 You know this is really my privilege here to be sitting with him He's really the king of the stage and I get to question him today So it's it's really a privilege for me to be joining him to I thought I would dress like an entrepreneur Look like low-budget for an actor This is not going to be a sensible chat guys. I just thought I'd prepare you or anyway You just chose it up But you know I think of all the things and great things that he's done I think one thing that we should really give it to him is that he's made stand-up comedy a profession so just give it on to him guys because you know Anybody can just get up in the morning and say that I'm gonna do a great act on the stage and not be able to repeat it Day next and day next and so on but he's been doing it consistently not just in India But across the world all those great acts which has made him we've asked today So we're gonna tell us about yourself. How did this journey start? When did you think start up comedy could actually be a great profession a lifetime profession, but I mean that's a very kind Introduction I think what's very my biggest achievement is then I've been able to do all of that without paying any taxes They don't tax you Did you know stand-up comedy is tax-free guys? It's a tax-free job because it's zero income and That's usually why it works out zero percent GST zero percent service tax because a hundred percent grief zero money Is it sorry? What was the question? It was how did I get into stand-up comedy? Yeah, I mean this could be a profession or not just like an act. I'm I was drinking a lot In college no When I came down to India it was 2006 and I had studied abroad and I done some acting and You know when I came down there were three or four people who were doing stand-up comedy, you know Baman Irani was doing stand-up comedy and Bharat Dabholkar and in Delhi. It was this very Arabia South Delhi golf links India Habitat Center come membership. Hey, I'm our pass Or I'm mehne me do bar jathe hain paansar kakar ticket lekar stand-up comedy dekhne ke liye But there was nobody performing for kids. So that's why I felt like there was a big not like Bacha party, but you know The college kids so there was nobody talking about, you know girlfriends and boyfriends Everybody was talking about bungalows and wives and husbands in jewelry But nobody was talking about Delhi University And that's where I sense that there's an opening here for a young voice in stand-up comedy and stand-up comedy is typically a young voice always You know while you've done some work in Bollywood and probably some films and you've done a great series on Netflix as well But you know you've still sort of remained true to your profession Which is stand-up comedy, which is again what you do most while I've realized, you know You mentioned Boman Irani Boman Irani's eventual goal was to be an actor So is it something that you know that it sort of moves to or translates to eventually see unless you are Salman Khan You can't predict that your film is going to do well, right? So what I like is whether the film works or not on a Friday To me the one thing I learned from like Amir Khan is that an Artist is nothing more than a relationship with the fan base Amir comes once a year. He's like Alfonso, you know So Salmi boy, I thought I like in you you wait for Alfonso season because I'm a picture I guess I mean and he has that relationship with the fans and that's all it is it's a long-standing relationship and With an actor the tough thing is agar Friday co-film Pitkay You have to wait five months to reinforce that relationship with the fans With a comedian you can be in a flop film on Friday and be on a hit on stage on Saturday And a hit on stage on Sunday So why would you not take that opportunity to perform for that crowd and also you can age in the comedy profession? You know like being an actor unlike being an actor jail. I know looked like shit on day one And And and now still does but nobody cares because his brain is good and that's what I like about this profession You don't have to have a sex pack. You don't have to be you know young or fit or on tiktok You can just be smart I make see most of the the shows that I do are for favors So I know so You know it's it's now at a point where I think the real future of comedy in India is going to be Regional comedy and that's where the money is going to be you know Who is the next big Punjabi comedian who is the next big Gujarati comedian and what is their voice? And who are they talking about and that's going to be where comedy will truly scale when you have the The courage that English comedians have but you're able to do it in Punjabi and Gujarati and have that kind of freedom I think that's when comedy will truly be global How much how much preparation does it really take to do one stand-up comedy act and you know make it as you know That they said you can have an excellent flight one day and then probably not so great in the next one If you're writing it about the world it takes a while it takes six months If you're writing it about home, which my new show is it takes three months Just because so much happens in India, you know It moves so fast and you're just writing about like Modiji does something new every week that you can You know one week the currency is gone one week. It's something else So there's constant fodder for what you can talk about as a comedian without going to jail. Hopefully No, no, he's not in the back. All right, that's great By the way, when I said he's not in the back five people looked at the back Oh, Modiji