Critiques and suggestions are unbiased and merchandise are independently chosen. Postmedia might earn an affiliate fee from purchases made by way of hyperlinks on this web page.
Article content material
There’s a unusual irony in the concept considering failure might have been what led Vivek Shraya to her true calling.
Of all the numerous components which have been a part of her eclectic profession, Shraya says it’s her latest run as creator, author, government producer and star of CBC Gem’s digital sequence Find out how to Fail as a Popstar that’s the most satisfying.
Article content material
“I cherished doing it a lot,” says Shraya in an interview with Postmedia. “If I may lean into one profession particularly, it could most likely be TV and flicks. There was one thing so romantic and delightful about occurring set on daily basis and having individuals who love what they do and are keen about what they do present up with that type of enthusiasm; with all of us watching the monitor – one individual listening to lights, the opposite individual listening to set, the opposite individual listening to make-up. It’s filled with people who find themselves just a little bit … not proper. It’s like ‘what did you spend your day doing?’ ‘Properly, all of us made consider.’ However it simply appears like such a gorgeous factor.”
Commercial 2
Article content material
After all, the Calgary-based performer has been concerned in so many disciplines over time – music, theatre, visible artwork, vogue, fiction writing, non-fiction writing, educational writing, images and e-book publishing – that it’s tempting to take this proclamation with a grain of salt. However it’s true, Shraya has spent the final couple of years centered on Find out how to Fail as a Popstar, which began life as a one-person theatre present, grew to become a e-book and is now a sequence on CBC Gem with a soundtrack of songs she penned herself. So it does look like the fruits of the varied threads she has labored on over time.

Because the title suggests, the unique premise of Find out how to Fail as a Popstar centered on failure, providing a sequence of vignettes from her early days as a “brown, queer child” obsessive about the concept of turning into a pop star to her realizations later in life that music stardom won’t be within the playing cards for her.
However Shraya says the venture’s lengthy journey from a one-person play to a sequence nonetheless appears like a narrative of success, regardless of its subject material.
“Engaged on the TV present is considered one of my profession highlights, one of many happiest instances of my life,” she says. “It’s odd, as a result of it’s a present about failure and disappointment however I had a lot enjoyable engaged on the profession, largely due to the wonderful forged and crew that we had. I believe the play, in numerous methods, allowed me to work by way of numerous the disappointment across the disappointment I’ve round my profession. I believe by the point I started working on the present it was a a lot totally different feeling. Even supposing I’m a failed pop star, it’s actually exhausting to really feel like a failure whenever you’re engaged on a TV present.”
Article content material
Commercial 3
Article content material
The digital sequence, which she tailored from her play, tells the story of Shraya’s popstar failure over eight 10 to 15-minute episodes. Shot over 14 days earlier this 12 months in Toronto, the story begins in Edmonton with younger Vivek craving to be a pop star. The three episodes supplied to the media revolve round Shraya’s failed youthful makes an attempt to beat the world of Nineties shopping center youth expertise contests and step one towards a profession after hooking up with an aggressive producer trying to change Shraya’s sound.
Younger Vivek is portrayed by totally different actors, together with Adrian Pavone and Chris D’Silva within the first three episodes, whereas Shraya narrates and seems as “Dream Vivek” in varied sequences. Just like the play, the story is informed from the attitude of the now “40-something trans femme artist that boy grew to become.”
The sequence contains a number of supporting characters, most of whom are composites of actual individuals who impacted her profession: her good friend Sabrina (performed by Aayushma Sapkota and Nadine Bhabha) and her producer (Eric Johnson). Vivek’s supportive mom, Chandrika, is performed by Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves.
Commercial 4
Article content material
“Each episode is a little bit of what occurred and a little bit of TV magic,” says Shraya, who got here out as transgender in 2016. “The premise of the present and the premise of the episodes are based mostly on me, however actually leans into fiction as effectively.”
Shraya started engaged on the stage model of Find out how to Fail as a Popstar in 2018 as a part of the Excessive Efficiency Rodeo in mid-January 2020 earlier than it moved to Toronto for a 12-night run that ended not lengthy earlier than COVID-19 shut down all theatre productions. Shraya utilized to a CBC program known as From Playwright to Pilot and was accepted. The sequence went into growth in 2021 and was greenlit by CBC Gem in the summertime of 2022. In the meantime, after the lockdowns lifted, Shraya continued performing the one-person present around the globe. The sequence, which begins streaming Oct. 13, had a hometown screening earlier this month as a part of the Calgary Worldwide Movie Competition.
Shraya is ready to return to her job as an affiliate professor of inventive writing on the College of Calgary in January after taking a 12 months off to focus on the sequence. Her previous work has included writing the provocative 2019 memoir I’m Afraid of Males, which earned her rave opinions and a profile in Vainness Honest, and 2019’s autobiographical graphic novel, Dying Menace, which she created with Toronto artist Ness Lee and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. In truth, since 2020, she has printed the novel Subtweet, a e-book model of Find out how to Fail as a Popstar, a youngsters’s e-book Revenge of the Racoons with illustrator Juliana Neufeld, and the 2022 memoir Individuals Change, which was a finalist for the W.O. Mitchell E-book Prize. She additionally based the publishing imprint VS Books, which helps rising BIPOC writers.
Commercial 5
Article content material
That’s simply the literary a part of Shraya’s profession. Whereas she might have but to fulfil her childhood goals of promoting tens of millions of albums as the subsequent Madonna or showing on the duvet of Rolling Stone, her music profession appears equally spectacular to the surface observer. She was a headliner at this summer time’s Sled Island, has appeared on the duvet of music publications in Toronto and Calgary. Her 2017 Half-Time Girl album was longlisted for the 2018 Polaris Prize. Earlier this 12 months, she shared a Canadian Display Award with Ceréna, Emily Persich, Moël, Terrell Morris and SVDP for Greatest Unique Music, Comedy for the CBC sequence Type Of.
Failure is a relative time period.
“One of many issues I discover myself reflecting on so much these days is that I’m actually completely happy that I by no means gave up on music,” she says. “Regardless that I understood my goals weren’t going to come back true and the way exhausting that hit me in my late 20s, all through my 30s, I’ve tried to search out methods to maintain music in my life whether or not or not it’s placing out a Christmas Diwali album (2014’s The entire Lights), making a Babyface cowl album (2013’s Breathe Once more) or making a band with my brother (Too Hooked up), I’ve been fairly relentless even after I knew my goals weren’t going to come back true. Even making a play about failing to develop into a popstar was one other determined try to try to maintain music as a part of my artwork and my life.”
Find out how to Fail as a Popstar begins streaming on CBC Gem on Oct. 13. A soundtrack, made up of songs from or impressed by the sequence, may also be launched on Oct. 13.
Article content material
Feedback
Postmedia is dedicated to sustaining a full of life however civil discussion board for dialogue and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Feedback might take as much as an hour for moderation earlier than showing on the positioning. We ask you to maintain your feedback related and respectful. We have now enabled e-mail notifications—you’ll now obtain an e-mail for those who obtain a reply to your remark, there’s an replace to a remark thread you comply with or if a consumer you comply with feedback. Go to our Group Tips for extra data and particulars on tips on how to regulate your e-mail settings.