Zakir Khan, known to crack jokes on his relationship with his mom and dad performed in the city recently at Good Shepherd Auditorium. The performance was a part of the nine-city stand-up comedy tour by Red LIVE, the live entertainment vertical of Red FM.
While speaking to City Express, he says that being honest is the best way to connect with the audience. “You have to present yourself raw to the audience. That’s when they will find the connect with you and will laugh their hearts out,” he says.
He rose to popularity in 2012 when he won Comedy Central’s India’s Best Stand Up Comedian competition.
The advantage of being a stand-up comedian he says is that “he gets s*** lot of money for performing for a an hour,” he laughs. On a serious note, he says that the field doesn’t involve politics. “Are you a good performer or a bad one, the verdict is right there on the face of your in front of you sitting in form of your audience. You don’t have to wait for any boss to judge your work,” he says. But it does take time to win over your audience, he adds.
His love for the stage is evident when he says that he feels jittery when he doesn’t perform for three days in a row. But his first performance at open mic is something that every stand-up comedian will relate to. “This was in December 2011 when I was supposed to perform for five minutes, but I was asked to get down within a minute. It was embarrassing, but I like to challenge myself. But I knew I wanted to stay, so I worked hard and here I am,” he says.
He loved the time he spent working with Tanmay Bhat and Gurusimran Khamba when he co-hosted and wrote On Air with AIB, a news comedy show. He refused to talk more about AIB. So, what is his advise to the aspiring stand-up comedians? “Don’t quit your job before you become successful,” he says, adding that he followed the same principle and worked and did comedy shows for four years. He quit his job in April 2015.