CHENNAI: A mong the jokes that work well are those about how people expect me to be funny only because I wear a turban,” says stand up comic Vikramjit Singh. Isn’t that true? We associate every Punjabi man with a turban as sardarji and expect him to either be a fierce or funny guy.
Well, in this case we are fortunate with the latter. “In fact, I play on the irony of how the audience expects me to be a certain type of Bollywood-ised, balle-balle sardar, which I’m not.”
Coming down to our city for a show hosted by Evam Standup Tamasha, Vikramjit is excited and is bringing in some new content with him. “New content yes, but along with my old chestnuts. As for what they can expect, here’s a hint: they aren’t the only ones with a Tamil accent,” he winks.
Even while studying engineering, Vikramjit spent most of his time writing and performing in different theatres and literary clubs. “Engineering was reduced to an extra-curricular activity. So that just put me on a course that I kept following organically — through various jobs, until I finally decided to quit to write and perform for a living,”
he narrates.
In retrospect he adds, “A lot of good, bad and ugly has happened to me, just like everyone else. At the risk of generalising, growing up in a Punjabi household hones your instinct for putting a funny spin on things: whether it’s victory or adversity. And external influences from Govinda to Woody Allen, which show up in ways I’m not even aware of!”
City Express watched a YouTube clip of Vikramjit explaining how illogical Punjabis are. Remember Sukhbir’s song Tare Gin Gin that begins with ‘Ho ho ho ho’, it’s a sad song when you break down the lyrics but they start dancing to it whenever it hits the speakers. We asked Vikranjit of the Punjabi content in his shows and he says, “I don’t create Punjabi content consciously. What I have is a few personal stories, and since I happen to be Punjabi, you could club that under ‘Punjabi content’.”
These days, his content has begun veering a lot towards relationships, and how we Indians are obsessed with food all the time. “There are a few personal anecdotes about that. My family is pretty indifferent to any references to them. They’re more worried about other references that could land me in jail,” he says. For all the stereotypes that get on stage, he hasn’t been threatened by an audience except — “Not in a show, but there have been a few ugly comments on my videos online. They tell me to meet them so they can ‘show me what a real Punjabi is’, but then I always have a flight to catch.” The fact that those comments don’t affect him is to be appreciated because once upon a time, Vikramjit was a fierce, angry young man. “Not anymore. I think I just grew up. Even Virat Kohli did, so no biggie.” Alright, then!
Inspired by international comics Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais, Barry Crimmins, John Oliver and Indian comics Sorabh Pant, Naveen Richard and Varun Grover, Vikramjit has had an amazing experience exploring his wit. From his first open mic experience to the several shows that followed across the country, he has always been nervous and happy.
“The thing that excites me most about doing stand-up is the inherent uncertainty. Like sometimes, a joke that has always worked doesn’t work, but your mind is forced to follow it up with something to get back on track. That’s where nervousness helps because it keeps you on your toes. I never want it to go away,” he grins.
For details visit Facebook event page ‘Evam Presents Turban Legends’ by Vikramjit Singh