Chennai: The standup arena in India is talent-rich. One such star is Vipul Goyal – considered one of India’s famous standup comedians.
He is a graduate from IIT Bombay. After a stint in a private firm for six months, he quit his job to pursue the life he always dreamed about – HR (Humour Resources).
Today, Vipul runs a successful ‘comedy’ startup, producing entertainment shows. His online videos have rocked over 50 million views. Vipul also plays the main protagonist in the successful web-series ‘Humorously Yours’, produced by The Viral Fever.
The comedian was in the city to perform a show at Forum Mall, Vadapalani. “It was nice experience,” he says.
In a chat with News Today, Vipul talked about his life on the stage.
* Minting ideas
When asked how he manages to keep his audience engaged, he says, “We organise open mic sessions at various venues. Here, comics come together and do different standup acts on various themes. I always go to such places, perform my own piece and see if the audience likes it. That’s how it works. If I find an idea funny and interesting, then I talk about it with my friends. Eventually, I perform it on stage.”
* On refreshing content
How does he handle pressure? “Work stress here is like any other job,” says Vipul. “The only difference is that there is no race here that I have to perform these many shows by the end of the year. That’s why I make it a point to tell my audience not to come for another one year as it takes time to refresh the content.”
“Being standup comic isn’t like a sugarcane machine to get the juice as you grind. There will be many days when you get no ideas and there will be times when you get really good ideas in just two minutes. You need to be patient with yourself. You should always understand the nature of this job. The main thing is to be on stage as many times as you can, so you get this feeling, okay I tried something new today,” he says.
* Practise and repeat
Vipul tells budding standup comics, “The only thing you should do is to perform at any open mic event,” he says. “Just Google out the nearest open mic session happening in your city. Head there and perform. The more you do it, the better you become.”
Check out his website, www.humorouslyyours.com