Stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant would rather call his latest comic gig a ‘wedding reception to the city’. No surprise, considering the 29-year-old newly-wed was busy scribbling new material at his wedding. “I realised nobody really cares about the groom— how he looks, what he wears or for that matter, what he’s doing,” he says.
Tonight, Pant, who has a list of over 108 puns on his surname, will perform a 90-minute comedy show titled Pant on Fire. The show debuted in February last year and returns this time with a fresh stock of jokes. “I’m moving away from topical jokes to trends in contemporary India. I’ll scan through a few newsworthy events like the iPad launch and the Union Budget, but most of the new material comes from my experience during my wedding,” he says. This comes from a comedian who can talk of the ritual of jootachupai, where the bride’s side hides his shoes for money, and serial killer Charles Sobhraj in one breath. “It’s like a two-hour kidnap, where you are asked to better pay up or...” he jokes.
Pant decided to move away from topical jokes to jabs on society and people as they become stale soon. “You can’t make a travelling show across the country without constantly revising and reinventing. But trends don’t change overnight and offer the same scope for a comedian,” he feels. However, the Commonwealth Games and Kalmadi have been the butt of some of his most hilarious outpourings. “Commonwealth Games was our Clinton-Lewinsky moment. We had so much going for us, it was a rich resource centre for us to cull out fresh material with every new discovery,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}Pant decided to move away from topical jokes to jabs on society and people as they become stale soon. “You can’t make a travelling show across the country without constantly revising and reinventing. But trends don’t change overnight and offer the same scope for a comedian,” he feels. However, the Commonwealth Games and Kalmadi have been the butt of some of his most hilarious outpourings. “Commonwealth Games was our Clinton-Lewinsky moment. We had so much going for us, it was a rich resource centre for us to cull out fresh material with every new discovery,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}This time, it is women who become his best bets to rant and pant on. “They are all so eccentric. Now staying with one, I’ve realised they make great material. Also, I have a girl now, so I don’t need to be polite to chicks anymore.”
Catch Sorabh Pant perform Pant On Fire at Kingfisher Comedy Nights at Bonobo, Bandra, 8.30pm onwards.
Entry free.