Patyush Chaubey's show is about becoming a father and the ups and downs of fatherhood

Pratyush Chaubey, a stand-up comic from Uttar Pradesh, has more respect for his parents today than he ever had. Why? Because now, he is a father himself and has come to realise how difficult parenting is. So much so, that he has actually put together a comedy special, Papa Under Training, which he is bringing to Hyderabad. 

The show takes after a major change that happened in Pratyush’s life three years ago — he became a father; and his thought processes thereafter. “The show is about the lives of new parents and their struggles, especially in cities,” he says. 

Pratyush has had a very interesting introduction into comedy. “I would watch a lot of stand-up videos on Youtube, especially of comedian Nitin Gupta. In 2014, stand-up comic Apurv Gupta came to my office to perform. I absolutely loved it, and after his show, I asked him about comedy as a profession and open mics. The next thing I knew, I was on stage,” he says. 

Pratyush soon enough moved on to comedy, but the biggest challenge he faces is managing himself and his time. When he was doing a corporate job, he would have a busy schedule, and was being managed and guided all day. When he quit his job, he did not know how to utilise all the free time, and felt like he had wasted two years. 

As conversation moves forward, we ask him how social media has influenced his comedy, and how he manages to strike a balance between content and art, to which he says, “I find it very difficult; I am currently not able to strike a perfect balance. But the aim is to take my art to a level where I would not need to use social media at all.” 

Tickets at Rs 399. September 15, 5:30 pm. At The Comedy Theatre, Gachibowli

Story by Ananya Mehta