Yes, my mom knows I talk about sex onstage: Kajol Srinivasan

I was a graphic designer and a writer but I always felt the pull of the stage. Initially, I thought I wanted to act, but I am a terrible actress and after being gently chucked out of two acting classes I met a comedian on Okcupid. He registered me for an open mic a month down the line and told me I could do it. I delivered a ted talk that got pity laughs. After that, I tanked for the next few months, but I knew this was the stage for me.

I get about 15 people into a room, either offline or online, and get them to write and perform a small joke. There are various ways to do this – one involves creating childish rhymes, but the whole idea is to make grown-ups drop their defences and get silly again. I learnt this lesson the hard way as I came into comedy quite late in life and expected myself to be funny while keeping my dignity intact. It simply doesn’t work.

Well one career finances the other one so I make the balance work somehow. It’s only been in the last year of my six years that stand-up that comedy is making me money, but it’s unpredictable. Yes, there is a synergy- both are art and I enjoy them.

I loved George Carlin and I have strong political opinions. Political jokes can be short one-liners because people already have context, and that makes them exciting to write. I’ve gotten into trouble quite a few times on Twitter. One memorable occasion was when Rahul Kanwal sat down to fact-check my meme. When I took a dig at Coronil (Baba Ramdev's cure for Covid), I got rape threats. I've been called ugly, fat, old, long-nosed, pig-faced and also an accomplished prostitute.

I am an English-speaking woman, and that is unfortunately not everyone's cup of tea. For many Indians, it brings back memories of their convent school teacher shouting at them for not doing homework. After unsuccessfully trying to use a bit of Hindi I figured, I am what I am, there is no point in being unauthentic. So I do the content I like knowing it will have a limited niche audience.

I’ve had to run away from a bar gig once because I was joking about a certain chief minister, and one guy jumped up and said he was his cousin. The magician at the same gig had managed to annoy a woman so we both sneaked out through the kitchens. There was another gig where our whole line-up tanked and I had gone to the bathroom at the bar before leaving for home. Suddenly a group of women walked in hurling horrible insults about the show and I was quite reluctant to leave my cubicle and face them. They kept rattling the door handle and peeping underneath so I picked up my feet from the floor and tried to pretend I wasn’t there.

I just want to perform, that’s it. Currently, I’m touring with a solo show, the idea for which was born when a woman asked me, “Does your mother know you talk about sex onstage?”. I said, “Yes, she writes half my jokes”. This is true, my parents are really liberal and I can’t understand the Indian hypocrisy towards sex given that there are more than one billion of us. Those above 16 years of age can attend my shows. I plan to write a second solo on only political jokes post this tour.

Now in my sixth year of stand-up, it’s turned lucrative, but there are great months and there are months when just your soul is satisfied. So I would recommend everyone keep a day job in some form or the other.

Good god, no! Artists take themselves very seriously. I recently shared a panel with a maestro who spent most of his time adjusting his dupatta and clearing his throat. Comedians are jokers. Two centuries previously we would have worn bells on our heads and jingled foolishly to please kings.