Sorabh Pant is a veteran of sorts when it comes to having the audience in splits and eagerly looking for more. Defining himself as “Professional Comedian”, he, along with Sahil and Kunal, started the East India Comedy, which performs stand-up comedy, corporate and private shows, comedy workshops, besides television and film scripting and events writing. With two books to his credit – The Wednesday Soul and Under Delhi, he is now working on a mythological fiction to be launched in 2017. Game for what life has in store for him, Sorabh spoke at length to The Hindu about his act, his family and his shows when he performed at Kurkure’s comedy festival ‘Why So Sweet’ in the Capital this week.
Edited excerpts of the interview:
Tell us about yourself, your family and your growing years.
I was born in Delhi and grew up in Mumbai, where I changed more than six schools. I cannot say I was a shy student, but a bit of an out-of-the-place child. It is difficult for a child who does not have any talent. I remember a jyotish telling my mother that I will become a pilot and my mother’s reaction was “No, he can’t.”
How did the stand-up comedy start?
I didn’t plan to become a stand-up comedian and never considered it as a career choice. I was writing for television channels like CNBC, Channel V, Pogo, among others. The only thing in my mind at that time was to earn enough so that I can pay the tax. (laughs).
The worst response you received after cracking a joke.
I don’t consciously make a joke on a person, but it happens spontaneously. I don’t go on stage being drunk. I remember I made a joke about a person draped in a shawl with the temperature hovering around 40 degrees. He came up to me and said ‘See you after the show’. After that I did the most manly thing that any guy can do –– I remained in my green room for two hours! (laughs)
How do you prepare for your shows and what is the difficult part?
I write a lot, for long shows like Ghanta awards, relationship advice and sketch comedy so that I cover most of the topics. I like to perform together with Sahil Shah because it allows us to explore more. Talking about the difficult part, it is writing the script which takes most of your time.
Considering the diverse sense of humour in the country how do you relate to the pan-Indian audience?
In cities like Mumbai, Bangalore or Pune, people are aware of stand-up scene and in Delhi-Gurgaon, people are fun. Basically, wherever we go there are people who understand the kind of comedy we do. There are also places in country where we were asked to do shows in Hindi like in Raipur but the show remains mind blowing everywhere.
Tell us about some of your performances
I remember a show in which there were to 3000 to 4000 people who literally mobbed us and we thought we had become famous. At VIT University we received standing ovation six times which was very touching. Any show which has young audience, is a fabulous show for us. The best part of performing is that while in the starting the audience do not connect with you but by the end of it, they are laughing and enjoying as they feel connected. I remember while I was performing in the U.S. for about 22 days and for 19 days there was no good response from the audience. But on the last three days we had mixed crowd and the show became a hit.
