Bhat’s first open mic at blueFrog (2011)

Kusumita Das (MID-DAY; January 1, 2017)

Being a chubby kid often meant working harder to not be bullied, or be made fun of. I was always the class clown, and I enjoyed being the one that was liked by all — teachers and students alike. I remember taking part in school debates and realising I enjoyed being on stage a lot. But, I think it all took a definite turn for me, when I first discovered Johny Lever, through one of his stand-up cassettes. I must have been 11 or 12 years at that time. I was so taken in by it all, that I started taping my voice over his lines. I learnt his entire routine by heart and would replicate it word to word. Obsessively. We used to travel around in a family car often, that’s where I would make everyone listen to the jokes, on tape. Then, one Republic Day, there was a building function going on and I asked the organisers to allow me five minutes’ time on stage. I was on. For the next 20 minutes I released all the Johny Lever jokes in me and killed it. You could say, that was my first successful outing.

Through Johnny Lever, I discovered a host of comedians; Jimmy Moses (Johny’s brother) was one them. Much later in life, I saw Rohan Joshi’s G-talk status update one day, that said, “Just did stand-up for the first time in life — ticked off my bucket list”. I couldn’t resist and I hit him up. I was writing for television at that time, but I really wanted to try out a stand-up gig on a big stage. The next week, I was performing at an open mic organised by Vir Das at Blue Frog. I slayed again. Thereon, it was addictive.

I was extremely nervous the first time, as a child, and even now, it’s the same. I think a lot of comics have one thing in common — the need for validation. Although, I also believe that to re-invent yourself, you need to let go of that need (for validation) and do something that scares you from time to time.