BENGALURU: From building jokes on the “nationalism” brand to hosting a viral podcast with the most famous JNU students; Kunal Kamra has certainly cracked the code on how to get the LOLs out of the young Indian millennial. The comedian was in the city for his show “Fresh Thoughts”. City Express caught up with him after the show.
What is the biggest challenge you face while writing content for comedy?
The challenge is in building up the joke. It is all about how to take a joke, build a concept around it and still surprise them with the climax.
How do you feel about the debate initiated by Daniel Fernandes that it has become increasingly difficult to book a lot of tier 1 comics for club shows?
A comedian is a capitalist piece of sh*t, and so is the landlord playing the club, who is not at his/her financial best, but if a good bowler does not bowl to a Ranjhi level batsmen then how will the batsmen get better?
I believe in doing the club shows. As comedians, we should always look at adding more people to this art form in general and grow as a community. I’ll be done for a year, if I do two private gigs a month. This is about contributing to the growing comedy culture in general. I understand the other side of argument also, but every comedian can keep aside one Sunday once every 45 days. As comedians, I feel we are not accustomed to think that things will get better, so we need to build an environment of
possibilities.
You must get trolled quite often by bhakts about the political content you do in your stand up routine. What has been the most absurd or bizzare troll on your tweets/stand up that you remember?
I don’t read them. I don’t want their validation or hate.
Who is your favourite comedian?
Doug Stanhope, Varun Grover and Anuvab Pal
How easy or difficult was it make a podcast with Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid?
It wasn’t much of a struggle. I wouldn’t do anything illegal or unconstitutional. The approach of the podcast is very democratic. It is high time we told people that the paid media bullsh*t should stop. I make sure that we don’t fight on statistics, but on good or bad in the video.
Are there more podcasts to come?
Yes, in December.
Will we ever see one with you and Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
I can’t get him on because he’s such a good orator. My fans would become his fans and I’d be jobless.
When is your next show in Bengaluru?
“Fresh Thoughts” comes back to the city on November 25 and 26 at the Bengaluru Comedy Festival 2017.