When meeting Neeti Palta, she’s all smiles, especially when she whips out her phone and shows pictures of her two dogs. “They are mine, Socks and Punch!” says a beaming Palta. It’s a glimpse into the personality of a comedian who was voted the best stand-up comic at the Oz fest. Palta has also been the first Indian to perform at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2013. The comedian’s signature style of humour involves making jokes from a woman’s perspective. This, Delhi-based Palta says, comes naturally to her. “I’ve been a tomboy all my life,” Palta says just before she goes on stage to perform.
“Though my parents brought me up equally, whenever I prepare for a show, I dig into myself and things come up,” says Palta. “Clearly, there’s angst. Which Indian woman doesn’t have angst?! In Delhi, don’t we know what it’s like to feel molested by every pair of eyes in a DTC bus.” She clarifies quickly, though: “I’m not the angry feminist type. I don’t burn bras because they’re expensive!”
Before any act, Palta has an idea of the jokes and routines she will perform. “My natural instinct is to be tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic.” Though the comedian agrees stand-up comics have some lean days. She adds laughing, “I always think, anything bad that happens to comedians gives them material for their jokes.”
Another unique trait about Palta’s style is her affinity for breaking into Hinglish during performances. “Some punch lines are juicier in Hindi. I think in English, but some lines are better delivered in Hindi.” A good performance, she contends, comes from a good audience response. “We comedians perform for attention,” she smiles. “A lot of my jokes are born on stage if the performance is very good.”
Palta transitioned from writing in advertising and TV to eventually getting into stand-up comedy. “I was senior creative director at JWT and ex-head writer for Sesame Street USA’s Indian version, Galli Galli Sim Sim ,” she recalls. “From writing what was the height of political correctness, I became a stand-up comedian. But it is not as if I set out to be a comedian. It just happened,” she shrugs.
Palta says English stand-up comedy has become popular in India over the past six years. “Hindi stand-up comedy existed from the time of Birbal. Stand-up comedy was seen as a hobby, never as a profession. Now people actually quit their jobs to take this up full time.”
The conversation veers back to why it is so annoying when terms like women writers and women comedians are coined. “I recently posted an interview of mine on Facebook, which made me feel like an egoist and realist at the same. A realist because if more people found women funny, I wouldn’t make news!”
‘I’m a realist.
If more people
found women funny, I wouldn’t make news’