ALOK‘s Biology! played to sold-out shows across the globe and starting December 18, the comedy special will be available to stream. Executive produced by the comedy legend Christopher Guest, ALOK: Biology! marks the comedian and poet’s inaugural comedy special — and it’s called Biology! for a reason.
“Oftentimes when people discuss biology, they act as if it’s fixed and forever,” ALOK told GLAAD’s Tony Morrison in a recent interview. “So when they see trans people, they’ll be like, you can’t change biology and one of the jokes in the show is anytime someone says that to me, I say, ‘Nice haircut.'”
“The truth is, we’re changing biology all the time,” they continued.
:Biology is in constant motion, and so is life…the point that I’m making in the show is that the real biology that’s being erased isn’t gender. It’s the fact that we die — and when we remember that, then all of this time that’s spent wasted hating other people becomes seen as the true comedy… so it’s a kind of meta-commentary on how, from the perspective of death, most of living is just stand up comedy, because so many people are just wasting their precious time on Earth investing in hatred.”
The special is a hybrid blend of standup comedy and poetry as ALOK, whose full name is Alok Vaid-Menon, challenges binaries that hold us back from true meaning: sorrow and joy, grief and gratitude. They believe part of being human is learning how to hold both.
“I wrote the show because of the political climate facing trans people right now, where it felt like so often we were having to argue for the most basic things like existing — and that felt absurd,” they explained. “I began to realize these times are so absurd, and when we treat them seriously — we’re kind of legitimizing the absurdity… so through comedy, what I’m able to do is to actually say, ‘You think that I’m funny because of what I look like, but what’s actually funny is how hundreds of millions of dollars are being funneled into non-issues, rather than creating a better world for all people’.”
ALOK comedy sensibilities have also been showcased at comedy fests including Netflix is a Joke and Just For Laughs. They said that they learned to be “flippant” from their transforemothers and pointed out that too many people think of a white dude in jeans on stage when it comes to stand-up comedy. ALOK turns their attention elsewhere.
“I think about the history of trans femmes and drag queens in our community,” they said. “For us as queer people, comedy has always been a survival mechanism, and that’s what camp was, and it’s in its origin. Camp was a practice of saying you’re going to disrespect me and might treat me badly, but I’m going to find beauty in this.”
In addition to Biology!, ALOK can be seen in an upcoming episode of the third season of the Max comedy Sex Lives of College Girls and can currently be seen in Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda comedy special on Netflix. They are also the titular subject in the Sundance docu-short ALOK executive produced by Jodie Foster and directed by Alex Hedison.
“I don’t think I’d be alive if I couldn’t laugh, because I would just be — I’m a water sign — I’d be deep in my feels all the time,” admitted ALOK. “But what comedy allows me to do is to laugh at myself…”
They urged us to not give up on humor because “Humorlessness is what loses any campaign for social change.” They point out that LGBTQ folks are often presented as not being able to take a joke as too politically correct, or too serious. “That’s just not true to how we live our lives,” they said.
“We’re always cracking jokes with each other…. that’s one of my favorite parts about being queer, is that every queer party is decorated with laughter… and what I love about being queer is that the funniest people in the world are my friends. And what I wanted my comedy special to be is a celebration of uniquely queer forms of comedy that for so long have been marginalized within the space of stand-up comedy where LGBTQ people are often seen as the butt of the jokes and not as comedians.”
ALOK: Biology! is available to stream for free on alokvmenon.com starting December 18.
