okay I guess some of you have heard of
Conan Gill yes so just in case there’s
any confusion I am NOT coming Gill I
mean have a boat stand-up comedians just
that one of us is taller sexier
better-looking
the other one is cannon Gill I would be
happier if you didn’t laugh at that okay
now I’ll be honest you know one of the
most common questions that we often get
is you know why do you do stand-up
comedy and what I want to tell you is
that you know it’s to make people laugh
you know that’s what I’ve always wanted
to do that making people laugh making
them happy is something that gives me
happiness that when I see that smile on
your face it gives me emotional
satisfaction and I can also tell you
this word whenever two comedians see
another comedian giving an answer like
that we both turn to each other and
laugh because we know it’s a complete
load of bull crap okay I mean let’s put
a smile on that face it’s something that
a psychopathic villain say is not as
kind of if you honestly ask a stand-up
comedian why we do this it’s because
this is one field where for all that
effort you get instant validation when
300 people laugh at that new joke which
you were sure is going to bomb it gives
you an amazing satisfaction you know
what I’m going to step out and say it
it’s better than sex see those who are
not laughing clearly don’t have the data
– Valley Fire
[Applause]
but I’ll also be honest about one thing
you know it’s not always as the
validation of the audience is the
validation of our clothes and loved ones
that gives us even more stress you know
like you know do our friends think we
are funny onstage does my girlfriend
think I’m funny
she said no she’s now my ex-girlfriend
the two are not related alright I’m not
that petty guys we also often get this
question did your parents support you in
this you know so guys let’s be honest
okay we’re talking about Indian parents
okay if you tell your parents you’re
quitting and banking to go to comedy
okay if they don’t send you for therapy
or to a tantric it means they support
you that’s about the best that you can
hope for right don’t expect too much but
guys I’ll be honest I used to have these
anxious moments so there was this time
and I took my mom to a show where when
joshi and the pill girl were performing
and then she found it great and I really
wanted to ask her mom you know your son
also does the same thing does that make
you proud do you think I’m as funny as
these guys you know I had that moment
looks guys I’ll tell you something see
my mom’s been supportive yes you know I
mean things are going good now but when
things were really hard you know at the
start when you struggle I don’t know
maybe she didn’t say it louder I’m sure
she had her doubts as well you know
whether I’ll make this a lucrative
career or even more disturbingly whether
she thinks I’m funny or not because
honestly she is funnier than me on
Facebook I recently I put up a joke on
Facebook that and Martin Luther King
said I had a dream
an Indian parents like chop chop
engineering Caro to which my mom replied
after MBA I put I have a dream Indian
Paris chop chop shaadi guru and her post
actually got more laughs than mine all
right and just
in fact I this is the reason why we
often don’t tell our friends to come and
sit on the front row because see we can
face failure and silence from strangers
but when we see that same you know
silence from people who we know we have
to go back and meet them afterwards and
that was much harder to deal with
and also because your friends know you
better than most people and they’ll ruin
all your punchlines
I saw the show with guys I’m a
middle-class guy no bro you’re from
South Bombay in fact it once happened to
me a girl actually swiped right on me on
tinder okay really good-looking but then
she came for the show and she sat on the
front row and she didn’t laugh and like
a we should rejected in your tinder
if I were to give you an analogy about
comedy I’d say it’s a lot like cricket
you might have 10,000 runs or 100 shows
behind you but every single time you
step on that pitch you start from zero
and you have that same nervousness till
you score your first run your first
laughter you’re always nervous and yes
you come with the prepared script you
have a game plan in mind
but at that moment you will always
respond to the bowling or to the inbox
why it’s just echoing a little yeah oh
you’ll always respond to the environment
to the bowling and to the conditions and
yes sometimes you’ll have great days but
even the bad joke gets a lot of laughs
you know sometimes in the edge goes to
the boundary but sometimes you will have
those days when even your best jokes
will get a response so I thought this is
a stand-up comedy show this looks more
like a TED talk this happens as well and
you know I mean I think a typical
inspirational talk we all know that
template right of a typical
inspirational motivational talk nobody
wants to hear a story about I started
well and I started doing even better
