Ask him to say something funny and pat comes his reply, “Paytm me the money first.” Funny, witty and a favourite of South Indians — that’s Aravind SA for you. For someone who started off his career as an assistant director in the Tamil film industry, the stand-up comedian has sure come a long way.
“Storytelling was always my strength. After pursuing film studies, I worked as an assistant director for a while. But then I realised that it was time I grabbed the mic and told the stories myself. Comedians hold a mirror up to society. Though my jokes are very South Indian, people from all parts of the country enjoy them,” says Aravind, who performs at over 60 cities in a year.
Aravind has now been in the industry for over five years and has even signed a deal with Amazon Prime. The stand-up comedian, who will be in the city to perform his special show, I Was Not Ready Da, talks about becoming a viral sensation overnight. “Stand-up comedy has picked up so much over the past few years because there’s easy access to emotions and opinions. Memes, videos and other clips go viral overnight and this will only grow in the coming days,” he predicts, adding, “My first solo show in 2015, Madrasi Da, went viral as my views resonated with people. And since then, there’s been no looking back. Now I do almost 100 shows a year. It gets exhausting, but I love comedy and cannot complain!”
Describing what goes on behind-the-scenes, Aravind reveals, “What people see on stage is years and years of hard work. I write my own jokes and yes, they are all scripted and not improv! Because doing improv for two-three hours is magic, not comedy! I rehearse often.” So are there times when the audience doesn’t laugh? “Yes, but I just move on, and don’t take things too seriously,” he replies.
Citing Vir Das and Kanan Gill as his favourite comedians, Aravind gives some advice to amateur comedians, “It is not always about saying something funny, sometimes you have to be the clown. You are the joke! It’s all about entertaining people, whether it’s in front of 20-30 people at a coffee shop or thousands of people.”
