After three years of working with an IT company, Sundeep Rao decided he’d had enough. “It was either switching to stand-up comedy or committing suicide,” jokes one of India’s funniest men, who was in the city recently to entertain a select audience at The Leather Bar at The Park. Never a fan of corporate culture, Sundeep made his debut at Vir Das’ amateur night and ever since there’s been no looking back. With a repertoire of jokes up his sleeve, the comedian prefers performing to a live audience over doing sketches on YouTube.
But it wasn’t always this good. “My jokes were rubbish when I first started out. It took me some time to realise that I was too uptight and robotic; I just wasn’t natural on stage. Today though, things are different. The transition has been good; though I wouldn’t rule out scope for improvement,” he confesses.
“The Chennai audience was good fun. They were willing to put themselves out there and were good sports,” he says. Yet, stand-up comedy is still in its nascent stages here, he thinks. “The crowd needs a different exposure. They are very used to comedy with a local flavour, which is good; but the city needs to evolve some more, so local and national stand-up comedians can co-exist,” he says.
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Describing his brand of humour as edgy, slightly offensive, honest and unfiltered, Sundeep says he draws inspiration from life, his imagination and experiences. “Most of my jokes work with the crowd I perform for. Especially jokes on celebrities, politicians and television. There are some who enjoy funny insights into relationships and on travel. But as a country, we are not yet entirely comfortable laughing at ourselves; we are okay with laughing at others though,” he says.
The stand-up comedian, who loves travelling across the country, making a different set of audience laugh each night, has a couple of tailored hit shows that have been doing well — Out of Sight and Blurred Lines. “I never want to stop doing shows. I like that I have to put myself out there, it gives me more visibility and I find it more satisfactory to perform for large live audiences instead of just for fans on YouTube,” he says.
Sundeep confesses that stand-up comedy is also a therapeutic outlet for him. “I can get things off my chest on stage; things about society that frustrate me. It also gives me a platform to talk about my eyesight or lack of it. While I initially skirted around the issue, today I can laugh at myself. A lot of the issues I face as a partially blind person can be translated into comedy. It is more healing that way,” says the comedian, who has juvenile macular degeneration.
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A fan of Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle and Jim Jefferies, Sundeep says he likes honest comics himself. “I like comedians who bring a little vulnerability on stage. Then again, I also enjoy watching acts that are surreal with an element of fantasy for the audience,” he smiles.