Over a decade ago, she couldn't put together a sentence without stuttering multiple times and now, she's taking to the stage and entertaining audiences like a pro with her humour.
Meet 27-year-old Pooja Vijay, who's making her presence felt in the comedy circuit in the country. Having lived in Bengaluru for 15 years, she says, “I did my engineering in RVCE. Post that, I did my masters in Europe for two years.”
Comedy happened to the lass when she went to an open mic with her colleague. “I gave it a try and honestly, it was meant to be a once in a lifetime thing. But it went quite well and people told me I have good content and I could do stuff on my own. In 2015, I got a job offer In Delhi and moved there.”
Pooja soon started hosting women-only open mic events to encourage more ladies to get into comedy. “Open mic is a platform for new comedians to showcase their wit and also a place where established comics can try their new jokes. But you will often find only one or two women in the list of comedians. Comedy can be a little sexist at times, so I felt a need to create a safe space for ladies to come and voice their opinions.”
Being one of the few girls in the open mic scene there, she does find it intimidating at times. Referring to a recent controversy where one of the founders of TVF was accused of sexual harassment, Pooja admits that comedy can be a hard place for a girl sometimes.
“It's like a boys’ club. The stand-up comedy scene is not like an office where there's an HR and you can complain if someone behaves inappropriately with you. You have to let them pass and the next day, go and do a show with the same person!” says Pooja, who has faced a few unsavoury incidents herself. But she adds, “Of course, it doesn’t happen all the time and there have been many supportive senior comics.”
Coming to her stutter, Pooja reveals that she's had it all her life. “When in middle school, I was far worse. But I got speech therapy and it helped me a lot. I'm still not fully stutter-free,” she shares.
The humourist has now learnt to accept and embrace her problem as something that's part of her. “I'm not ashamed of it and I never let it affect me. When I go up on stage, my stutter becomes more pronounced because I'm a little nervous.” But she handles it by making a joke or two about it. “Audiences have been really encouraging and appreciative. Many people who have a stutter have shown their support as well,” she says.
Catch Pooja’s performance in the ooru today at Vapour, Indiranagar at 1 pm and Atta Galatta at 7.30 pm.
