“Comedy karna namumkin nahi, but mushkil hai”- Nasif Akhtar
“I believe that I am a pure bengali but no one believes that, I don’t care and I proudly proclaim myself as a bong”. Meet Nasif Akhtar, a stand-up comedian and director of short films!
Once we see his stand-ups we will indeed be willing to enquire about his talents and once we learn about his struggles one would definitely be extremely inspired by his life . He always believed that “no matter how dark it gets the sun will rise again” This talented youngster is from Malda, West Bengal and did his B.Sc in Animation and VFX from St. Xaviers College,Kolkata and Masters in film making from Mumbai.
“When I say my name in Mumbai and mention that I am from Bengal, they automatically assume that I might be a Bangladeshi” How sweet, Isn’t it ?
Once we get to hear him we would definitely be impressed by his sarcasm and sense of humour.
So let’s go straight to him and hear his amusing words !
What makes your stand-up comedy unique and different from other comedians?
I always try to make jokes which will relate to people of all ages and cultures. Comedy is a relative thing, one joke which is funny to you, might not be funny to your friend. Recently, many comedians do make jokes which make youngsters laugh but never the parents. I do work hard to make jokes that are relatable and funny to every human of this world (obviously he or she should get what I am saying). For example, I have a set on relationship between dad and son which is almost the same all over the world. Basically, subjects and details I choose are very common.
What, to your mind, is the relationship of comedy to depression and suffering?
Every emotion is important, even sadness. All of them makes our life beautiful. What I think is that we get pain, jelousy, pride, anger etc very easily every now and then in our society. Comedy is rare, unless there is a person in the group who makes the whole group laugh as always. We comedians just do that professionally. According to me, comedy is nothing special, but it is needed because it is not enough in our society to balance with all the emotions. Some won’t believe me, but i am telling you from personal experience that there are comedians who can kick your depression away surely. It’s rare because its so much difficult but it happens, trust me.
Sometimes when people go shopping for clothes they will see something they really like, but they won’t buy it because it doesn’t go with anything else in their wardrobe. Do you ever come up with jokes that aren’t in your voice that would not go with your act, like something dirty or really political, so you don’t use them ?
Personally, I am different from many comedians in this particular area, I am not comfortable with offending someone. I do few religious, political, racist and sex jokes which I will omit soon. I was never comfortable doing them but I did because all the comedians do those kind of jokes. Sometimes, when I express my feelings on stage , some bad words come out naturally. While writing, I always avoid these types of jokes as it might offend someone which I am not comfortable with. I don’t wanna be happy hurting someone else’s sentiment.
A friend of yours just got married a month ago. He is also pursuing a career in standup comedy. Any advice on how to make that work?
My first advice which he didn’t listen to is that “dont marry” so I don’t know whether he will listen this time but anyway I want to tell him that go to as many open mics as you can. Don’t care about the judgement of people. Stick to your own style. Believe in your own writing skills. No matter what, Learn from your faults, try whatever you think is funny, think and think always about jokes. If you find a beautiful joke, break it and try to figure how the joke was made. Watch comedians perform as much as you can. Anyone can become a great comedian, it just takes time, effort and passion. Comedy karna namumkin nahi, but mushkil hai.
Tell us about a moment in your comedy career that you’re particularly proud of.
There are many moments I thought I did really well and achieved something but I am not proud of any particular moment. Life treats us all just like a video game scenario, we pass one tough stage then another stage comes then you start thinking how easy the last stage was. Grow every second. Make your achievements bigger than the last one.
Do you find that your style of comedy works better with some audiences than others? What strategies do you use to adapt to that?
How do you deal with hecklers? But aren’t hecklers helping the show?
As I told earlier, I always try to make the jokes relatable and funny to all kind of audiences. I know its not that feasible but I try. Personally, I love hecklers. I love to talk to strangers in real life and be friends with them. Sometimes I really want someone to heckle me. Off-stage, It feels easy to answer with a witty comeback but its difficult and different on stage and sometimes it goes wrong too.
Make us all laugh by a one liner !
Once I was trying to unlock the door, after trying for a couple of hours I decided not to steal.
Wait Wait its not over !!
I tickled a guy so hard but he wouldn’t laugh .One stranger saw this and screamed angrily ” Respect the dead body ” !!
Catch Nasif on Facebook
