Marriage, pakode and Jaipur on funnyman Maheep’s mind

Necessity may well be the mother of all inventions, but for comedian Maheep Singh, what could possibly have been the necessity to create pakode is hard to fathom. In Jaipur last Saturday to perform at the Birla Auditorium, he asked the audience, “Who would have thought ki sabzi ko besan mein daal kar, usko fry kiya jayega? It is boredom which is the mother of all inventions, not necessity.” He added, “And marriage is another example of boredom.” These were only a few of the quips directed at the audience by the stand-up comedian during his gig.
From creation of language, evolution of mankind, Valentine’s Day and how he ruined his father’s publishing business to him dealing with depression – Maheep’s session had an amusing take on all of these. “We created the definition of success and failure and now we’ve restricted ourselves in our head. It’s important to embrace failure or you will never learn. Failure is inevitable. After experiencing one failure after the other, I turned into a really angry person who felt depressed and dejected. In that state, I could have easily shot anybody who tried to mess with my head. The choice was clear – to give in to the anger or make people laugh using comedy. I chose the latter,” he said as he addressed a young audience.
Those expecting Rajasthani jokes didn’t get to hear any because Maheep didn’t know any. “I only crack jokes about sardaars because it’s good to laugh at yourself,” he told us, adding, “I enjoy Marwari jokes, but unfortunately I don’t know any. Now I will learn some so that whenever I am in Jaipur next, I can crack some Marwari jokes or those directed at the people of Jaipur,” he added. Talking about what makes for a good stand-up comedian, he said, “A good stand-up comedian acts as a vent for people to channel their everyday frustration. So if you cuss at a politician, people enjoy it because deep down they’re also tired of their country’s political system. Woh gaali dena chahate hain, aur ek stand-up comedian unki feelings ko voice karta hai.”
Having performed in Jaipur many times, Maheep is glad that the city now witnesses several comedy gigs. He said, “Jaipur is a city that never fails to impress me. People of Jaipur are very receptive and I am happy to know that comedy gigs are happening so frequently in this city.”