This is why Jamie did not want to go with the ‘Lever’ surname

Jamie Lever says her famous surname felt like a burden as she tried to find her own voice in comedy

Jamie Lever recently shared the stage with her father, veteran comedian Johnny Lever, in Kolkata. For the comedian-actor, performing alongside her father is less about being his co-performer and more about learning from him. “I think it’s just I’m not like in his show, I feel more like a student. Even while I’m performing, I’m just observing a master at his craft, you know, perform and just create magic on stage,” she says. “I’m just like, I am just fully in student mode. I’m just like, I’m here to learn.”

Jamie Lever: I honestly did not want to go with the surname Lever

But getting to this point has meant first finding her own identity outside her father’s legacy. “Even to this date, I think that the surname Lever is so heavy on me. It weighs really heavy on me,” Jamie tells us. She admits that she initially did not want to use her father’s surname professionally, with producers questioning why she wasn’t using his name and making it clear that she was Johnny Lever’s daughter. “But that is too much responsibility to take on. I need to find my voice now. I need to really figure out what I’m good at or what I can offer,” she says. “It was given to me or imposed on to me very early on. And then I carried that burden.”

Jamie says it took her 10–12 years to reach a point where audiences recognised her for her own work. “Today, when people see me, they know me for what I do. They don’t have to really put my name alongside my father’s name, that she is Johnny Lever’s daughter,” she says.

Yet, carrying forward her father’s legacy remains a responsibility. “Then to take after him, to take forward the legacy, it’s like, wow, how do you match up? How do you even, you know, like, you have to work so hard to just prove yourself. That yes, you’re good,” she says. “I don’t take my position lightly. I don’t ever feel like I made it so I can relax now. I’m still like working hard, practicing, growing, stretching myself and praying that God will increase my creativity. Because I feel like that surname comes with a lot of responsibility.”

Johnny, however, has also been among the first to recognise her as a comedian in her own right. Jamie recalls him watching her perform and later telling her, “you’re one of the best comics we have in our country.” His advice when she decided to pursue comedy was equally direct: “This is not easy. If you want to do this, you better go 100%. Don’t be half-hearted about it. Don’t go like half-baked. You know, you go in, you go all in. And if you don’t give your 100%, then just give