Comedian Gurleen Pannu always knew that she had a funny bone but never thought she would be making it her profession. “I also asked myself that question – how did I actually land up here?” she says.
The Chandigarh-based comedian, who was recently in the city, recalls that growing up she was ‘pretty fair in studies’ but always knew she had a creative streak in her. “Initially, I was not very interested in performing but during college, I discovered theatre and started participating in dramatics. It was then that I decided to do something in performing arts; not take up a corporate job,” says Pannu, who feels ‘grateful’ that she never got a job after college. “I just got out of college and then I started figuring things out. Then suddenly lockdown happened and after the lockdown I got into Comicstaan. I felt lucky,” she shares.
Being funny in real life and being funny on stage are two different things. For Pannu, her theatre background helped bridge that gap. “I used to perform a lot of skits while I was doing theatre. Doing comedy on stage gave me a lot of confidence. Once you perform on stage, you get that instant gratification, from audience reactions. It was a powerful thing and something which I liked,” she says.
During one of the shows on Comicstaan Season 3, YouTuber and comedian Tanmay Bhat, one of the judges of the show, noted that Pannu’s humour is ‘one of a kind and exclusive to her’. “The style that we are talking about is something that people tell you. The comedian is just seeing the world around them and speaking out about their experiences in life. Comedy is tragedy plus timing. An incident that happened in your life is probably a little tragic or sad. But with time when you look back, it’s funny. So it comes from your personal life incidents and your worldview,” says Pannu.
The 26-year-old has always been very fond of Bengaluru’s cosmopolitan audience. And despite hailing from Chandigarh, she never felt any problem communicating. “If they are coming to see me live, they already have a little sense of my style. But there have been instances in Bengaluru, where audience members have not known any Hindi. I have experienced such instances too,” says Pannu.
