Abhish Mathew, the host of Comicstaan on Amazon Prime asked him whether his scores in the penultimate episode of the web season worried him as it would decide his presence in the finale. Shashwat put on his glares with extreme panache and said two words that rocked the jury, “Don’t care!”
That’s Shashwat Maheshwari. He writes jokes and does stand-up because he likes laughing, not because it is a race to popularity. A college batchmate introduced him to the work of Louis CK, and that’s when he got hooked to comedy. He says, “Somehow the idea of doing standup myself never crossed my mind. I had seen The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, and I knew about Raju Srivastava, but I never thought of it till I saw Louis CK. In 2014, I came across an AIB podcast and heard Khamba talk about open mics. I enquired a bit and realized open mics happen even in Delhi. I was in Kanpur then, one train ride away. So, I got on the train, did the open mic, and soon moved to Delhi so I could do more open mics.”
That’s how Shashwat entered the scene of stand-up comedy, a nascent field in India, ruled by giants. But what drives Shashwat to consider comedy seriously? He says, “I think of myself as a joke-writer. My biggest drive is to amuse myself. If something makes me laugh, I do it on stage. I mostly lie in my jokes. Some of it is observational, but most of it is fictitious. So, the content I have right now is based on events that didn’t happen in my life. There are phases to writing so I’m sure the kind of jokes I enjoy writing right now will change over time.”
Shashwat it not very mechanical when it comes to his writing. He would sit with a paper and pen for hours, but not a jot of work, but the jokes may suddenly hit him under a shower. This is reflected even in his jokes. They are very instinctual, like the one about his childhood cricket buddies, or the one about a Mumbai taxi-driver. They almost seem like visual recreations of his mind.
Image Credit: comicstaan
Comicstaan was a learning experience for Shashwat. He says, “I got to see how things work on reality shows and I know how to make better choices now.”
He prefers the two-liner stand-up genre because it means his independence is guaranteed. Unlike other genres like sketch and improve comedy, he does not have to depend on anyone else. He says, “Even if there are a million stand-up comedians, no one can tell my story better than me. If people want to listen to you, they’ll come. I just want to keep writing jokes, telling them, and doing something new every time. I want to keep growing as a comic, and right now there is an immense potential for improvement. “
The genre of stand-up comedy is still emerging in India. But Shashwat feels that stand-up is not only about a trend in the spoken-word art form. He says, “Trends will come and go. You just got to stick with what you love to do and ride the rough times out. I believe laughter will always be needed, and as long as I can make myself laugh, I’ll do this.”
Shashwat has been inspired by the comedy of Mitch Hedberg, Norm Macdonald and Louis CK. His forte lies in building a premise and then the punch-line in the second line. He does not like shrinking his joke to one-liners. Though his jokes are universal, often they centre around the life of small towns, and he feels that whatever may be your niche if you build a connect with the audience, they will like you. He says, “Jokes find audiences organically.”
Shashwat writes stand-up to make himself laugh, and that’s why there is no pretence or farce even when you see him perform.
