How comedian Kenny Sebastian started making us laugh

Kenny Sebastian is an accomplished painter and sculptor. He is also one of India’s most successful stand-up comedians. Sebastian took his Computer Science in classes 11 and 12 at the wish of his father, after which he pursued a degree in painting in Bangalore. This allowed him to explore other options such as theater and music, as he was interested in the creative arts.

A member of his college’s music band, he was part of the team that came to Mumbai for IIT’s Mood Indigo Fest and ended up participating in a stand-up comedy competition there as well. Won. The grand prize went to a performance at Mumbai’s prestigious Comedy Store hosted by Vir Das. Sebastian didn’t understand the gravity of the situation at the time. But when he returned to Bangalore after collecting his winnings, a rising bug bit him. He regularly performed at open mics and performed almost every day after college.

“Eventually, I was able to quit my freelance job editing videos for companies and sign a contract with OML, a management company in Bombay. So, yeah, slowly but surely. “Stand-up became a viable career. When we started, it was just telling jokes to a very small audience. But we started touring right away. We got an Amazon special, we did a world tour, we did a Netflix special. I had no idea.” It all started 14 years ago. It was to be a judge on a comedy show, to have a fiction show on Amazon, and to have a special on Netflix. This is completely unbelievable. It happened very naturally. I think that’s the beauty of stand-up. It’s your first time. The intention is to entertain and be interesting, and it all comes down to the end,” Sebastian said.

The question that arises in the current scenario is that the level of competition in the comedy world has increased tremendously with open mics being held regularly and many people taking up the challenge. When asked about this, Sebastian replies, “Define competition.” “I think every comedian’s goal should be to get an audience to come to their live show. And what’s even better is that they like your style and your comedy. That’s very It’s subjective and you can’t expect everyone to like your style of comedy. Even though I’m a very clean comic and do observational comedy in English, I still have a niche. But if there are people who like listening to Malayalam jokes and like more edgy, dark political humor, I’m not that person for them and there’s nothing wrong with that. So, to answer your question, I feel like there’s no competition, because the beauty of stand-up is that it’s one of the few areas where it’s encouraged. You should be unique and different. And if you’re unique and different and have fun doing that, your audience will find you. And I think that’s the best definition of stand-up success. So in that case, you’re not competing because there’s no one else like you,” says Sebastian, giving a fresh perspective on the issue.

And he is certainly successful. Last year, he performed in 65 cities around the world and sold about 50,000 tickets. And he couldn’t even cover the Southeast Asian region because he was exhausted and missed his homeland. His next world tour will be even more epic, as he will cover every continent.

And for those who haven’t experienced his humor yet, his comedic talents have been featured in the Amazon Prime Video special “Don’t be That Guy,” as well as the sci-fi comedy web series “Starboyz” on YouTube. , which can be seen on Comedy Central’s “The Living Room.” . He also co-wrote with Keiynan Gill and starred in Sketchy Behavior (Amazon Prime Video). The 33-year-old, who has worked with multiple brands such as Google, KFC, and Spotify to name a few, has another special creation in store, whether it be released on OTT platforms or other platforms. Whether or not this will be done will be decided at a later date. .

The author can be contacted at bkabir@entrepreneurindia.com. Instagram.com/kabirsinghbhandari