Femina India – August 09, 2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1
“IFYOUWRITE
10 JOKES
TODAY,SIX
ORSEVEN
WILLNOT
WORK.THATIS
THEPROCESS
OFJOKE
WRITING.YOU
DOMULTIPLE
VERSIONS
OFMULTIPLE
JOKES,BEFORE
ITACTUALLY
BECOMES
FUNNY.”

why her approach now is to make other people
call me, and give lucrative offers,” Singh laughs.
Since her father has been the biggest
influence in life, Singh says that had he
been around, she would have had a tougher
conversation with herself, constantly jostling
with the thought whether he would have
been happy with her career shift. Her mother,
thankfully, was milder. “It was a legitimate
concern on her part, since our parents have
spent all their lives finding stability, and now
both her kids are foraying into fields that she
perceived as financially uncertain. (Singh’s
brother is dabbling in music.) I made the move
only when I could give her the assurance of
financial stability,” she says.
And these are the things Singh compiles
her acts on. At the end of one of her
performances, she mentions to the people
that if they accidentally stumble upon their
truth, like she did, she hopes they have the
courage to live it and face it. Does she have any
advice for such youngsters? “I have immense
empathy for anyone who is still thinking about
switching professions. I am nobody to question
anyone sitting on the fence. The concern is
valid, especially for someone with too many
responsibilities. What we forget is that we are
not happy. Most of my generation works like
that, we get great jobs we are not happy doing,
but in the evening, we will go drink, and on
weekends we’ll go shop, and try to manufacture
that happiness for us. But it doesn’t work that
way. This is where you need to dig a little
deeper, then decide.”
Ask Singh to imagine a scenario where
the audience is not reacting well to her


jokes, and pat comes her reply, “I don’t have
to imagine, it happens a lot! Early on in my
career, I recall once I drove down to Navi
Mumbai for a gig. At the time I was doing
well, not ‘bombing’ too much, and had
prepared a safe set. Three minutes into the
act I realised there is no saving grace, and
by the eighth minute I had tears in my eyes,”
she narrates, saying no matter how much she
deconstructed it, she would not be able to
pinpoint the reason.
“That’s the nature of comedy. At open mikes
and trial gigs, you realise that if you write 10
jokes today, six or seven will not work. That
is the process of joke writing. You do multiple
versions of multiple jokes, before it actually
becomes funny.” As a new comic, it used
to affect her to the point that she would be
bogged with the thought. Now, she is more
secure, and has learned to distinguish the
fact that when the audience does not laugh,
it is simply rejecting the joke, not the person.
Slowly, she mentions, one also learns that
a good gig affects you similarly. “I need
to remind myself that it is just my work.
Tomorrow will be a new day.”

Shooting straight
What’s your trick to get the audience to
warm up to you?
It’s a tip, not really a trick. Once we get into
the script it is difficult to break out of it, so it’s
better to talk to people at the beginning, and
build yourself as a person rather than
a joker. Make friends with the room, and find
the people you are going to crack the jokes on.
People love insults when they’re not on them.
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