True-blue Madrasi da!

While Aravind enjoyed performing in the group comic format, he feels more ‘free’ being the only guy on stage because it gives him 75 minutes to interact one-on-one with the audience. He experienced a similar feeling on his visit to Oz. “Tamilians are everywhere in the world, in fact they were really warm and welcoming. Australia felt like Chennai, minus the pollution and garbage actually. The crowd there was starving to listen to Indian stories and jokes, so that worked to my advantage,” says Aravind.

His act is named Madrasi Da, and all his shows revolve around this common theme. “I mostly crack jokes on the traditional idiosyncrasies we Tamilians follow — I strictly do not criticise them, but just mock our old school customs and beliefs,” he explains. But what about the Australian audience at his shows there? “Haha, the organiser himself was an Aussie, but it was actually really funny each time I tried to explain a Tamil concept to him — the way I explained what thayir sadham or Mylapore is, was funnier than the joke

itself!”

While this is the upside, Aravind faces difficulty being a comedian sometimes. “If I wish to convey a message about a serious issue to people through my social media pages, they expect even that to be funny. How can I make people getting evicted from their homes due to the floods funny?” he muses.

Speaking about where he draws his inspiration from, Aravind says, “My home, of course! They washed their hands off me a long time ago when I decided to pursue VisCom and not any other stereotypical course. I’m glad my folks still let me stay in their home and feed me, in spite of them being the butt of all my jokes. And yes, they’ve told me countless times to take up a more ‘serious’ job or get married, but here I still am, doing what I do,” he laughs.