In his 30s, stand-up comedian Amit Tandon decided to risk it all and gave up a flourishing business, to do something which he loved.
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00:00When the elders are drinking at home,
00:04stay close to them.
00:07You get to know a lot.
00:10Sometimes you even get paid.
00:13But the whole day, daddy is an acting daddy.
00:16Real daddies come out after 3 pegs.
00:19I was actually running a fairly successful business.
00:30I was, you know, we had like 35-40 people working for us.
00:34But I started doing comedy as a hobby earlier and I realized
00:42the, you know, when you get on stage, the freedom of expression
00:46that you get is just unparalleled.
00:49And when you can make people laugh, it's almost like a drug,
00:53you know, it's you want to go back and do it again and again.
01:00So it was like a double shift, going out to places to do comedy,
01:03traveling. But finally I quit it when I started making the same
01:09amount of money from comedy as I was making from my business.
01:14And the reason was that, you know, now I was getting paid to
01:17tell stories.
01:23I had to convince my family that this is something that can
01:26work as a profession and I can take care of my kids with that.
01:30So that was the other challenge, the perception of the society,
01:33you know, convincing your parents even when I was like 36-37
01:38when I got into comedy, but still had to convince my parents
01:41that yes, this is something that, you know, can transform
01:45into, you know, living for rest of my life.
01:56The first challenge for me was to get used to that whole like,
02:01you know, mentally get ready to fail every day, but still come
02:05back the next morning and, you know, try my set again.
02:16I was a shy kid, but I like to get on stage and I think the
02:22first time I got on stage, I did comedy and I did a set by
02:27Johnny Lever Sir.
02:28This is like long ago.
02:30This would be in 1980s, 86 or 87.
02:34I was in my 6th, 7th standard and that time I performed a set
02:40from Johnny Lever Sir's cassette and I loved how I could make
02:43people laugh at that time.
02:45And then, you know, I would always look forward to getting
02:49on stage and I was not just somebody who wanted to get on
02:54stage.
02:54I wanted to write and create.
02:56So during college time, I used to write all the plays and stuff.
03:15In comedy, the thing is you are judged every 10 seconds.
03:22Okay, it's one of the most brutal art forms because you know,
03:26there is no baggage that you are coming with.
03:30Every time you get on stage, you have to make strangers laugh,
03:34which is not an easy job.
03:36Okay, and if you get like two minutes of silence, it means that
03:41you are dead.