A basic requirement to being a comedian would be to possess a sense of humour. The rest of course is craft, which can be honed.
It was more like comedy choosing me!
I had gone to see Collin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of the “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” fame perform in Delhi. They have a round in which they enact a situation on stage and get volunteers from the audience to provide sound effects for them on the mike.
I had gone to see Collin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of the “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” fame perform in Delhi. They have a round in which they enact a situation on stage and get volunteers from the audience to provide sound effects for them on the mike.
I was one such volunteer. Initially I dutifully made sounds that matched their story. But after some point I decided to have fun and started randomly yelping like a dog and making crazy sound effects. Brad & Colin had to keep weaving their story around my sound effects.
The audience too was having a ball. At the end of the round Colin said they normally never picked female volunteers for this round since females tend to be reticent. But he thanked me for a good job and said I was really funny and should try my hand at stand up comedy.
That was it. I decided to take it up as a challenge as “reticent” isn’t an adjective people would ever use to describe me!
Fortunately, there were some people there who were running open mics in Delhi and they approached me after the show to try out my hand at stand up. I was on just a week after that!
Honestly, I started doing stand up more as a hobby, just for kicks. It’s only when people started offering money that it dawned on me that I could make a profession out of it!
2. What type of content do you enjoy producing the most and is the most challenging?
I love to talk about life as it happens to me. I enjoy observational comedy because it comes naturally to me and I love it when people exchange looks or high fives at my jokes because it tells me they are relating whole-heartedly.
That was it. I decided to take it up as a challenge as “reticent” isn’t an adjective people would ever use to describe me!
Fortunately, there were some people there who were running open mics in Delhi and they approached me after the show to try out my hand at stand up. I was on just a week after that!
Honestly, I started doing stand up more as a hobby, just for kicks. It’s only when people started offering money that it dawned on me that I could make a profession out of it!
2. What type of content do you enjoy producing the most and is the most challenging?
I love to talk about life as it happens to me. I enjoy observational comedy because it comes naturally to me and I love it when people exchange looks or high fives at my jokes because it tells me they are relating whole-heartedly.
Topical and political comedy is always a little more challenging for me because everyone has a similar opinion about an event, the key is to find a different slant to your jokes and say things about the same event from a unique point of view.
3. Do you prefer digital as a medium or do you enjoy doing live gigs more and why?
Though digital has been more fun than I had ever imagined, nothing beats the thrill of a live show. The adrenaline rush is incomparable. They are there, present in the moment with me, as invested as I am.
3. Do you prefer digital as a medium or do you enjoy doing live gigs more and why?
Though digital has been more fun than I had ever imagined, nothing beats the thrill of a live show. The adrenaline rush is incomparable. They are there, present in the moment with me, as invested as I am.
In digital there’s always the chance of too many distractions and if there is noise in their background, we ask them to mute themselves, so I lose out on being able to hear them laugh. The energy exchange between the audience and artist is completely different, like that of watching a live play vs TV.
4. People, who are interested in taking up stand-up comedy as a profession, do they need a funny bone or they can develop one?
My personal opinion is that a basic requirement to being a comedian would be to possess a sense of humour. The rest of course is craft, which can be honed.
5. How stable is being a stand-up comedian as a profession in India? And what is the future of this profession?
Many opportunities have opened out for comedians now vs the time when I had started out. You hear of more people quitting their steady jobs to become a full time comedian these days. Unfortunately, the pandemic has hit us all hard, more so the newer entrants to the profession who are struggling as live shows have dried up.
4. People, who are interested in taking up stand-up comedy as a profession, do they need a funny bone or they can develop one?
My personal opinion is that a basic requirement to being a comedian would be to possess a sense of humour. The rest of course is craft, which can be honed.
5. How stable is being a stand-up comedian as a profession in India? And what is the future of this profession?
Many opportunities have opened out for comedians now vs the time when I had started out. You hear of more people quitting their steady jobs to become a full time comedian these days. Unfortunately, the pandemic has hit us all hard, more so the newer entrants to the profession who are struggling as live shows have dried up.
However, I am hopeful once all this eases off, there will be a resurgence of new talent in the comedy scene. Thanks to OTT platforms and other digital spaces, stand up has the opportunity to reach out to more people than ever before. We already have shows like Comicstaan, Improv battle, Queens of Comedy, individual solos and many more. Stand Up is here to stay and grow.
6. What impact do you want to make in this world?
Ha! I don’t know about the world, but if someone leaves my show with a smile on their face and honks at two less people on the road, I am happy. If they think about my joke when they catch themselves doing exactly what I was poking fun at, I have made an impact. If the world stops taking itself so seriously and learns to laugh at itself, that would be the genie granting me one of my wishes.
7. Which is your favourite book and why?
My all time favourite books are P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster series. I have read them and re-read them so many times and yet they never fail to make me laugh. Wodehouse is such a master wordsmith, his turn of phrase makes even the mundane, insanely hilarious.
6. What impact do you want to make in this world?
Ha! I don’t know about the world, but if someone leaves my show with a smile on their face and honks at two less people on the road, I am happy. If they think about my joke when they catch themselves doing exactly what I was poking fun at, I have made an impact. If the world stops taking itself so seriously and learns to laugh at itself, that would be the genie granting me one of my wishes.
7. Which is your favourite book and why?
My all time favourite books are P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster series. I have read them and re-read them so many times and yet they never fail to make me laugh. Wodehouse is such a master wordsmith, his turn of phrase makes even the mundane, insanely hilarious.
- Neeti Palta
Instagram @neetipalta
- Interview by - Nishad Kinhikar
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