In brief:
You’re allowed to have fun just for fun
Pythagorus was a boss
My national Aus tour is on sale! Overseas dates to come :)
Reader question - how did you start stand up comedy
It’s a simple story. A friend told me to sign up for a national comedy competition, so I did.
I was in my whim-era — new to Melbourne and utterly depressed that all my friends had partners, houses, babies, careers, pets. Some with all of the above, overachieving b*stards.
I lived in a share house and struggled to commit to a phone contract. Two of my seven housemates lived in the backyard. During rent inspections they packed up their homes — Tommy’s in the Kombi van and Disco’s in the shed. Things deemed too expensive to take to the tip were set alight, weed grew in the second kitchen and doors were left open, often. Noone was surprised when we found a dog in the laundry on one occasion, noone knew when it came in or where from.
It’s a miracle I made it out of said era without buying a unicycle or a saxophone.
So, that’s how my first comedy set was at the Raw Comedy competition. I whispered my set into a hairbrush in my room an hour before the heat and told no friends, to easier erase the potential humiliation from memory.
There were thirty participants at my heat and despite the air con, I sweated profusely and was sure I’d hurl. Still when my turn came, I discovered an immediate love of speaking freely on stage about things I find funny. And the overwhelming pleasure of hearing an audience agree with laughter.
I only got to the state final but I was hooked. After that, I performed wherever would have me. Often for a free drink and to less people than the number of fingers on a human hand. I worked my day job then spent three to six evenings a week, watching or doing comedy. You learn twice at a gig, first when you’re on stage and next while you’re watching others on stage.
People always ask what it’s all for and look confused when I don’t have an answer beyond - it’s fun. It’s a beautiful disruption from the absolute banality of normal life where my two daily highlights are a) finding a sultana in the muesli I force myself to eat at the start of the day and b) finding no blood when I floss at the end of the day, because I’ve remembered to floss a few days in a row.
We don’t ask a child why they’re sitting in the garden blowing bubbles. They’re having fun. But an adult in a garden blowing bubbles? Get a job, do you not understand the world, adults don’t have fun — they work. We pick our one occupation as a teenager — “teacher” “electrician” “lawyer” — and feel lost if we can’t do it forever.
But we are not one thing, we are many. Did you learn the Pythagorus theorem at school? This one:
Pythagorus wasn’t just the triangle guy. He also founded a cult with a following of a thousand people (the OG influencer) calling themselves the Pythagoreans. They refused to eat beans which they believed to have souls, were highly suspicious of sex and believed Earth had a twin planet on the other side of the sun. Many things, many bubbles.
In my decade as a refugee lawyer, before moving to Melbourne, my work progressively became my only circle. I was outraged and confused when it didn’t bring me everything I needed in life.
I forgot about the bubbles, I forgot about fun.
When I was 19, my ex and I spoke of moving to Melbourne and “doing comedy” – we had no experience and no idea where to start. It was a pipe dream, spoken of while pursuing safe study pathways as a homage to our Sri Lankan parents who migrated to Australia for a better life. Perth did not have a big comedy scene then, so we downloaded all the comedy we could get our dodgy little virtual hands on and dreamt up exceptionally stupid skits. We continued to voraciously consume comedy as our safe study pathways turned into safe career pathways and took us overseas.
After we parted ways at 28, I forgot about comedy — until entering Raw Comedy at 31. I didn’t know I’d keep performing for years after that competition, that my videos would go viral or that my first solo show run would sell out. I still don’t know where it’s all going. I just know I’m having a lot of fun and my only regret is that I didn’t start earlier.
My national Aus tour is now on sale, a sentence I never thought I’d say. Global dates are firming up - UK, Amsterdam, Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand - all in the pipeline. US - you only give famous performers work visas so I can’t get to you yet and Canada - I’ll get into you at the same time. If you’re elsewhere - sorry! I still have my day job, I’ll share whatever I can online.
Point is, for whoever needs to hear it, you’re allowed to do something just because it’s fun. Go sign up for whatever it is that comes to mind for you right now — yes YOU — that thing, that secret thing your younger self really wanted to do, go do it.
It doesn’t have to power the economy, lead anywhere, save the world or anyone in it. You don’t have to be the best at it, you can do it purely for pleasure — we have one life, it’s okay to have fun. I still think about how much I would be missing today if I never signed up for that competition.
Take the Pythagorus approach to life — blow some bubbles, save some beans, start a cult, smash some maths. Mix it up — why do one thing when you can do many?
Big hugs
Sashi
P.S If you’re in Australia — sign ups for Raw Comedy are open right now — check it out!
A delight to see you still enjoying the, what is to me, extremely tough and scary activity of stand-up comedy - congrats!
I love the comparison with children that you have made here. Ironically, it is exactly that type of "aimless" activity that is part of the children's brain development, processing improvements and so many other aspects that are good for us - and do not really change with age.
So yeah, do it for just doing it. Particularly in our hyper-goal, hyper-measurement timeline right now. If you need any reminders or extra reasons, than just think of your brain!
Pythagoras didn't come up with the theorem though. They found it on a tablet that predated him by a 1000 years. So he is a little less of boss than we previously thought.