Laughing With Inder Sahani
A comedian, co-founder of Delhi’s first comedy collective and an actor; Inder Sahani is passionate about several things. Starting stand up comedy at the age of 21, Inder found fame through his YouTube channel and has a growing fan base ever since. One look at his videos and his easily relatable jokes will definitely make you crack up. Inder also won the title of “Sabse Funny Kaun”, a stand up comedy original, released in a Flipkart Video.
Inder was recently in Bhubaneswar to perform a gig at the BOCCA Cafe. My City Links caught up with him and had a candid conversation about the challenges, his journey, and more. Here are the excerpts
Have you ever been to Odisha before? How has your experience been here?
Bhubaneswar has been good to me since my first India tour during 2020. Due to time constraints I couldn’t explore the city more but had some amazing moments here. Though Delhi is famous for its food, Bhubaneswar is winning the game.
During your trip to Bhubaneswar did you observe anything on which you can prepare a set?
Hahahahaa! Ever since I started my comedy journey, I have never experienced such but today was something different. Generally, while booking my hotel, I check how far the venue is from my hotel. I did the same here and checked how long it will take for me to reach and Google Maps showed it will take 7 minutes to reach but flood might affect it. I come from a place where floods and tsunamis are considered natural calamities, so I shared the information with the organisers to which they replied “Flood and Odisha go hand in hand, don’t worry”. And I’m like what is this? So yeah, I would definitely share this incident during my tour.
How did you find the path of comedy in your life?
Since my childhood I had developed an interest in performing arts and I did theatre for 13 years. My theatre teacher is the one who always encouraged me to try my hand at standup comedy. I performed my first standup comedy in 2017.
How do you manage the situation when people can’t understand a joke?
In the beginning of my standup career I faced this situation many times. Every comedian plays a lot with relatability and likeability. If people are unable to relate to your jokes, make them like you. Once they like you, they will like everything about you no matter what you say. They’ll be like “Acha Kuch Toh Acha Bol Hi Raha Hoga”.
These days a lot of standup comics are using their platform and reach to raise awareness about various social issues. What do you think about it?
Why only comics? It would be great if anybody, whether an artist or a comedian or an influencer who has enough reach, should make people aware of issues for the greater good. What I feel is, we should do things for a cause not for the sake of it. Our efforts will show its colours when we do things that we actually believe in.
How do you find jokes in everyday life situations?
Everything around us is funny. And there is a very thin line between you and me, like you’re not a comedian and I am one. We use similar things but the way I narrate the things is what makes it funny.
Is there any topic for you that you feel you should not joke about?
So far, I haven’t touched anything that people will complain about. But personally, I would never do dark humour or things that might turn out to be cringe for people. There is a thin line between jokes and something very cringe. I chose to be on the better side (i.e joke side). At the end of the day, it’s a game of numbers and connecting with people at large and I’ll avoid something that would make my crowd think I shouldn’t be doing.
Tell us about your experience during the pandemic. Was it hard to be funny, during those tough times?
It was scary and horrifying as no one had experienced a pandemic in their life. I was with my parents and could connect with my friends which was a big relief. Initially, it was hard for me to be funny as everyone was going through something or other. When I started doing virtual shows via Zoom for frontline workers and for others as well it boosted my confidence which enhanced my funnier side.
Tell us about your experience in Goodnight India.
To be a part of Sab TV’s Goodnight India is a great achievement in my life. It was a journey of learning in terms of switching my content, voice modulation in respect to television and how people on the other side of television want to experience comedy. I learned portraying my art on television and it helped me garner good viewership.
Tell us about your YouTube channel Chai Maathi tales.
Chai Maathi Tales was co-founded by Ravi Khurana, Gourav Mahna and me in August 2017. Our love for chai and humour brought us together. It is Delhi’s first and foremost comedy collective till date. The collective does comedy shows, makes parody videos, YouTube sketches and web series.
Share some interesting facts or funny situations on your journey from Akshara theatre to Ab Hai Aapki Baari.
I would not call it a journey, as there’s a long way to go in terms of learning and achieving things. There is an incident which happened in June 2022 which was quite interesting and funny at the same time. I had a show in Gurgaon but due to technical problems in the venue, I had to cancel it at the last moment. I apologised to people for the inconvenience and assured them that the money will be returned. A huge group of people asked ‘can you call Inder, we wanted to meet and greet him’ and I’m like it’s me, It’s my show.