For Sapan Verma, the beauty of stand-up comedy is being who you want to be. Slowly, the right kind of people will find you and you will find your audience. Currently touring India with his show, Shame On Me, the comedian adds that although it’s a fully international show that he performed in London and Edinburgh, he has tailored his set to the Indian crowd by adding more Hindi elements to it — a personal show about what it’s like to be a comedian in the country.
He will be refining his set as he will be touring it. Ahead of his show in Hyderabad, we get to talk to the artiste, who loves how in India, everyone is an audience, especially because of the internet. For every writer, the art involves more re-writing than solely writing. It’s no different with Sapan. “If my jokes are funny, people will laugh. If they don’t, I rework them until they work,” he says. Over the last couple of years, quite a lot of artistes started self-censoring.
Comedy is a tricky space. Most of the time, it is not worth the headache that stems from calling out what’s wrong until said subversively (without naming names) while also getting the message across. Sapan, who has always been a fan of the genre before even making a career of it, tells us, “The whole decision about touching upon potentially sensitive and controversial topics is a major part of my show, Shame On Me. There’s a long story about how as comedians, we have to deal with disputes. Am I ready to take that risk? Or perhaps, the challenge lies in whether a person can write a ‘controversial’ joke, saying what they want to say and get away with it without people getting offended. It’s also the craft for which we get paid. We have to keep fine-tuning ourselves and figure out a way to convey the message.”
We often ask ourselves the most existential question several times a day — if we truly love what we do for a living. Sapan loves being a comedian as he calls it the ‘best job possible on earth.’ And, rightfully so! “In the sense of all kinds of art that exists, you are not being anyone else. The audience is the only decider of your content. The beauty of it is that you keep finding new voices. The reason I chose it as a career is because I love to perform. It doesn’t feel like I am working when I’m on stage! When I’m on stage, that one hour does not feel like work at all. Comedy has given me the freedom to travel. If I feel like I want to go to Goa for a holiday, I put up a show there. The same happened when I went to Amsterdam. I think comedy has given me all that I have,” he shares.
The evolution of stand-up comedy in India has been a dynamic journey marked by the democratisation of humour through digital platforms, the rise of individual comedians to stardom, and a shift in the way comedy is consumed and appreciated by audiences across the country. Indian stand-up comedy has had a significant impact on popular culture, influencing dialogues and even memes.
The YouTube boom happened back in 2012, when Sapan was a part of the East India Comedy, focusing on live shows in metro cities. “Then Amazon Prime and Netflix came in,” he says, adding, “Now we have YouTube shorts and Instagram reels. I think comedy remains a constant but the platforms change. Comedians are also touring the world and even a great deal regionally. Internationally, Indian comedians have performed all across Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Kenya and so on. We’re all global comedians now. It’s an exciting time and I would love to see where we’re headed five years down the line.”
Tickets at `799. December 17. 6 pm. At Bhaskara Auditorium, Saifabad. — chokita@newindianexpress.com @PaulChokita