Creating content for laughter

Combining stand up comedy and acting makes for a great career choice for those who have a flair for it. It gives scope for reflecting on one’s creativity and wittiness in comedy, As well as the scope of playing different roles as well. It requires pure talent and great imagination to fit into the role of somebody you are not. Stand up comedy also allows one to express him/herself. Jeeveshu Ahluwalia is a stand up comedian and an actor who is currently on a tour of 35 Indian cities. After acting in the Bollywood movie ‘Tamasha’ he is currently also shooting for ‘Happy Phir Se Bhag Jayegi’ with Abhay Deol and Diana Penty.  “The official journey to stand up comedy started in March 2013, I was somewhere in Gurgaon and it was an Open Mic night. I thought of try it out and it hit the audience right away. Every single day of my life I count my blessings and thank my stars to be able to love and live my dream. It has given me countless memories with colleagues, audience and life that I cherish every day,” he recalls.
When asked about his acting he says, “Who doesn’t wish to be a part of Bollywood? I feel elated to have become a family member of the industry. The vibes are over welcoming. “Since Tamasha, it has been a learning experience to see filmmaking up and close and appreciate the effort it takes to make even a bad movie, leave alone a good one,” he laughs. Talking about versatility in the industry and  trying various things, he replies, “The natural progression is to reach broader horizons and acting helps me in getting there and pushes me to do better. Stand up comedy is also one of the art forms but it is more natural. Standing on the stage and sharing your experiences in a narrative form, makes you a good orator. The urge to perform different things pushes me to create brilliant content for my audience.”

About his tour of India and how he manages a packed schedule, he says, “So the cities I am going to be performing in are 35, and yes it is taxing on my health. It gets too much at times but then it’s the love of the art form which keeps me going and the charm to meet newer audiences in demographics that have been virgin territories. The response that my current tour is getting, makes me forget everything and is giving me more power to plan another one soon with tier 2 cities,” adding,  “It has been a childhood dream and who hasn’t wished at some point to be the heroes or characters they looked at in the movies. Growing up only made it stronger. Though I was working in a corporate firm with hefty figures in my bank account, acting and comedy was always  in me naturally. I used to do it on a smaller scale in front of a group of friends, but then I thought of taking it up as a full fledged profession,” he reveals about choosing to live his passion.

On what drives him to strive towards perfection, he says, “Family, friends, movies, travel, food and my dog are the driving factor for me to take odd hour flights, eat bad food, sleep less and still get up on stage to make people laugh.”

Talking about his future plans, he says, “To not die tonight and get up tomorrow morning. Rest I will take care of. Well, I am shooting for Happy Bhag Jayegi and a few ad films now. My tour is on and few shows outside India are going to be on too. I might plan a world tour soon, where in we can cover maximum cities. My team is also working on making it possible.”

He feels that acting is ‘very post facto’, “So you get to see the results and feel the momentum pretty late.  On the other hand, Stand up comedy is real time and the feedback is instant,” he signs  off.