Comedian and author Kanan Gill is ‘driven by the excitement to create’

Stand-up comedian Kanan Gill is going beyond the stage as he looks forward to the release of his debut novel next week. Gill, who introduced the book at Bangalore Literature Festival last month, talks to us about how he explored the path of writing.

While he started writing at the age of 15, he admits that he always felt “overwhelmed by the scale of what I was trying to achieve.” “Somewhere in my twenties, I decided to shift to writing short stories until I felt confident enough to start another novel. Acts of God is my first published novel, but it’s the second one I completed. It finds its roots in a short story I wrote many years ago, but there was a whole year where the idea of the book wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it,” he shares.

The 34-year-old explains the stark differences between writing as a comedian and an author. “Stand-up is conversational. My process is going onstage with an idea and then figuring out the joke. Because the live audience is the ultimate judge, this is the only real way to create stand-up in the long term,” he says, adding, “While these are very exciting limitations to create, a novel is free from all of them. So, while writing a novel, I could expand on any idea, dress up sentences and not worry about having to get a laugh every seven seconds. With Acts of God, I did almost no prior plotting. I only set the goal of writing a minimum of 1000 words per day.”

While Gill admits that readers can expect a “lot more books” from him in the future, he says, “I have no agenda. I love writing. I’m driven only by the excitement to create something, so I do many projects across fields. My fun was writing the novel, and now I hope other people get to enjoy it as well.” Gill also revisited acting last year, making his foreign film debut with Christmas As Usual (2023), a Norwegian romantic comedy. Recalling how he landed the opportunity, he says, “I was doing a show in Norway when I met the director and producers, and it seemed like something completely new so I gave it a shot!”

After an eventful 2023, Gill is gearing up for an even busier year. He’s ready to give things a shot and has a bunch of tours lined up. “I have a new stand-up show, plus a book tour and discussion that’s going to take me around the world. On top of my tour, I’ll also be at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, doing stand-up and talking about my novel. I’m also in talks with producers for two movies I’m writing,” he says, quipping, “I’d also like to get better at badminton, but that seems less likely.”