Award-winning stand-up comedian Papa CJ performed his first show in Guwahati at Extreme Sports bar and Grill on GS Road on Saturday evening.
In his inimitable style, Papa CJ described stand-up comedy as “an outward expression of an inward journey by a psychopath with no friends and who considers sitting in a dark room and talking to a bunch of strangers as his only form of therapy.”
The world-renowned stand-up comedian has won several awards including Asia’s and India’s best stand-up comedian. He has performed over 2,000 shows in 25 countries and has had numerous appearances on international television networks. Forbes Magazine called him “the global face of Indian stand-up”.
On the American TV show Last Comic Standing, he was among the top 10 from over 3,000 contestants across the world. Papa CJ was instrumental in starting the English language stand-up comedy industry in India in 2008. He started his professional career in London in 2004.
On the Indian sense of humour, Papa said, “All over the world stand-up comedy is a grassroots art form that is anti-elite, anti-establishment and almost a form of protest. In India, by and large, English language stand-up is performed for the elite. Your audience is well-read, well-travelled and gives you the option to talk about a range of different subjects. While we are the largest democracy on the planet, we can often be the largest hypocrites on the planet. Audiences more often than not love risqué jokes but don’t want to be seen to be laughing at them.”
About receiving awards, he said, “Awards are wonderful tools for marketing. However, I don’t think one should give much importance to them.”
Last year Papa did seven fundraiser shows in six cities and raised over Rs 40 lakh for 10 different charities. He has done various fundraiser performances for multiple humanitarian crises, including the recent Kerala floods. Under the Papa CJ Happiness Project he visits patients and hospitals.
“Comedy is like a rubber sword. You can make a point without drawing any blood. I occasionally try and use my comedy to show a mirror to the powers and try and inspire change,” he said.
Papa CJ holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and is also a motivational speaker.
