S01E31 Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa, Sinhala/English speaker - From Colombo, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

One of the fastest rising stars selling out venues across European cities, Sri Lankan born Vidura spent his childhood, his teenage years and his young adulthood in small chunks of time in different countries, Vidura is a globe-trotter. To him, Berlin sometime feels more like home than Colombo.

In the final episode of the first season of this podcast, Vidura is our perfect guest to illustrate how conventional definitions of "homeland", "mother tongue" no longer make senses to the globally mobile young population. An accent that cannot be easily located.

Having lived in the United States and reading mostly in English, at times Vidura feels like English is more like his most fluent language, similar to lots of young immigrants who move to big cities for a brighter future, better career and a fun life, Unsurprisingly, these are also the bulk of Vidura's dedicated audience.

A thinker and a prolific reader, Vidura sheds light on his cultural commentary approach to comedy and why he only write jokes that he has emotional attachments to or from ideas he has been mulling over in his head.

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Follow Vidura on Instagram and his website

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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00:54 Intro

02:45 The infamous Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka (no relations to Vidura)

04:02 Vidura’s weird mixed/ Netflix accent

05:37 Sinhala and other languages in Sri Lanka

06:59 Moving between USA and Sri Lanka and Vidura’s first language

10:46 Do British people ask Vidura about his accent?

12:31 Vidura’s audience’s profile

13:49 Vidura’s unique perspective because of his life journey

15:16 Too foreign to be a Sri Lankan

17:40 Wanting to leave Sri Lanka

19:54 More on Vidura’s connection with Sri Lanka and Colombo

22:47 Berlin feels like home

23:57 Not tailoring material too much

26:18 View on South Asian comedians doing the “accents”

29:24 Cult leader look and chilled energy

31:02 Only talk about things he actually cares about

34:38 A habit of reading

35:17 British people trying to seem smart

36:30 Vidura’s way wit words

39:51 Telling jokes as minority/an immigrant

43:26 Vidura’s high-quality video clips on Instagram

46:38 Vidura’s website and social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe