1 of 3 2 of 3 ALOK contains multitudes. The non-binary comedian, poet, writer, speaker, actor, social media star, and a hundred other things defies easy descriptions of what they do—and that’s the point. To them, after all, genres or mediums are limiting.
“People are hungering for honesty. And what's honest is that humans are complex and contradictory,” they say. “To be human is to live outside of easy categorization.
” If we’re already throwing out the gender binary, after all, what other structures can we chuck? Ahead of their show at the Chan Centre as part of this year’s Indian Summer Festival, ALOK found some time in between tour stops for a Q&A—about beauty, book reports, and being a water sign. Happy Pride month! How has your tour been going? Exhilarating. Life-changing.
Having the time of my life. You’ve worn a lot of different artistic hats, and performance—and humour—has long been part of your work. How did you make the leap into more explicitly doing comedy? Since 2017, comedy has been an integral ingredient to my shows.
I used to improvise comedic bits between poems on stage. And soon—I found myself having the most fun doing the comedy parts. So it felt less like a leap, and more like a chortle.
I just wanted to have a good time. Maybe another way of thinking about it is: How did I get to a place where I wanted to have a good time? For a long time, I didn't think that was possible for someone like me. When I look at some of my older writin.
