Ahead of the second Calcutta instalment of Ashish Vidyarthi’s stand-up comedy show ‘Sit Down Ashish’ on June 16 at The Black Cat, the young-at-heart actor chatted with t2 about following his many dreams.
How did the idea of stand-up comedy occur to you?
I have been toying with this idea of doing things that I wish to do. I have been wanting to do something in comedy too. I did this series called Sunflower. I have never ever gone to watch stand-up comedy in India but have watched it years back, abroad. Of course on YouTube I have been watching the likes of Russell Peters and an interesting guy called Don Rickles. My absolute favourite is Dave Chappelle. The all-time great for me is Robin Williams.
It was more of a leap of faith for me. I am known for my intense roles and I know myself in intense roles. I also knew that I could do comedy. I have done that in a few Hindi films and some plays many years back, but to go full-on and do it was a challenge. So, I took it on and realised that thank God I haven’t seen others performing, otherwise it would have been scary for me to do that. I really enjoyed cracking jokes about myself and life itself, realising that I can make people laugh without the use of insults, abuse and innuendos. That was good fun.
Was this also your way of communicating that you have a funny bone too, as an actor?
As an actor, you always keep waiting for somebody to look at you differently. This gave me an opportunity to use this platform to showcase myself to myself and not necessarily to others. In any case, I keep exploring different facets of myself. Yes, it was definitely scary.
How did you filter what to say and what not to?
These are life sketches and 99.98 per cent are true. I took the things out of the realm of caricature and I said there is enough and more humour happening around us. It’s also been therapeutic for me. I have been dealing with a lot of angst and pain over the years, through humour. I think humour itself rises from pain, but when you are able to crack a joke on yourself, that’s when you have alleviated yourself from that pain and are able to talk about it and have a laugh about it.
Did you write all of the material?
I have always been telling people that I am too lazy to ever create my own material. I did it and I am so happy. I must credit my colleague Divya Sane. I would send my recordings to her and she would capture it and get back. This was also about going into something and not knowing completely about it. I would like to know a little bit about things, step into and learn while I travel. Then Mubin Tisekar came into my life, after I had announced the show and then I played the material for him and he made suggestions and then I did a trial show. I didn’t even know that stand-up comedy mic looked different.
I am so very glad that I took the step. Had I studied it and spent six to eight months looking at other people and watching their performances, I have a feeling that I would not have done it. I decided I would not do what was expected of a stand-up comedian. We possibly all know our voice, but then we modulate and manipulate our thoughts, saying this will not work. Let’s do like someone else. It could be in any kind of career. Then we realise that we have become someone else whom we don’t know and then we come back to our own voice.
I was beginning this journey and I wanted to be me and not someone else. Typically, stand-up comedy is a process which people begin with a five-minute piece and after several years, people go into a one-hour show and I began with nearly one-and-half hours. I had the confidence to hold the audience. Thanks to Dayashankar Ki Diary and years of theatre practice... but to do stand-up comedy where you are just there, with a mic in hand and the audience in front of you... so, I was very happy that I was foolish enough to not know anything about stand-up comedy and then daring to do it.
None of my jokes are derogatory. It’s laughing at the predicament that each one of us is in. All the laughs are essentially on me. That’s how I deal with it.
Even in life, I love it when someone can win. So, can we have a world where people are really going in for a win not having to count on someone else to lose, because I really feel the world is large enough and that’s what I bring forth in this piece.
Did you have apprehensions because there is so much of your personal life in it?
Zero! I have realised that people will say what they say and then might as well say what you want to say. This was not meant to bait people, but to laugh at myself and more importantly, the audience felt lighter. Each one of us in life has been laughed at and mocked in some way or the other.
Do you improvise?
I love to improvise and it is very livewire. It feels great when I say that I am a newborn 58-year-old stand-up comedian. Can I have a laugh without abuse? Can I do a clean comedy where the entire family can come and sit and watch? I discovered it’s possible.
Where do you want to take this?
I want to travel with it and the shows are booked. In a funny way, the stage bug has caught me again and there is an interesting project coming up. The journey goes on. I am very happy that while I have been waiting for amazing roles, I have been doing amazing roles. Each one of us is waiting for opportunities to do something. All that I would tell them is don’t wait for it to happen. Do something extraordinary even while you are waiting. I am an amazing actor but this amazing actor needs to meet an extraordinary role for the magic to happen. While I am waiting for directors across languages to offer me those central stellar roles, I will keep striving and keep creating value.
To book tickets, log on to: https://in.bookmyshow.com/ events/sit-down-ashish-feat- ashish-vidyarthi/ET00399337