Biswa Kalyan Rath: I’m very lazy, don’t like using my brain

Biswa Kalyan Rath is back with his third stand-up show – Mood Kharaab, directed by Kannan Gill, which now streaming on Prime Video from May 5. In his trademark rant-style delivery, Biswa takes a humorous approach to a range of topics from his own personal experiences to societal issues, using his sharp observational skills to poke fun at the absurdities of modern life.

Biswa sat down with Hindustan Times for a fun conversation where he talked about clocking a decade with stand-up comedy, writing during the pandemic and why all questions make his mood kharaab.

It has been 10 years since you first started doing stand-up gigs. How has the journey been for you?

It has been a dream, man! It is a dream! I never thought I will be doing stand-up in my life and now it has been 10 years and I am still doing it. I have never stuck to anything for more than two days! This is like… this is such a big change in my life and I still love it as much as I did the first day I got on stage. It has been an amazing journey to have made so many people laugh so much. It feels great. I wish I can do this for 10 more years, I mean I will! If I stay alive, if I die then I won’t!

Tell us a little bit about Mood Kharaab.

Mood Kharaab is my latest stand-up special. It is my collection of jokes, starting from 2019… like after Sushi (his 2019 stand-up show on Prime Video) whatever jokes I have written, I have collected them all. Obviously during the pandemic, there was no comedy happening. So its a collection of about two years of material together and it has a little bit of a twist in the end, an alternative style of comedy and it was shot in London- for no good reason! (laughs) Because we could so we did! The show is in Hindi though. Yeah, it is my third stand-up special and I really hope I can make people laugh and cure their kharaab mood!

So, you said that you were writing during the pandemic because obviously there was no comedy that time. Do you think the space of stand-up comedy has changed in the last few years, and if so, how do you bring that perception when you face the audience?

I think the world faced a big challenge during the pandemic. The shows were just happening on Zoom for comedy. I don’t think there has been a very big impact on how comedy has been before pandemic and now. For a while it was a little weird, because nobody knew whether there should be a mask, people could laugh or not, it was not audible… all this confusion was there. how can so many people be inside the auditorium. But now thankfully, with everybody vaccinated and Covid having subsided, I mean, still around… but things are really better now. So, its almost back to normal. I think pandemic gave everybody a little bit of a time to re-access their own comedy. So now, everybody’s style has evolved a little bit. So maybe that’s the difference.

I am sure you’ve been asked this question countless times, about how you shifted from engineering to comedy. I imagine this question making your mood kharaab in some way. If I have to ask you what are some questions that make your mood kharaab, what would you say?

To be honest, all questions make my mood kharaab! (laughs) Because I am very lazy and I don’t like using my brain. Even in school I used to hate when teachers used to ask questions like just you tell the answer you already know. (laughs) So, no but seriously it really depends on the mood I would say. If the mood is great then all questions and discussions are great. If you are feeling lazy then all questions can make your mood kharaab. There’s no such specific thing or question that would make my mood kharaab.

I think I will just answer it more precisely, no questions make my mood kharaab. But if my mood is already kharaab then I am answering no questions.

So the punchline for Mood Kharaab goes something like, ‘If everything in the world makes you angry then you are in the right place.’ Now, what are some of the things that make Biswa Kalyan Rath a little happier?

Oh, I love food, especially spicy food. And I love all kinds of cuisines, especially Indian cuisine! Just eating very good food cheers me up like anything. Drinking a cola on a hot day is amazing. I am not promoting cola but I like it. Then, I would say, scrolling mindlessly through the internet just to find that one video I liked. That really makes me happy. Not watching, just scrolling through stuff that makes me happy. That’s what I do all day and a good song makes me really happy.

What are some of the recent stand-up shows that you really liked and would recommend.

I would highly recommend Zakir Khan’ show Tathastu, I think its a really good show. I would also recommend Rahul Subhramanium’s Crowd works Special. I happened to be a director on it, you can watch it on Prime Video. Also, Abhishek Upamanyu’s new special is on his channel so I would highly recommend that. These are the Indian content that I would recommend for now.