right nobody likes to hear a story of
just positive achievements if I tell you
yes I was poor and fat and my father
used to beat me with pokémon’s and
that’s why I took up comedy what a story
right hey do you know why we reject that
story because we know in real life it’s
not possible to have just success
there’s always struggle because nothing
in life that is worth having comes easy
but see the thing is that I’ve already
spoken about the struggles of comedy in
another TED talk you know I’ve already
spoken about that maybe one struggle I
haven’t spoken about is the constant
pressure to always be funny people
expect you to be funny offstage as well
this one time I went for a wedding in
Calcutta and nobody spoke to me for
three days because every time somebody
came up to me like hey
tell us a joke I didn’t want to so they
never spoke to me after that it’s quite
ridiculous but another question that I
want to ask you know which I’m really
confused about is that why am I here why
have you called me is it because I’m a
stand-up comedian because I’m a
successful stand-up comedian I mean I
don’t know what determines success the
maximum number of laughs the maximum /
hits on YouTube
or the maximum number of F is filed
against you what makes for a successful
startup why did you call me I mean would
you have called me if I was an AVP dead
syndication for short term working
capital finance Western Region Pawnee
branch I don’t know why this laughter at
Pawnee but I’ll go ahead and then people
tell me you know what it’s because they
come you quit Investment Banking to take
up comedy so I quit something short to
take up something uncertain you
shouldn’t be cheering me on should be
putting me in therapy and yet you’ve
called me here and people say no Vikram
you took a risk you know you had the
guts to do this I never had the guts you
had the guts to do this of course then
we’re like they don’t say guts they use
another word which I can’t say at a TEDx
but what if I were to dispel this whole
romantic notion around what I’ve done
and say no it wasn’t really a risk that
what I took was a very logical and
rational decision what if I told you
that any investment banking job I saw
entire divisions laid off overnight that
I speak to a lot of my friends in media
and a lot of them are shutting down and
laying off people and if you work in an
MNC bank it’s just a complete you know
crazy fest that happens out there 2008
we are entering India 2009 we are
exiting India 2010 knowledge do the
longji dance for casual Friday that’s
the kind of you know struggle that they
have nothing is clear I mean I think
about in my business yes I have those
movements okay this month there hasn’t
been any awning shows so I tell myself
no problem we’ll just work a little
harder promote ourselves a little more
put one more video out on Facebook I’ll
get to corporate shows and sorted but in
this other job I found that I’m entirely
dependent you know my career my earning
my entire life could be dependent on the
whims and fancies of another boss whose
mind just keeps changing you know more
often than Arvind Kejriwal
so you don’t get me wrong I’m not trying
to say that one is better than the other
all I’m saying is that maybe we need to
relook our perception of what is safety
and what is risky that I don’t really
take a risky decision as much as I took
as one which was backed by logic all I
did is I decided to focus on my
strengths and cater to a niche and that
is very much how the idea of boardroom
comedy was born a lot of people often
ask me you know why corporate humor
I mean office is supposed to be this
boring place right where nobody laughs
I’ll be honest a lot of comedians don’t
like doing corporate shows they say we
just do it for the money because nobody
laughed there’s no passion that audience
is not interested at all I tell them no
they’re just real people just like you
and me the same people that come to a
canvas laugh club the only difference is
in office they have to wear a mask
because they are scared because
everything is being watched and judged
they are scared to be themselves and
when you come there as a corporate
comedian what happens is that you are
able to take off this mask because I am
able to tell them that hey guys I have
been there I know what lies breathe the
mask you can’t hide but it’s okay I’m
one of you and we take off that mask and
we address everything that really
happens in the corporate world we joke
about it and nobody gets offended
because we’re all like one family just
you know cracking a common joke about
what happens internally and just for
those thirty minutes when we do a show
or a workshop all the masks are gone and
this cuts across hierarchy you know
bosses sub-bosses interns you know one
of those most deprived category of
humanity everybody laughs at the same
joke and everybody comes on one platform
and that pretty much is how the idea of
boardroom comedy went forward
we do something called clowning you know
for corporates and I can tell you that
