SHABIHA NUR KHATOON
For stand-up comedian Neeti Palta, to be able to have her audience in splits is an ‘achievement greater than any’
Stand-up comedy in India has come of age. Over the years many young comedians have come to the forefront and some of them have won the hearts of audiences with hilarious performances.
Neeti Palta, one of the few female stand-up comedians in India today, is certainly one of them. She has received appreciation for her performances in the country and abroad. Although Neeti never wanted to be a comedian, she has made a mark in the stand-up comedy circuit in no time.
After graduating in English literature from Delhi University, Neeti completed her post-graduation in journalism and mass communication from Pune’s Symbiosis Institute. During her college days she used to contribute humourous pieces to her college newspaper which she also edited.
After post-graduation, Neeti started out with a job in an advertising agency in Pune and was later transferred to Delhi where she worked with the advertising agency J Walter Thompson for a while. In Delhi Neeti got a chance to write for the kids’ show ‘Galli Galli Sim Sim’, the Indian adaption of the popular American edutainment show ‘Sesame Street’.
Neeti said the Indian adaptation of ‘Sesame Street’ was a gratifying experience in her career. She wrote content for five consecutive seasons of the show after which she got her first – much-awaited –break in stand-up comedy.
Asked why she chose English as the medium of her comedy, Neeti replied, “Thanks to my upbringing I have been trained to think in English. Not just language, in comedy content too matters. I have done shows in India and abroad. The tastes of the audiences, however, are vastly different.”
The content of Neeti’s comedy is derived from daily life. She doesn’t watch other comedians because she is careful to avoid getting influenced by them. Neeti also banks on the kind of humour that her audience can easily relate to.
Asked whether as a woman she had to face hurdles in securing a foothold in a male-dominated domain, Neeti said, “At the initial stage it was tough but things slowly started falling in place. As a woman you have the advantage of getting noticed easily enough. There are many stand-up comedians these days jostling for space in a crowded domain and the only mantra of success is originality. My comedy, unlike many others’, is not lewd. That is why people of all ages and temperaments love it.”
Neeti admitted her parents were initially unhappy with her decision to take up stand-up comedy as a career. So much so that till a time they skipped her shows. “My dad, who is in the army, is a man of conventional values. He was upset with my decision to choose an unconventional career. ‘You are a writer,’ he would keep saying. It was difficult for him to understand my offbeat aspirations. My parents were also worried that I have to keep late hours and move around in the company of strangers. It took me one year to convince them that what I was doing was not all bad. In 2011, I did my first stage show at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi which my parents went to see. The audience was in splits and the response was overwhelming. My parents that day felt proud of their daughter,” Neeti chirped.
The humourist shared a few memorable moments in her short-yet-fun-filled career. “I was roped in to perform at a corporate show in Hyderabad once. That day I was running a temperature and was certainly not in my cheery best. I just wished everything to go off well. Only when at the end of the show the grim corporate crowd got up on its feet and started clapping loudly that I realised that my nervousness was unfounded. The fever was gone in a minute,” she said.
Once, Neeta was asked to perform on a man’s 80th birthday. “I thought and thought hard as to what entertaining pieces of advice to give to the audience that would suit the occasion. I chose examples from daily life. The performance was a grand success. All the ladies present came up to me at the end of the show to confess that the suggestions I had proffered were exactly the ones they give to their children,” said Neeti.
But the most memorable of the many memorable moments was when a boy who was in the audience got up in the middle of a show to say he broke his spectacles while listening to one of Neeti’s jokes. “He was sipping water from a glass which collided with his specs as he started laughing after the joke was delivered. I was overjoyed by his spontaneous reaction. To be able to make people laugh is a great achievement, greater than any other,” said Neeti.
Among Indian comedians Neeti likes Varun Grover. “He is brilliant in explaining the deepest thoughts in a simple way. Varun’s comedies are purely political and he is just fantastic,” she said.
The comedian is currently writing a solo and is striving for a more pronounced presence on YouTube.
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Favourite actor: Shah Rukh Khan
Favourite actress: Kajol
Inspirations: Humans and motion.
