As a trope, standup comics are the funny guys in most social situations. Jeeveshu Ahluwalia was no different. But for him, the transition from drawing room to stage involved giving up a 16-year-long career in the corporate world. “I joined call centres about 20 years ago, and was director of a firm by the time I quit to do comedy. There is a negative notion that your life has to suck for you to make such a shift, but for me it was just about finding the finer things in life. I just realised doing standup brought me more happiness [with] the same long hours and effort,” says the 40-year-old comic.
Jokingly referred to as “the Salman Khan of the fat world” in the standup circuit, Ahluwalia says his style of comedy has evolved since his first show in 2013. “I started off with self-deprecating humour because that came naturally to me. Then I dabbled with sexual innuendoes, profanity and below-the-belt jokes for easy laughs, but found that it wasn’t my genre. Eventually, I started doing observational humour based on my own life.” His jokes about being overweight, divorced and having an over-optimistic mother are the popular ones from his comedy collection.
But for Ahluwalia, whose content is largely in Hindi, performing for a South Indian audience is a completely different ball game. In the past, he says his Hindi punch lines have fallen so flat that “they touched the Marina trench in the Pacific Ocean.” So to work with a diverse audience, he started improvising on stage. “Improv is just one of the things that gets into your comedy arsenal over time. I now do a show called ‘Host to roast’ based on improvising with the audience, where people pay premium price to sit up front and get insulted for 90 minutes,” he chuckles.
However, to appeal to audiences in difference cities, he keeps his content clean, welcoming towards women, and agreeable for 18- and 80-year-olds alike.
Currently on an extensive tour covering 35 Indian cities, Ahluwalia says it is four times more rigorous than his previous ones. “I’m excited about all the new content I will have by the time I am done visiting all these cities. I want to enjoy the tour and challenge myself in non-Hindi speaking cities like Chennai, which are outside my comfort zone. One needs to adapt to the changing dynamic in each city, because there is never such a thing as a stupid audience, just bad comics.”
Jeeveshu Ahluwalia will
perform at Krishna Gana Sabha, on June 8 at 7.30 pm. Tickets, priced between ₹499 and ₹999, are available on in.bookmyshow.com
