indian, a reference to his British Indian heritage and rooted in issues of identity and belonging.
But wait—why would any dating app banish Paul Chowdhry in the first place?
As it turns out, he was flagged for impersonating… Paul Chowdhry. Approaching the apps with genuine humility, he joined like any other eligible bachelor. But the women who spotted his profile simply couldn’t believe it was actually him. The misunderstanding was eventually resolved.
Paul kindly spoke with me as he prepared to fly to the U.S. We talked about his comedy beginnings, why no topic is off limits, what American audiences can expect, and why humor remains one of the most effective ways to survive the chaos of our increasingly crazy world.
Given Paul’s well-earned reputation for selling out shows, please read on—and then secure your tickets to Artificial Indian while you still can. Link below.
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A.I.
Teme: Please tell me about the title Artificial Indian.
Paul: The tour had a different title in the U.K. I just wrapped it up in London. In the U.K. I called it “Englandia” because I was born in England. My family originated from India. A lot of people [in the U.K.], as in America, think certain groups are taking over countries. So I merged the two names of the two countries and called it “Englandia.” The promoters didn’t think that name would fly in America, so I came up with this brand-new title because A.I. is the biggest thing in the world right now. Also, I’m British and I’m Indian which is an unusual mix for America, so I might be perceived as an “artificial Indian.”
FROM CLUBS TO ARENAS
Teme: How did your growing-up years influence your comedic voice today?
Paul: I was born in northwest London, so I very much considered myself a Londoner. If I was to go to India and perform comedy, it would be as difficult a transition as it would be for most. However, I do understand the culture and the subculture, and I do speak bits of Hindi, but my mother tongue was Punjabi.
I’m the comic in the U.K. who introduced Punjabi swear words to the mainstream. Richard Pryor introduced the term “MF” in his stand-up. I used an Indian version. I got known for things like that. So I’d say my childhood influenced my comedy quite a bit.
Teme: You’ve said previously that American comedians were an early influence. How did you discover them and why did they resonate?
Paul: One of my earliest memories was hearing Richard Pryor routines on a cassette. We only had a handful of stand-up comics then in the U.K.
There was a “mainstream” circuit where comedians shared [the same] jokes. The “alternative” circuit was where comedians created their own routines and wrote their own material.
So as a youngster, watching people like George Carlin evolve from an observational comic to a more political comedian was quite groundbreaking. Sam Kinison, who was just a force of nature, was largely unknown in the U.K. I was also a fan of Rodney Dangerfield and discovered Kinison through him.
In June 2001, I did a couple of sets at the Comic Strip [in New York] run by a guy called Lucien [Hold]. Eddie Murphy used to perform there. I’d only been doing comedy a couple of years. Chris Rock turned up and I was talking to him. He was already a megastar. I also hung out with a friend of mine, Patrice O’Neal.
In 2007, I was performing in a club in England. That night they needed an opener. They said, “This guy’s in town named Bill Burr.” So Bill Burr came in and opened for me. Then he invited me to his show at the Leicester Square Theatre in the West End of London, the equivalent of Times Square.
I actually just finished my solo show at the Leicester Square Theatre. I did seven two-hour shows there last week.
Teme: How do you keep up your energy?
Paul: It’s tough. It takes a toll on your voice. You’re pushing up your adrenaline and then dumping it. Actually, I started getting a bit delirious towards the last couple of shows because I was thinking, “Have I said that already?” You can’t remember what you’ve already said. You almost feel as if you haven’t ever left the stage. When I started blinking, I could just see lights. I thought, “Oh, I’ve been on stage for too long!”
Teme: What is your strategy for that kind of endurance?
Paul: If I do it again, I’ll find an opener because you start tearing up your vocal cords. I drink hot drinks, ginger, lemon and honey, and take lozenges. The only other time it had that kind of effect on me was when I did the O2 Arena in London.
I did another arena in Birmingham [England]. There were around 10,000 people there. I thought, “I’m not going to have an opener. I’m going to do the whole show on my own. I want to see if I can do this, because not many comics do.” With an arena, you tend to project your voice more to pump up the performance. You feel it the next day.
Teme: What’s your secret to always performing at the top of your game?
Paul: It’s getting enough sleep. The only thing I need to perform is sleep. When your brain stops working, that’s when it becomes difficult.
APOCALYPSE OR NOT, WE’RE GOING TO NEED COMEDIANS
Teme: How do you choose your topics?
Paul: As most comics say, I speak about what I find funny. People say, “You can’t joke about this, you can’t joke about that.” But I think you can joke about anything. Humor is a human condition. So why can you joke about one thing and you can’t joke about something else? I believe anything should be made fun of.
I’ve got jokes out of the most horrific situations of life. I think that’s how we can deal with life – through humor. It’s almost an escape valve.
Mel Brooks jokes about the Nazis. He got responses like, “How dare you do jokes about that!” But why should we live in fear for the rest of our lives? We’re not here for that long on this planet. I think if everyone was more truthful with themselves, they’d find the horrors of life easier to digest.
Teme: What is the role of comedy in times like these when it feels apocalyptic and like the Middle Ages?
Paul: There have always been difficult times and that’s just what life is, in my opinion. I don’t remember living in a time when it wasn’t. People say this is some of the most horrific times we’ve lived in, probably because they don’t agree with the people running the country, but even when other political figures were in charge, it was still tough times. Living through 9/11 and heightened security and terrorism, the Cold War, the AIDS epidemic … Life is hard, you know? We go through ups, we go through downs and navigate that in some way and for however long we are on the planet.
Teme: As a comedian, what is your role in helping people navigate?
