Prasad Bhat is rocking the stand-up comedy stage

From being in a metal band to comedy, Prasad Bhat brings his viral jokes to Chennai next Friday

When Prasad Bhat’s very first stand-up set video went viral, he was elated. Till he read the comments. “I had taken a dig at North Indians, and there was a lot of hate coming my way. But I was more bothered about the fact that there were better jokes than mine in the comments,” says the Bengaluru-based comic. As he talks about his upcoming Chennai show, Bhat of All Jokes, he baits me with some city rivalry. “It has been over 10 years since I last visited — I attended a very disappointing rock show at IIT-Madras, so I never came back. But now I hear that both cities are equally bad, so I don’t mind,” he says, with a hearty chuckle.

Mixing it up

Stand-up was not Bhat’s first career choice: he was in a metal band, then founded a design studio called Graphicurry, with clients like Disney, Marvel, Amazon Prime and Hotstar. A friend suggested he try comedy, and like most other comics, he started off with open mics back in 2016. “The problem with comedy is that it is very bizarre. You write a joke and you might find it funny, but you need to go on stage and see if it resonates with a majority of the crowd. It took about six months to get three minutes worth of material that works,” says the 36-year-old, adding, “To stand out, you need to be saying something extremely different or be way better than those who are already in the field.”

With his three YouTube videos (with a combined 3.46 million views) he has found that his life stories work best — “because they are unique to me” — and that is what he will be sharing at his new show. On the personal front, he will be talking about his family and recent experiences of fatherhood. “Luckily, my wife has a great sense of humour and she likes my jokes,” he says, when asked how his family reacts to such material. He will also reveal the real reason he went viral and how he became an artist after studying engineering. “I have failed a lot at many things, and failure makes great content. When things don’t go your way, people love laughing at that. It is also a great way to rewrite your history, and own it,” he concludes.

Watch Bhat of All Jokes at SOCO at Bamboo Bar on February 7, from 7.30 pm. Tickets from ₹299 on in.bookmyshow.com.