The comedian who recently won Comicstaan – Nishant Suri, speaks to the reporter Asmita Sarkar about his journey so far. He said, “My Life has changed completely after the show”.

Can punchlines and comic timing be learnt? Nishant Suri, the winner of the first season of Amazon Prime Video’s Comicstorian which gave a platform to stand-up comedians who were trying to make it in the niche community thinks that he became a better, confident comic through the process. So he takes home Rs 10 lakh along with a plethora of lessons.

“Subconsciously, I’m incorporating the different genres that we performed on the show. I am more comfortable on stage now despite having done this for a few years before the show happened. I can now talk about everything that I wanted to talk about. My whole perspective about comedy has changed through the show,” he said, adding that Biswa Kalyan Rath aka Biswa mast aadmi was his favourite mentor.

“All of them are good. He was my favourite because he was the first mentor and we didn’t know what to expect. He’s a nice guy. We didn’t know any of them before so we didn’t expect them to be interested in our performance but they were and that was really motivating,” he said.
The fame from the show has been a pleasant surprise for the comic, who says that people come up to him and tell him the punchlines that they loved the most. “It feels good to be recognised,” he said. The path to victory, however, has not been very smooth. He started off as an engineer who studied at BITS Pilani, Goa, then worked at a bank for three years by the end of which he just wanted to move on from the corporate setting. To fund his stand-up career, he started off as a wedding photographer.
Tanmay Bhat, the famed comic from the AIB, praised Suri for his endurance. While Suri had not heard or read the statement, he believed that he was complimented for his consistency. “I got better as the show progressed,” he said.

The format, though like a reality show, didn’t force the contestants to be cutthroat. “The show wasn’t very competitive compared to other reality shows on TV. People were cooperating with each other to get better. In our head, we knew that all of us have to be good for the show to work well. If five people are good and five are not doing well, the overall quality goes down and people are not going to watch. Comedy is a small community and we all struggled together. It was like a brotherhood-sisterhood but there was an element of competition but all in good nature. There was no negativity,” he added. The first runner-up, Rahul Dua and Suri had been friends for years as they were performing in the same circuit in Delhi.

The comics had initially sent four-five minute videos based on which they were chosen for an interview round followed by live performances. Suri and Dua made the cut from Delhi. They were judged by Bhat and Kanan Gill.

After attending workshops in various kinds of comedies, like observational, impromptu, anecdotal, among others, he said that his favourite is the traditional kind where observational and anecdotal are performed.

Suri is not working on an hour-long material to go on tour across Indian cities. “I want to see the response and make it better. One act wouldn’t necessarily have multiple genres but in future I want to do an act that would incorporate different styles like alt comedy that I did on the show where I was going through the audience. I became freer on stage. Someday if I feel like going down into the audience to talk to them I would be more comfortable in doing so,” he said.

The comic is also an avid traveler, who backpacks for 30-45 days in a year to seek inspiration for his work from there.

About the audience that flocks to stand-up shows in India, he said that they have matured but seek out bigger names than comedy itself.

“I’m hoping that eventually if people want to go for an evening out they go for a normal comedy show even if they don’t know who the comics are,” he added. In the future, he sees himself collaborating with other comedians for sketches.

Writer: Asmita Sarkar

Courtesy: The Pioneer

The comedian who recently won Comicstaan – Nishant Suri, speaks to the reporter Asmita Sarkar about his journey so far. He said, “My Life has changed completely after the show”.

Can punchlines and comic timing be learnt? Nishant Suri, the winner of the first season of Amazon Prime Video’s Comicstorian which gave a platform to stand-up comedians who were trying to make it in the niche community thinks that he became a better, confident comic through the process. So he takes home Rs 10 lakh along with a plethora of lessons.

“Subconsciously, I’m incorporating the different genres that we performed on the show. I am more comfortable on stage now despite having done this for a few years before the show happened. I can now talk about everything that I wanted to talk about. My whole perspective about comedy has changed through the show,” he said, adding that Biswa Kalyan Rath aka Biswa mast aadmi was his favourite mentor.

“All of them are good. He was my favourite because he was the first mentor and we didn’t know what to expect. He’s a nice guy. We didn’t know any of them before so we didn’t expect them to be interested in our performance but they were and that was really motivating,” he said.
The fame from the show has been a pleasant surprise for the comic, who says that people come up to him and tell him the punchlines that they loved the most. “It feels good to be recognised,” he said. The path to victory, however, has not been very smooth. He started off as an engineer who studied at BITS Pilani, Goa, then worked at a bank for three years by the end of which he just wanted to move on from the corporate setting. To fund his stand-up career, he started off as a wedding photographer.
Tanmay Bhat, the famed comic from the AIB, praised Suri for his endurance. While Suri had not heard or read the statement, he believed that he was complimented for his consistency. “I got better as the show progressed,” he said.

The format, though like a reality show, didn’t force the contestants to be cutthroat. “The show wasn’t very competitive compared to other reality shows on TV. People were cooperating with each other to get better. In our head, we knew that all of us have to be good for the show to work well. If five people are good and five are not doing well, the overall quality goes down and people are not going to watch. Comedy is a small community and we all struggled together. It was like a brotherhood-sisterhood but there was an element of competition but all in good nature. There was no negativity,” he added. The first runner-up, Rahul Dua and Suri had been friends for years as they were performing in the same circuit in Delhi.

The comics had initially sent four-five minute videos based on which they were chosen for an interview round followed by live performances. Suri and Dua made the cut from Delhi. They were judged by Bhat and Kanan Gill.

After attending workshops in various kinds of comedies, like observational, impromptu, anecdotal, among others, he said that his favourite is the traditional kind where observational and anecdotal are performed.

Suri is not working on an hour-long material to go on tour across Indian cities. “I want to see the response and make it better. One act wouldn’t necessarily have multiple genres but in future I want to do an act that would incorporate different styles like alt comedy that I did on the show where I was going through the audience. I became freer on stage. Someday if I feel like going down into the audience to talk to them I would be more comfortable in doing so,” he said.

The comic is also an avid traveler, who backpacks for 30-45 days in a year to seek inspiration for his work from there.

About the audience that flocks to stand-up shows in India, he said that they have matured but seek out bigger names than comedy itself.

“I’m hoping that eventually if people want to go for an evening out they go for a normal comedy show even if they don’t know who the comics are,” he added. In the future, he sees himself collaborating with other comedians for sketches.

Writer: Asmita Sarkar

Courtesy: The Pioneer