Shashi Tharoor shared a "sneak preview" of his act on "One Mic Stand".
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who often has people reaching out for the dictionary with his rich vocabulary and esoteric phrases, will soon be seen in a new role - stand-up comedy.
Wednesday, Mr Tharoor shared a "sneak preview" of his act on "One Mic Stand", a comedy show on online streaming platform Amazon Prime. Within two hours, the clip had been viewed over 60,000 times on Twitter. The full episode will premiere on November 15.
The series One Mic Stand challenges five celebrities to go up against five professional comedians in front of a live audience. Mr Tharoor is paired with popular comedian Kunal Kamra.
The minute-long clip shared by the Congress MP shows him dressed in a long white kurta, a gold waistcoat with the Indian national flag pinned on it.
The teaser features a short clip from his act where he is seen making self-effacing jokes about his vocabulary and his use of "complicated words". In the clip, he says "anything I say is assumed by people to be more complicated than it really is", backing it with a real-life example where he pokes fun at himself.
"I had a normal childhood like all of you guys, my parents embarrassed me too when guests came over and said Shashi, Uncle ko angrezi bolke sunao na," he says.
The clip received several comments praising the politician for both his humor and his ability to laugh at himself. The post got over 10,000 likes in two hours.
Replying to journalist Shekhar Gupta's tweet on the show, Mr Tharoor had earlier said, "Not a new career move, folks! Just a one-off session, recorded months ago in front of a live audience made up mostly of Millennials. I did about 25 mins of stand-up, of which they will broadcast 6 to 8 mins, I believe. Don't know if my political jokes have made the cut...."
The first season of the show stars an array of Indian stand-up comedy stars like Sapan Verma, Rohan Joshi among others who will go up against celebrities including actors Taapsee Pannu and Richa Chadha, singer Vishal Dadlani.