clowning is this very very deep
inhibition dropping exercise when we
take you back into your child state
remember as children you didn’t have any
inhibitions you just go and play with
anybody okay just okay I like that toy
all right let’s play together you didn’t
see their degrees or you know where they
come from or whether they’re from Fannie
it was that easy and they say that the
clown nose is the world’s smallest mask
not because it hides your true persona
but once you put it on it brings out the
real you brings out the real person
inside it’s like they say about Batman
right that that’s not really his mask
his real mask is Bruce Wayne because the
real person actually is Batman all we do
in these workshops and these choses for
a few moments we allow everyone to
become Batman and we allow people to
connect and it’s played out pretty well
if I were to ask you know like okay why
boardroom comedy I would say it allows
me to do everything that I liked about
corporate life and just ignore the stuff
that I didn’t like I always wanted to do
workshops for senior management I want
to do training workshops now if I go and
buy the traditional route I would have
had to work a lot I would have had to
work for 78 years I would have had to
show certificate people what are your
certifications nobody asked for
certification from a stand-up comedian
if you are funny they just take you on
board just like you guys I guess and
that allowed us to kind of cut through
and do a lot of things that we wanted to
do I always wanted to do advertising or
to do marketing create ad campaigns
again I would have had to struggle as a
copywriter for many years
again another ignored part of humanity
is copyright as I guess after interns
and we were able to directly work with
clients like Mithila loss while urban
clap and tightening to create marketing
campaigns and comedy allowed us to do
that I always wanted to you know just be
a keynote speaker at a big conference
and we recently last year we did
something called the economic time
startup Awards you know where we had all
the biggest people we had Evan Spiegel
the founder of snapchat we also had
Miranda Kerr so nobody looked at Evan
Spiegel for too long a bit and we also
had Pete Lauer the founder of one-plus
now I remember while introducing him
there was this one line that we use you
know that Pete Lau is one of the most
amazing entrepreneurs everybody wants to
know what his ideas are you know and
everybody wants to ask him a lot of
questions but there’s one question I
want to ask Pete that all of us want to
ask him hey Pete do you have a 1+2 in
white now the point is I didn’t even
care if this joke is funny or not
I said Bodrum comedy allowed me to ask
this question which probably only ten
people in the world would ever get to
ask him it kind of allowed us to do that
I mean if they effectively I’m going to
be honest about this it’s not like I’ve
had a stellar corporate career
lot of struggles if you look at my
career I was in consulting then I was an
in-flight entertainment then I was an
investment banking I am doing comedy
very logical career progression and this
was actually a challenge when I was
looking for jobs people used to look at
my CV and say there’s no clarity what
are you doing I thought I may not get
another job after that because people
said you know what you’ll do well in
sales but your CD scares me but today
the same crazy logical career
progression is my opening joke and the
reason that we’re able to do so many
shows for different kind of companies is
because we’ve worked with so many
industries so we can do jokes on every
possible industry so honest saying is
that in some way everything that was a
weakness everything that was a
frustrating you know aspect of corporate
life is today allowing us to make great
jokes on the same thing I want to tell
you some one thing also on a more
personal note you guys have a slight
visual disability I have a bit of a
squint in my left eye so I often a wide
audience interaction because people just
get confused who the hell am I talking
to and it gets me in a lot of trouble
you know somebody once told me you know
this this is famous Indian expression in
the land of the blind the squint eyed
man is the king I took it seriously I
went to the National Association of the
blind and I told them your king is
arrived now a lot of people would think
this is the visual disability and
something to hide but a lot of comedians
like I wish I had the squint so I could
do the same jokes and you know the same
thing that happened that whatever is a
weakness actually turned to a strength
and that same thing when translated into
boardroom comedy became what is our
business line so I just want to leave
you with this one thought is that you
know look if you can find something that
turns all your weaknesses into a
strength and guys that is the business
that you want to be in just don’t
compete with my business or hey my name
is Vikram Poddar I hope you guys have
had an interesting session thank
[Applause] you