Wayne Brady described him as the most brilliant Indian comedian after Russell Peters! Sorabh Pant, founder of East India Comedy, stand-up comedian, father, author and the funniest guy on stage was in the city for a show recently and shares some rib-tickles with us. “Expect a satirical take on politics. Unlike my others shows, I also take on darker themes like suicide and the cracker ban in Delhi. I speak about kids and losing weight and stuff like that,” says Sorabh Pant of his show held on Sunday. In the month of November, the prolific jokester will be releasing his first book titled Pavan — The Flying Accountant, which is mix of mythology, history, science fiction and fantasy.
Sorabh was about 12-years-old when he saw a live comedy show by the great Johnny Lever, and that’s when the genre hit a home run for him. Growing up to comic fodder from the likes of Cyrus Broacha, Robin Williams, Chris Rock and more, he recalls, “The comedian I admired the most is John Stewart — my professional favourite.” While Pant never really thought he would end up being a stand-up comic, and famous, he reveals, “I am constantly surprised that I am able to do this. When I started off, I didn’t really know what being a comedian was about. It happened purely by coincidence.” Although sceptical of his decision at first, his family has been very supportive as they knew he was working towards something unique.
Pant’s first time on stage was, “A disaster! Actually, during the initial two years of my career, I thought that the audience was out to get me. Afterwards, I slowly realised that they were just people who have come to laugh and have a good time.” The audience sees only what happens on stage, and not the effort and time to bring it on stage.” People assume that comedians just get up on stage and say anything, but the real picture is that we write a lot, attend a lot of workshops and most of my improv stuff is from my life, or was something done before” he says.
Talking about family and life in general, Sorabh believes that balancing both work and a personal life is quite difficult. “Either one of them is floundering. Stand-up is such a competitive industry with so many people doing so many interesting things, you cannot get lazy,” says the father of two, whose kids find him hilarious, though his wife doesn’t think so, He adds, “It is only recently that my wife has started finding me funny!”
Bengaluru and Mumbai are prototypes cities of the best comedy, “Comedy is essentially about creating your own opportunities and I think Bengaluru has enough opportunities which is not surprising as it is a start-up capital too,” he
adds.
