Spoken word artiste Helly Shah brings stories about love, life, friendship and relationships

Have you ever found yourself questioning a lot of things about your 20s and struggling to navigate through adulting? Well, Helly Shah’s 25 and single, a poetry and storytelling show, will “feel like a warm hug”. She says that this show is about everything you go through while growing up. “It also talks about what dating is like in your 20s, the modern idea of dating. It is a story which people will resonate with, which talks about our country, and how Indians are in general,” she adds.

Unlike most other shows where the theme is first thought of and then pieces are written, Helly shares that the process of this show was completely the opposite. “It started with just one story I was going to perform at the Fringe Festival in Prague. I then realised that this is such a defining period in your life where you learn so much. So, this one story branched out into so many different aspects, and that’s how I expanded the small 15 min piece into an hour-long show,” she says.

Helly has slowly started finding her voice which is more conversational, fun and nostalgic. She says that she loves writing about love, life and everything in between; “mainly, just being human in this world”.

Calling herself an “accidental writer”, she says that books and the people around, inspire her the most. Owing to her curious nature, every interaction with a person leaves her inspired, leads to a lot of introspection and becomes a part of her creative process.

Her inspirations are also something she resorts to during a creative block. They fist thing she says she does is “deny its existence!”. “I go out and live a little so that I can come back and write. I engross myself in a good book where I can live the life of another character. It gives me perspective,” she says.

When we asked her about what challenges she has faced through her journey, she says that getting recognition as a spoken word artist was difficult. “Most people even now do not know what spoken word is. They confuse it with stand-up,” she laughs. After the slump covid gave all the performing artists, she says the next challenge is figuring out what the next big thing is. “Musicians have albums, stand-up comics have their solo shows, we as a community are trying to figure out what is the next big thing for us. Is it Youtube videos, it is live solo shows, or something else?” she concludes.

Tickets at Rs 399 onwards. September 22, 6 pm. At The Comedy Theatre, Gachibowli

— Story by Ananya Mehta