Papa CJ on comedy, careers and ROTI
Papa CJ is an award-winning, world-renowned international stand-up comedian. He has performed over 2000 shows in over 25 countries. Forbes Magazine called him ‘the global face of Indian stand-up’ and Harvard Business Review called him 'one of the most influential comedians around the world’. He has won awards for Asia’s and India’s best stand-up comedian.
His maiden book, an autobiography titled ‘Naked’, was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2020.
Stand-up comedy is a comedic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them through a microphone. The performer is commonly known as a comic, stand-up comic, comedian, comedienne, stand-up comedian, or simply a stand-up.
He holds an MBA degree from the University of Oxford and is an experienced motivational speaker. He has been invited to speak at Harvard University and the University of Oxford. As a corporate coach he has trained over 50 blue-chip companies globally. He consults brands on concepts and content strategy, mentors CEOs, helps corporate leaders with their speeches and assists start-ups and businesses refine their pitches for new business and funding. Under his initiative called The Happiness Project he performs in support of charitable causes across the world.
I invited Papa CJ to the Dreamers and Unicorns live chat on 1st Jan 2020. The free flowing chat was peppered with questions from a curious and engaged audience. Here are some funny, insightful and some poignant moments from the chat.
The first question I wanted to know was how does he answer the question, “What do you DO for a living? Tell jokes? But what do you DO?
Papa CJ was one of the pioneers of this form of entertainment. He explains the difference between between comedy as is understood in the West and how the Indian audience views comedy.
The cost of your Dreams is often smaller than you think
Papa CJ acts as a corporate trainer and coach. For me this was my biggest take away from the conversation.
On success and failure in careers
Stand up comedy is a tough arena to play in. The audience judges you every 15 seconds. If they do not laugh within 15 seconds you are in trouble. How does he look at failure?
How to engage a distracted and bored audience?
“Customisation: Its got to be about THEM - the audience”
If you liked these clips, you will enjoy the rest of the chat, complete with banter, jokes and my awkward moments
Watch his act at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2020. The unsuspecting audience does not know how the rest of the year is going to unfold…