In Windows, when we use the Alt+Tab, it switches between different windows. Comedian Ramkumar Natarajan figured that this command best explains his life and the many shifts or switches he has had made. In Alt + Tab — Life of Ram, the artiste speaks about his transformation and life-altering moments that has brought him to where he is now and made him the person he is today.
“I was fat! I weighed 100 kg and there was an ‘Alt+Tab’ moment where I realised that I had to start working on my fitness. Then again, I was in the IT, working as a project manager, and an ‘Alt+Tab’ moment came where I switched to become a full-time standup comedian. There are some more examples, of course, and these are what I talk about in the show.”
Alt+Tab starts from school, where Ramkumar played no sport. It moves on to his college life, and then career in IT. The performance ends with a transformation video of Ramkumar’s journey. The show thus is as inspirational as it is funny. “That is the task of a comedian — turning serious incidents into funny,” he says.
Working in the IT sector for 17 years (2006-22), Ramkumar’s life is filled with ‘Alt+Tab’ instances. He shares, “I was doing some shows in my office, like emceeing, and some comedy. A friend told me, ‘You are funny. People laugh at all your jokes.’ So, in 2019, I started hitting open mics. A year later, in 2020, pandemic brought life to a halt. So, I began putting out some digital content, which went viral. I created a character called Manager Anna, a village guy from Tirunelveli, working as a project manager, and how he handles things and the problems that come his way.”
This is when Ramkumar sat down and pondered: “‘Okay, so I’ve been in the IT for 17 years. And here people are enjoying and have started telling me that I’m really funny’. So I thought I’ll take two years’ break, and try standup comedy full-time. And if things don’t work out, I can go back to IT. That was the plan. It’s been more than two years now, things are going really well, and I am not going back,” he tells us.
The artiste, however, is not letting the 17 years of corporate life go to waste. “I include a lot of corporate humour. I keep in touch with friends who are working in the corporate sector to get the latest news and developments. Accordingly, I try to make funny content out of those,” Ramkumar tells us.
We prod him to tell us what had really happened that he got a reality check regarding his weight. Without divulging much (because that’s part of the show), Ramkumar shares that an incident at the Bengaluru railway station is where the seeds of the journey to fitness were sown. “It made me feel that I’m really not fit enough to lead a normal life. I was smoking, had unhealthy habits, and suddenly it hit me that I need to become fit. Though the incident was funny (you will find out in the show), it did make me ‘switch’ from fat to fit.”
On a parting note, Ramkumar says the beauty of this profession (standup) is that every comedian has an audience. “Even if there are more and more comedians coming into the circuit, all of them will have their own set of audiences. This art form is very welcoming and so is the audience.”
Tickets at Rs 499.
April 13, 7 pm.
At Medai - The Stage, Alwarpet.
Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com
X: @rupsjain