I stand for clean comedy, says Naveen Richard

Wearing an optical illusion shirt and making over 200 people fall from their chairs with his jokes, ace comedian Naveen Richard recently fuelled a riot of laughter in district150. With his clean humour and a smile on his face that makes us swoon, his one hour of comedy titled Read Between the Lines erased our week-long stress. CE had a quick chat with the comedian before he set the stage on fire.

Tell us about Read Between the Lines.

Well, I wrote this show over a year at record speed! But I think it is one of the nicer shows that I have written. The show is an assortment of some ‘meaningless’ jokes and some ‘meaningful’ bits. It talks about fame, success and how we are choosing the wrong type of success in life. I wrote this before I was married, so I came up with jokes about finding someone and then there are jokes about adventures that I go through in life. I am not really making up stories but I just say what happened — how motivation is all messed up, how I went to Mumbai and did all those shows and realised that I was given a big platform, how I used it…all these things made me write this show.

How did you overcome any challenges you faced in the comedy space?

Every job has its challenges. Well, now I make it look like it is not a big deal but it is a somewhat painful ordeal at times. If you caught up with me over a year ago, you would have seen me complaining and crying about how I don’t have any skills anymore and I don’t have any jokes. I was desperate and started praying and things just started falling in place. Then I got a show and on the day of the show, something happens in the airport and that gives my 10 minutes of joke content! You go through life, you find something funny, you make a note of it in your phone or if you’re driving you just do a voice note and well, that is how I write.

How does it feel being in Hyderabad?

I am a frequent visitor to Hyderabad for my shows. But when I came to Hyderabad around eight years ago, I didn’t know anyone. And for some reason I didn’t have many friends here. But as I come here more often now I am meeting people. Audiences in Hyderabad are very warm. Sometimes it depends on the venue; if the venue is right then they are eager to laugh. They are so generous and not uptight.

How is it working with Sumukhi Suresh and Kenny Sebastian?

Working with each person is different. I have worked with Sumukhi the most and she is like a machine gun of ideas while I am more of a pistol. So, working with her is fun because there is never a dearth of ideas, not to mention that she is very fun to improvise with. Coming up with an idea and crafting the sketch are hard and take a while but there will be one idea that we both like and we simply improvise on it. Kenny and I have also worked the same way a couple of times.

What is your favourite genre of comedy?

I like sketch comedy because there is a partner in it and there is a lot more going on. You are not alone on stage and have someone to back you up. It is fun if you have the right partner and for me, writing comes easily. Improv is too fast-paced; once you go on stage, you get things done automatically.

 Who is your inspiration in comedy?

Brian Reagan. Many Indians do not know him but in the US, he is pretty popular. Another comic I like is Jim Gaffigan, who is a clean comedian but extremely funny. I like to watch them and endorse their comedy.

What made you change your comedy style?

I was doing comedy almost like everyone else, saying jokes in a unique speaking style. I would try to keep it clean to the best of my abilities because I knew that kids were probably watching. Though there may have been those two really good jokes, I got over the temptation of sharing them on stage because I got to a place where I knew that God was watching. That if I had kids, I wouldn’t want to expose them to the internet because of people like me. So I thought, best to keep it clean!

If not comedy, what would you do?

I have been thinking about it. I want to help people. One time, maybe about 10 to 12 years ago, I went to a stationery shop and somebody asked me what I did. I said I studied law but now I do comedy. She said, ‘If you crack one joke people will laugh for 10 seconds and if you solve their case they will be happy for 10 years. Why are you wasting your degree?’ I was like, oh! Some people need real help and there are not enough people willing to go and help them. I want to switch to something in the social service space.

 Story by Shreya Veronica