New Delhi: Filmmaker Karan Johar is all set to debut as a stand-up comic in the second season of ‘One Mic Stand’, despite the fact that he doesn’t laugh while listening to the scripts of comedies.
Talking about his experience of doing stand-up comedy, Karan said: “I had never actually thought about it. I am not somebody who is a laugher by nature, I just don’t laugh out loud ever. Even when I am hearing the script of comedies, I don’t laugh. I always give the writer, narrator that disclaimer in advance. But I am very intrigued by it. I have always wondered how isolating it can be for the person standing on stage compelled to be funny. What if jokes don’t land?””So I took this as a challenge. I think comedy is very evolving in today’s zone of pop culture and I believe stand-up comedy is a new amazing vertical in the world of entertainment which I have always wanted to be a part of. This is the reason I gave this a thought and agreed,” he added.
Karan shared about getting trained by well-known stand-up comedian Sumukhi Suresh and what he liked about her most.
He said: “The reason I wanted Sumukhi and no one else is because I am very fascinated by her. I have seen many of her set pieces and she is fantastic. She is real, relatable and I really love her. She is one of the big reasons I agreed to do this.”
Talking about making jokes land, he said: “When I am laughing loudly on Koffee with Karan I am also servicing a show. You don’t want to laugh but you are laughing loudly because you want to make the audience believe your guest is funny. I think the one thing about being an audience of comedy is that you have to be a laugher. Because imagine having me and I will be plain face and sniggering and it will be a death nail for anyone watching. So one of the reasons I did this was to see if I would be able to make my jokes land.”
When asked who would he mentor from the film industry in standup comedy, he said: “Well, I think Alia Bhatt is a terrific actor and when she narrates a story she can be really funny. Therefore, it will be very exciting for me to mentor her because I am not prolific but at least to watch her do it herself would be interesting. She can really tell a story and land on the punch line in a cool kind of way.”
‘One Mic Stand’ will be streaming from October 22 on Amazon Prime.