Laconia-born comic plans hometown show

LACONIA — He might have left years ago for Boston, New York and then Los Angeles, but at his heart, Tarun Shetty is still a Laconia kid.

That’s what the writer, actor and comedian said on Monday during an interview at a downtown coffee shop, wearing an old NYU sweatshirt, jeans and a Carhartt baseball cap.

He was taking a break from helping his parents pack up their house. P.K. and Shaily, his father and mother, have sold their Shore Drive home and are moving to Tampa, Florida. Once they leave, Tarun will lose the reason for recurrent visits to his native city. But first, he has scheduled a show for the community that he feels grateful to have grown in.

Shetty will be headlining a night of standup comedy on Aug. 25, at The Margate Resort’s Blackstone Lounge. His act will be preceded by comedians Rafi Gonzalez and Greg Boggis. It will be the first time that he has performed in any leading capacity in his native city.

Shetty, 39, attended Laconia schools through his freshman year of high school, then attended Holderness School, and then studied filmmaking at Boston University and New York University.

Even before he went off to college, though, Shetty had started working toward his goal of a career in entertainment.

“I started writing sketches when I was 12 or 13,” he said.

At the time, Adam Sandler, who grew up in Manchester, was a cast member on Saturday Night Live. If Sandler could do it, so could he, Shetty figured.

As soon as he could, Shetty found his way onto a stage.

“I started doing comedy when I was 19, in Boston,” he said. Boston was a “very supportive” environment. That served him well because, when he transferred to NYU, he had the courage to work the door for a comedy club in exchange for stage time. He got as much of an education there as he did in the classroom, he said, because he was seeing the likes of Dave Chapelle, Bill Burr and Kevin Hart hone their comedy before they became stars.

Also at NYU, he started making films and working in television. He was hired to produce a weekly show about Bollywood — India’s film industry, typified by elaborate musical films — for a station marketed to Indian-American viewers. which eventually led to him working with a director on a web series and to produce a feature film he starred in, “Bobby Khan’s Ticket to Hollywood,” which is currently available for streaming on Amazon.

Since then, Shetty has found work on television, as a guest on a couple of series and playing a role in a couple of pilots, and in commercials.

These days, Shetty is doing standup comedy and creating a series of personable, humorous travel videos. Each “Tarun’s Thoughts” episode focuses on a town that Shetty has an interest in.

The travel series showcases Shetty’s easy but energetic persona, and allows him to indulge his natural curiosity about the many different and distinct cities and towns he considers worth exploring. He spends a day walking, exploring and talking to people he encounters, all the while filming with just an iPhone. Then he edits his footage, leaving nine-tenths of the recording behind and publishing a brief, four- to five-minute compilation that is equal parts amusing and insightful.

He’s been getting a great response from each video, and he is focusing much of his creative energies on shaping them. They might just lead to the next phase of his career — but for now, he’s just trying to make them as good as they can be, and building a following for them on social media.

In June, Shetty published a “Tarun’s Thoughts” about his hometown, and Facebook users responded with enthusiasm. The Laconia episode has nearly 500 shares and has been viewed 24,000 times. After such a response, he decided to come back to Laconia for a comedy show.

Living and working in L.A., Shetty said it’s not uncommon for him to perform at a comedy club where the top names in the business are in the audience, or going onstage after him. That type of environment propels him, he said, and keeps him focused on improving every aspect of his act. “It makes you hustle hard,” he said. “Being around the best advances your game.”

But there’s a different kind of pressure for the show at the Margate, where he will be performing for people he grew up with, or even babysat. He’s been writing like crazy, hoping to have a solid 10 to 20 minutes of material specific to the Laconia crowd.

“I want them to have a good time,” he said.

Laconia was a great place to grow up, he said.

Though most people know his father as an eye surgeon, P.K. has an artistic side, Shetty said. “He loves singing — you go home, and he’s always singing Bollywood songs,” he said.

His mother is also creative, with a passion for interior design.

P.K. and Shaily passed their creative genes on to their three boys. Neil, the oldest, is an executive at an information technology firm but plays in a band on the side. Kunal, the youngest, is also an actor in L.A.

Tickets for the Aug. 25 show, which are going fast, are available for $20 each through eventbrite.com. Any remaining tickets will be sold for $25 at the door. The show starts at 8 p.m.