Laughing out loud

Stand-up comedian Saikiran, who is mostly famous for his stand-up comedy video Dark Skin and Getting Married on YouTube, is rolling freshly brewed ideas, using in his work infinite observations from his life. He believes they add wonders to making the crowd to fall off their chairs, laughing.

Rolling with the punches
Sharing the trick for his witty jokes, he says, “Most of my jokes are selected from my life events around my family, especially my mum and dad, who I hope never show up to my events,” he says with a chuckle, adding, “But those jokes are relatable, and the exaggerations in them add to the comedic punch. Audiences crack up because my anecdotes make them imagine them dealing with their mums.”

Of course, as spontaneous as his jokes seem, there is a whole lot of work Saikiran puts in to creating them. “I first choose the real life incident I want to share on stage, and then I weave and polish them before I can deliver them. Not everything is spontaneous; the words are honed and tightened to ensure they are extremely funny,” he tells us. Indeed, taking a cue from the mood in the house, he also interacts with the audience and comes up with spontaneous, quirky one-liners.

Taking inspirations
For someone fighting stage fright onstage is not an easy place to be for Saikiran. “It is a daily battle between the fear of getting on the stage and the inner desire to tell jokes to my audience and make them laugh,” he shares.

Saikiran then tells about stand-up  comedians who inspire him in the cityscape. “The city consists of thirty active comedians. Of those, Rajshekar Mamidana, who started the culture of stand-up comedy in Hyderabad, is on top for me,” he says. “Also, Satish Kumar is another favourite who’s inspired me to use the South Indian-English slang that an audience can easily connect with.”

The comedian claims to have seen Hyderabad not only before and after Ivanka Trump (who visited the city for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2017), but also before and after the serial kidnapping events in the city. “There are certain incidents that remain in the minds of the nation. Those incidents are easy fodder for jokes because they are mostly relatable,” adds Saikiran.

But why did he choose to take up comedy, we wonder.

“It is an amazing feeling to make people laugh,” he signs off.