My “Smiling moment of the Year” 2025

Conquering the Mic: My First Stand-Up Comedy

My first Stand-Up Comedy experience. It all began when I got a two-week break between two projects. My first ever “bench experience” in my career. Just one week before the first DPPL event, there came an announcement inviting everyone to showcase their talents. 

Though an ambivert, humour has always been a natural part of me, something I use instinctively to lighten the mood and keep the environment positive. Ever since Covid, doing a stand-up comedy act had been on my bucket list.

I have always admired good emcees. Not everyone can become one. Holding a microphone, keeping the audience engaged, thinking on your feet, reading the room, and carrying the energy of an entire event is a skill in itself.

Being on stage is not everyone’s cup of tea. I had seen even confident speakers on the ground struggle the moment they stepped onto a stage with a mic in their hand. And honestly, I had the same fear too.

I had originally given my name for storytelling for the first DPPL event with stand-up comedy in mind… to avoid the team spotlight.

And initially thought stand-up comedy was easy. Just fun dialogues and a few punchlines. The ways we joke with our friends/colleagues.

But once I got into it, I realized it’s a complete art form! It takes perfect timing, natural tone, cohesive script, expressive body language, confident presence, meaningful pauses, and sharp presence of mind to make people truly laugh and connect.

Being a big fan of Rahul Subramanian and Max Amini, I realized everyone has their own style..either it can be talking abt common social observations, personal experiences or picking up a person from the crowd.

The Hardest Person to Roast Was Myself

In order to avoid becoming viral in corporate environment,  “I decided to roast myself” using my own personal experiences starting from my Name to Pondicherry and recent Agile certification preparation at home.

Last two days were intense….while others were practising dance/skits in the training rooms, I took the ground floor rooms near the lift to practice… I still remember those times when I cross by those rooms…

There were moments I felt like giving up. The script wasn’t landing right, not sticking together, the tone felt off, timing is off, forgetting the lines.

But I kept pushing myself. I practiced during early mornings and after office hours. I gave my full for it with countless script rewrites and rehearsals with ad-hoc tasks in between.

My best (and toughest) critic? My son who not only corrected me but got so excited that he started rehearsing with me, throwing in his own roasting ideas! (Looks like I might have a future co-performer at home).

There were many instances I questioned why am I doing this? To whom am i doing this? What am I gonna get out of this?

However I continued to push myself hard….patting on my back every time I didn’t give-up. 

Stand-Up Comedy – Ten Minutes That Made It All Worth It

When the moment finally came, I grabbed the mic, walked the stage with confidence. At the end of those 10 mins, it wasn’t perfect. I certainly wouldn’t call it perfect. But for a first-time attempt, seeing the team smiling and laughing made it all worth it.

And yes, I even added a moral of the story to the stand-up comedy. Remember, the storytelling for which I really gave my name 

That feeling of fulfilment of finally checking off a long-time bucket-list goal and reminded me that courage often hides behind one’s emotions. 

If you’ve been sitting on a scary “yes” – this might be your sign.

Stand-Up Comedy – Key Takeaways

• Growth doesn’t always happen in comfort zone. Sometimes it starts with one scary “yes” which you almost wanted to say no to.
• Practice did not remove my fear completely. Fear was still there 😄 But practice gave me enough confidence to keep going.
• Good emcees don’t just perform on stage. What looks effortless is often hours of unseen practice.
• One thing I realized, every skill we admire in someone looks effortless from outside. But behind that “effortless” performance, there are hours of practice nobody sees.
• Looking back, my biggest win was not making people laugh. It was simply not giving up on myself. The loudest applause usually comes after success. The real test is whether you can keep going when nobody is clapping.

Things I Learned

• What looked super easy from audience seat felt completely different once I held the mic and stood on stage.
• Support can come from unexpected places. In my case, my son became both my toughest critic and biggest cheerleader.
• Sometimes bucket list goals are not even about the activity itself. It is about proving to yourself… “Wait, I can actually do this!”
• Perfection is honestly overrated. Sometimes just finishing what you started itself feels like a big achievement.

Read the other blog posts here.