In the vibrant world of Indian stand-up comedy, where humour often dances between cultural nuances and personal anecdotes, Prashasti Singh has carved a niche of her own.
Known for her sharp wit, relatable storytelling and fearless social commentary, Prashasti has quickly emerged as one of the most refreshing voices in the industry.
You can catch her perform her newest show, Divine Feminine, on April 19 at Ola-Ola @ Marina One.
Her journey into the world of comedy was anything but conventional. Initially pursuing a career in business after obtaining a degree from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and spending four years working in major MNCs, the 38-year-old quickly realised that her true passion was pulling a laugh out of people.
She took the plunge into Mumbai’s bustling comedy circuit in 2018 when she participated in Amazon Prime’s Comicstaan, the stepping stone to her illustrious career in the stand-up scene.
As she inches closer to her show in Singapore, Prashasti tells us if gender plays a role in the traditionally male-dominated stand-up industry, about the pressure a comedian feels to reinvent oneself and her plans beyond touring the new show.
Divine Feminine, she says, is an amalgamation of musings over the past year of her experience as a woman in her late 30s who has achieved great professional success but wonders if the sacrifices were worthwhile.
She questions all her life choices and meticulously assigns blame to the women and men who shaped her into who she is today.
Female rage against the patriarchy is a common topic that most female comedians explore in their material as it is, after all, a unifying experience.
“I remember experiencing a mental block when I was told that my anger is very female, my stories are very female, that every other female comedian was saying the same thing – so in my second special, Man of the House, I purposely strayed away from that. I put a filter on me and assessed my jokes based on whether a man would make the same jokes. It felt so contrived. In Divine Feminine I allowed myself to fully express myself,” she said.
Prashasti, whose liberal parents allowed her to be herself, found it fair to assume that she would be more shielded from the realities of societal impositions.
However, to her dismay, that was not the case. “I am still treated like a sidekick or a supporting actor. So that fuelled my anger and I stopped trying to go away from this emotion and gave in instead.
“The great thing about comedy is that five people can use the same topic and, while their take on it might be similar, the voice is not,” Prashasti said, adding that if men can keep doing that, women should be allowed to as well.
Through her years of experience, she realised that pandering only resulted in her pigeonholing herself.
“My biggest strength is when I express myself honestly. I do not want to think about what it is becoming, I want to focus on what it is.”
This then sparked the conversation about how safe it really is for a comedian to express themselves authentically in India, where it has been repeatedly proven unsafe to do so.
She acknowledged that it is disheartening to watch comedians be vilified in the public eye for their jokes, which is exacerbated by the fact that there are so many other issues that deserve equal if not more attention.
This is with regard to the comments Ranveer Allahabadia (BeerBiceps) made on a YouTube comedy show recently that elicited a storm of complaints.
“I make jokes on romance and dating, so I figured I’ll be safe from such judgement. But over the years I have learnt that you cannot grow as an artist if you are not free to think and express,” she said, adding that the consequence of doing so in India is often disproportionate to the action.
She then drew comparisons in creative freedom between stand-comedy and Bollywood, where the formulaic plots have overtaken creative exploration for the sake of box office numbers. “If it works, it works, artistes don’t know how to be creative anymore,” she said.
Coincidentally however, Prashasti said that her plans in the future do include making a foray into Bollywood as a screenwriter.
She has flirted with the idea a few times but has yet to make the jump. “It is still very recent, the writing ecosystem is starting to realise that even comedians can add value,” she said.
