‘If I fail, I have Plan B,’ says stand-up comedian Chirag Panjwani

This Sunday, Chennaiites  will get a different dose of comedy. Moving away from Tamil and English language shows, which is most popular here, the city will get to laugh at Hinglish (Hindi and English) jokes churned out by Gurgaon based stand-up comedian Chirag Panjwani, who is performing in Chennai for the very first time in the eight years that he has been doing 
comedy shows.

“I’m hoping people who come for my show will have seen my videos, so they will have an idea of what language I’m going to be performing in,” says Chirag as we begin our conversation. “I am touring with a solo to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru before I close it in Delhi,” he adds.

Chirag’s current untitled set comprises one observational joke and three stories — about  engineering, therapy and dating. “I have a bunch of driving jokes to begin with, because people usually come from traffic. So, I think a joke is the best way to do away with the frustration and lighten the mood,” he laughs.
On choosing stories about engineering, dating and therapy, Chirag says, “I was just trying to make the show very personal. These are the three stories that give the audience a very good sense of who I am as a person.” Also, Chirag tells us that out of the three stories, one is true and the other two are false, but which one is true and which one is false is for the audience to figure out. “I’ve written one real story and imagined myself in the two fake stories. Now it’s up to the audience’s imagination where they place me!” Chirag says, adding, “Even I am keen to know that!”

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Chirag, who studied in Vellore, is not new to Chennai. “When I used to do theatre in college, we would participate in the IIT Madras festival. So, I am well versed with performing in Chennai, though I’ve never done stand-up here before. But let’s hope it goes well.”

But what can go wrong, we ask him to find out if, like many other standup comedians, he has ever run into trouble. “The worst that has happened is people have not laughed! And yes, I have gone home and cried,” Chirag shares, adding, “It still happens, but then I try to figure out why they (the audience) didn’t laugh. Sometimes, people just don’t want to laugh. Especially when we perform at open mics, we usually have an unpredictable audience. Sometimes they’re just not in  the mood to hear jokes. So, it’s important for us to not take anything personally. If at ticketed shows, where people come after knowing what to expect and end up not laughing at the jokes I churn out, then there’s something wrong with the joke. And it’s only up to me to fix it.”

When Chirag started stand-up comedy, he never thought he’d take it up professionally. “I was doing this on the side while working, and then I was doing my MBA. It’s only been one-and-a-half years since I’ve taken the plunge to do stand-up full-time. I feel grateful that I get to do this. Of course, there are moments when I feel irritated, because I am not sure if enough tickets are sold, and if traveling to another city will be worth it. But once the show starts, you forget about all these things. As far as competition is concerned, it doesn’t feel like some other comic is taking my audience away; it just feels like they’re opening up a new market.”

Also read: Aanchal Agrawal comes to Hyderabad to present the show Chord do Aanchal

That leads us to ask him the secret to go viral, and Chirag replies, laughing, “If I knew that, I would have gone viral. But on a serious note, it depends on what you call ‘viral’. Some of my videos have got more than a million likes. However, the attention span of people is so low that they forget quickly. It doesn’t matter if a million people have seen it, they’ll see so much content in a week that yours will soon be forgotten!”

Chirag  does  have  a Plan B if by any chance his plunge into full-time comedy fails to materialise. “I’ll take up a job again, save again, and come back to comedy again. My heart is here.”

Tickets at Rs 399 and Rs 499.
September 3, 6 pm.
At Medai – The Stage, 
Alwarpet. 

Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @rupsjain