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Comedian Sahil Shah, who is known to hold an impeccable catch on the observation comedy, is back with one of his most introspections, which is still broken. The 34 -year -old comedian, who has done more than 1500 shows in New York, London, Toronto, Nairobi, Singapore and Dubai, spoke about his transition and importance of mental health as an artist with Hindustan Times.
He also recently touched the controversy around Kunal Kamra, who allegedly excavated in Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and called him the ‘traitor’, a leading ‘traitor’ for the barbarity of his stand up habitte studio. Sahil also gave two cents about comedian Ads Raina about India, which caused a latent controversy, where podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia’s parents joked him in a big trouble. Sahil insisted on how the audience can help in the Indian comedy scene during indefinite time.
Excerpt from interview:
Tell us about your latest standup comedy show on YouTube, broken.
This is a comedy show about me that is about breaking and all steps I am taking to fix myself. This is a deep personal show and I have been working on it for five years. My first special childish behavior was, so the broken was an opponent, saying, see, I am no longer childish. As such as Kovid, and my mental health went up and down, I started coming into existence, which eventually formed the show. A large part of the show is also about my dog and cat.
Did you convert your existence crisis into a comedy special?
Comedy is the biggest form of catarsis. If a comedian has a break up, there are two ideas. The first idea is, ‘Oh my God, I am heartbreak “, the second idea is’ Wow, what a joke will be meme’ (wow, what a wonderful joke will come out of it). So as I was feeling all these feelings in the lockdown, I started writing them and the more I wrote about it, I felt that it would be fun to speak about mental health, the more sad I feel as I am feeling.
What is your process when you come with jokes on everyday conditions?
So let me give you a great example. I was talking to my doctor saying that I do not think I have achieved a lot in my life and my doctor said, Oh look at Vincent Van Gogh, he became famous after death. And I told him that you have given me the worst advice, stating the clear irony of the situation. Even after some time he realized and said, almost panic, ‘No no. I am not saying that you have to die to be famous’. The moment he said, I wrote it that it is such a joke that my doctor also thinks that you will probably be famous after you go! So when something like this happens to me, I think what has happened to me and the next thing is that I can turn it into a joke.
You mentioned in the previous interview that comedy should be taken as an art form and not as danger. Why do you think people are taking it as danger?
So let us keep it in this way, comedy works on a very simple thing called reference. If you were watching a comedy show Live, you will understand that when I am performing and I am cracking my jokes, they are not coming from the place of Malis, there is no hidden agenda, no one has given me money to say what I want. My jokes are coming from a place where I want to express my feelings.
Now, for example, yesterday, I am joking on a physician, fictionally, and a group of physician gets angry, at that time I will be like you are getting angry? I am not trying to threaten you. This does not mean. I was talking about my journey and my thoughts. As an artist I believe that we all allow ideas, ideas and if you disagree with my thoughts and opinions, you are allowed to disagree. But if it is becoming aggressive or violent to you, then this is where it becomes problematic because we are not threatening anyone, we are breaking jokes, this is not a hatred speech.
But what crime people can commit, we do not know. In fact, this is a scary time as an artist, where tomorrow, for example, if you are writing this column, but you were afraid or were afraid that you want to say things, but you think I can’t or maybe I should not.
Have you interacted with fellow comedians like Kunal Kamra, Samay Raina or Ranveer Allabia for that case?
I do not know Ranveer personally, but with Kunal and Samay, I messaged him and I have talked to him. And look, I cannot do anything other than being there for my fellow comics. I sent a message, which is ‘All Good’, ‘Hope All Good’.
You also mentioned that there should be viewers for artists. What do you really expect from the audience?
I do not hope that the audience will do anything. If someone comes to vandalism, the audience will run. No one is going to stand. I agree, I accept. I am saying, online, support that person, this is this. Yesterday, I have given you a joke on dogs and PETA gets angry at me, I want people to stay there and say that no one was joking. He has a dog, he is talking to experience, I don’t think he means hatred, we support him.
