Femina India – August 09, 2019

THE BIG STORY

THAT WAS

umourwasanintegralpart

ofourhousehold,growing

up.Mydadwasalways

funny;inhindsight,they

areallunclejokesnow,butgrowingup,

therewasnevera dullmoment.I recall,

at10,I hadprepareda three-minute

skitwhereinI ordera pizzainthree

differentaccents—Italian,Scottish,

andBritish.Whenotherparentswere

gettingtheirchildrentosinganddance

infrontof‘Sharma’uncle,myparents

wouldmakemedothisbit.Thatwas

thefirsttimeI performedcomedy,and

I evenwroteit myself!

I studiedlawata universityinSouth

Africa,whereI wasbornandraised,but

didn’ttakeit seriously.Aftergraduating,

I movedtoIndiaanddecidedtodo

mypost-graduation.I alsointendedto

dotheatrebecauseatthetime,likein

SouthAfrica,Indiadidn’thavea comedy

scene.TheonlywayI sawmyselfdoing

comedywasthroughacting.I joined

animprovcoursein2005,andwedid

a bunchofshowsattheNCPA.Cyrus

BroachaandKunalVijaykarhappened

tobewatching.Theywereputting

togethertheirsatiricalshow,TheWeek

ThatWasn’t, andapproachedmefor

a part.It wasmyfirstgiginIndia.

AroundthetimeI begandoing

comedy,I gotmarriedanddropped

theideaoflaw.I alwayswantedtoget

marriedbecausethat’swhatwewere

conditionedtodo.Myplanwastobe

a housewifeanddocomedyonthe

sidebecauseit wasconvenient.I had

toshootjustoncea weekforTheWeek

ThatWasn’t, andhadtherestofthetime

toplaythedutifulhousewife.During

thistime,I joinedanimprovcourse

underAdamDow,andwasshooting

threetimesa week.Then,in2011,

I gotdivorcedbecauseI wasn’thappy.

Fortunately,that’swhenthecomedy

scenewasopeningup.Thiswasaround

thetimetheIndianrecreationofWhose

LineIs It Anyway?wasinthepipeline,

andinvitedcomicsforauditions,and

I lappeduptheopportunity.

WhenI wenttotheUStostudy

improvin2013,I triedstand-upcomedy

forthefirsttime.Andtherestis history

inthemaking.WhatI loveaboutour

brandofcelebrityis thatwe’renot

a glamorousone;wearethepeople’s

people.Nothingis keptfromthem,

andwedon’thavetoprojectanimage.

Wedon’thavetoshave,don’tdoour

eyebrowsormoustaches,andwegetto

makecontentaboutit.Yougottolove

it!Besides,thereis spaceforeveryone,

thusnothingcanholdyouback.And

remember,certainpeoplearegoingto

hateyou,nomatterwhat.

I rememberthisoneparticular

showin2014.I wasperformingat

a managementcollegenotrealising

I wastelling18-year-oldsaboutdivorce,

motherhood,andpregnancy.Ofcourse,

thiswasn’tsomethingtheycouldrelate

to,anda fewboysstartedslowclapping

attheback.I toldthemI’dgetoffstage

if theyweren’thavingfun.Therewas

silencetilloneofthemsuddenlysaid,

‘okay’!Infact,everytimeI bombon

stage,I tendtotakea stepbackonit.By

theendofa less-than-funnygig,I end

upatthefagendofthestage!But,these

experiencesdon’tstopme;setbacks

shouldn’tstopyoueither.

I’llleaveyouwiththis—findyour

niche,workonyourcraft,andthe

laughterwillfindyou.Youonlyhaveto

havecouragetoripoffthatBand-Aid!

—AstoldtoNikshubhaGarg

COMEDYWASANINTRINSIC

PARTOFHERUPBRINGING,

ANDSEEMEDLIKETHELOGICAL

CAREERCHOICETOO

KANEEZ Surka

H

We don’t have

to shave, don’t

do our eyebrows

or mo us ta ches,

and we get to

make content

about it.

THE

COMEDIAN

PHOTOGRAPH: OML ENTERTAINMENT PVT LTD