Paul: The best messages I get are people saying, “I’m going through such a hard time, I wasn’t even sure I was going to make this show tonight” or “I’ve lost a family member, I can’t cope with life at the moment,” or “my family member hadn’t left the house in months and they came to your show” and then they tell me the show made a difference for them. That’s when you realize you’re doing something which is almost out of your control.
With comedy, it’s so subjective that it’s like music. It’s like film. Not everyone likes Tarantino or Kubrick films. Everyone’s into different things. It’s finding what you are interested in listening to. Some people like ballet, some people like Guns and Roses. I happen to like both.
THE AMERICAN TOUR
Teme: What topics will the “Artificial Indian” tour cover?
Paul: I wrote the show at the beginning of last year, but it has changed quite a lot. The world changes over twelve months, and then the material changes and evolves. The show I performed two days ago is different from the show I performed last January.
As for topics, I’ll work out the best parts of the show for the American market. The show is two hours in England, so about an hour and fifteen to twenty minutes in America. I’m quite happy they’re letting me in the country because Trump has announced he’s going to check the last five years of social media pages to see if there’s any jokes about him.
Teme: I heard one of your topics is the “myth of the good old days.”
Paul: In England they refer to it as “make England great again.” I’m sure you’ve heard a version of that. I talk about the good old days, which everyone reminisces about. My argument is they weren’t as good as people say they were.
I talk about the evolution of internet dating and me being banned. Many things about growing up in the world I grew up in, my Indian culture, my roots, the subcontinent, and finding a conclusion for what’s going on in the world at the moment. At the end, I find a conclusion for the American audience.
AS FANS, WE NEED TO HEAR THIS …
Teme: What’s been your most memorable encounter with a fan?
Paul: One of the most memorable was I was walking down Carnaby Street, which is a very famous road in London. I saw this guy who just stood and looked at me and I looked at this guy. He didn’t say anything, so I just kept on walking. And then I went home and I opened my Twitter account and he said, “I just met you in London and you just walked right past me. You didn’t say a word. I’m no longer a fan.”
And I’m like, “How do I know that you are looking at me because you know who I am?” At least say, “Hey man, I’m a fan of yours.” Imagine if I stopped and said, “Hey man, obviously you’re looking at me because I’m Paul Chowdhry.” And what if he was like, “Who’s Paul Chowdhry?” I would’ve looked even more arrogant if I did stop and say that to him. So that was quite a memorable situation.
The funniest ones are when people say, “You are that guy, aren’t you?” I’m like, “What guy?” And then they can’t remember my name, but they stand there for ten minutes trying to remember, but you can’t really help them because then if you say it and you get the wrong guy, it’s like, “No, I was thinking of Aziz Ansari.”
Teme: What has surprised you most about your comedy career?
Paul: When I started comedy, I just wanted to see if I could get on a stage in front of a room full of strangers, which was the most nerve-wracking experience in my life at the time. I never thought one day I’m going to be a stand-up comedian for a living. You don’t know until you do it, or if people are going to buy into it.
I could have been a club comic, and then you don’t have to find an audience because there’s an audience already there. But touring in your own right, people have to buy into you as an act. When I was younger, I had no idea I’d be in this position at this point in my life. I just wanted to try it once and then I became addicted to it after the first occasion.
Teme: What was that first occasion like?
Paul: Oh, the first occasion was pretty horrific. I went down to an open mic night in London opposite a store called Selfridges. There are open mic nights on a Monday. It starts at eight o’clock, and then you’re on stage at eleven p.m., and there’s been about ten comedians on already. By then most of the audience have left. So there’s ten or fifteen people left in the crowd, and then you’ve got to go up and you think, “I’ve never done this before, and everyone else has!” You get five minutes and that’s a long time when you’re brand new.
People laughed, but I was in tunnel vision – just focusing on the material. I was just saying these things out loud that I’d been rehearsing in my bedroom. But as I was saying them out loud, people laughed and I thought, oh wow, this actually is a high. I couldn’t sleep that night. Oh, and then after the show, I remember a couple of guys from the audience holding up the audience and trying to jack them and steal their phones and wallets. I ran out of the kitchen and tried to call the cops and I thought, “Yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Teme: What have been the happiest moments of your career so far?
Paul: Happiness comes from performing good shows when you’re in the pocket, you’re firing on all cylinders, the improv is flying, you’re finding toppers that you didn’t find before. Sometimes when the crowd is so good, you’re playing them like an instrument. You’re getting laughs, and the laughs become the beats and then you sometimes find a joke on top of the joke. That’s the happiest point any comic can be in, in my opinion.
CHICAGO
Teme: What are you most looking forward to in Chicago in addition to your show?
Paul: I’m going from city to city, but in Chicago I’m going to hang around because I’ve got a few friends there. The music scene I grew up to originated in Chicago. I would say I’d visit the nightlife scene, but I’m probably too old for that now and I’ll have to get early nights because of the shows the next day. I was very much into Deep House growing up and the Chicago music scene literally changed the world.
Teme: Are you likely to be a surprise drop-in at any clubs here?
Paul: I’m going to try. If I have a day off either side of my show, I might. I might even after the show. I always love dropping into the clubs.
Teme: What question would you like someone to ask you and how would you answer it?
Paul: “How do you do this?” is the question I often get. My answer is you’ve just got to get up there and try it because you never know what could happen. If I didn’t try it, I wouldn’t have known what could have happened. You don’t want to live in regret. Whatever you want to become, you’ve got to try to see if you can do it.
Teme: Absolutely anything else we should add?
Paul: I can’t wait to come to the Windy City and showcase this tour. It’s going to be the best British Indian comedy show you have ever seen.
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Paul Chowdhry brings Artificial Indian to Park West, 322 W. Armitage, Chicago
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Doors at 6:30 p.m. Show at 7:30 p.m. TICKETS HERE
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