People do not understand this but everyone is affected by it. This is not only about Kunal Kamra, but the residence also stopped, the livelihood of the people working there, what did they do? Nothing. Their livelihood is being affected. We now have no site to perform.
How do you think online support will help in comedy scene in India?
I will be honest, no dispute is a bad dispute. People feel that silence is a very good tool but silence can work in another way. On the one hand, if you are telling someone that hey, now we will never let you perform, when the person goes and performs in a foreign country, they are going to sell. The more you try to stop you from doing something, the more people would like to do it. This is very simple.
Look at Kamra’s YouTube channel, see the amount of super thank you that she has received. I have recently sent someone 10,000 said that ‘brother continue to fight well’. So this is what I mean by support. You are financially supporting someone who can lose your opportunity. When they start touring, you are supporting someone by purchasing tickets. When they are down, you support them emotionally by sending them a message. We are nothing without our audience. We are just people who talk. If tomorrow my audience stops coming for my show, it does not matter what I do, my support has gone forever.
Even the audience is harmed when something like this happens, as they are being questioned.
It was unexpected. I don’t think the site thought it would break. We are living indefinitely. You do not know what and what will react to legitimate reasons. What Kamra said, he would have hurt someone, and he has reacted because of this, maybe how they reacted to them is valid but it is not valid for us. The coin has two sides. So as an audience, I am saying that things will start again. The shows are still going on. The habitat will return again. When this happens, see the show, support the artist.
As an artist, how important is it to be fearless to you?
It completely depends on what you stand for. Kamra is super fearless, it is doubling. His Tamil Nadu is the most funny thing that I have ever heard. (In a viral audio clip, Kunal Kamra was allegedly threatened by a person who was asking his address but the comedian told him that he is in Tamil Nadu)I am also fearless in the subjects that I am dealing with. As a comedian, you get to decide what subjects you want to deal with. Fear comes from ‘I don’t think I can talk about it’. I want to talk about death, it is more important to me.
When I talk about support, I would also like to mention that if someone is canceled or someone is threatened, Ranveer said that his family is threatened, you have to understand that the mental health of these people will also be one all time. A simple message, I love what you do, I will always stay there for you, buy tickets 10 times more, although buying tickets helps. Even in my show, there is a very important part where I talk about how important this equation is between the comedian and the audience.
You are performing from 19 and now you are 34 years old. What do you think how have you traveled in these years? And how have your audience developed?
I think what we fail to feel is that after every comedy show there is always someone who is ‘Oh my God, I am watching you for the first time’. We fail to feel that not only new comedy audiences are coming, but also old viewers. I have met the parents who said, ‘Listen I was in college when you used to perform. Now this is my child and I am like ‘Oh My God’, when you realize, your audience is also getting old with you. My duty is now for my audience, who is old to be proud of me and says, ‘Hey when I was 19 and he was 19 years old, it was fun but now as we were old, it still looks the same. I have grown up, he has grown up, I enjoy it ‘.
What new experiments are you doing?
I put everything in this show. There is a new show on which I am working and its theme is in continuity, saying that I am average in everything and how I realized that I do not want to be great. I am happy to be average. Excessive pressure is best, so it is the whole next angle in my life. I want to keep my child (new show) in the world, I want it to walk and when it is growing, I want to enjoy life with my dog and cat a little.
You talk about mental health and how you have competed in the broken years of your show. Have you helped you to take a cue.
There are basic fundamental rules in the improvement, which ‘yes, and?’ I ‘yes, and?’ My life If anything happens, I have learned to happen, ‘Yes, and now what?’ Kovid Hui, I started doing digital shows, streaming. Live shows are happening, I am favorable. YouTube is happening, I am favorable. Rellances are happening, I have adapted. Adapting and increasing are very important. So it is advisable that I will do anything, if anything happens, accept it, ‘Yes, and now what’ and look forward to the next chapter.
Sahil Shah’s breakdown is available for viewing on YouTube.
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