30/10/20
It is a rainy October evening and I am sat - drenched - in a comedy club in Soho. I am nervous, partly because my friend Amelia Mehra is performing, and partly because of this bloody virus. The entertainment space is a compact room above a bar. The tables are set somewhat apart, but probably not two metres. No matter: my chair faces the wall, away from people. I have to twist my head to see the stage and by the end of the show I have a crooked neck, which I fear will never heal, but I persuade myself that it was worth it: at least I have avoided infection.
Watching live comedy in between lockdowns is a strange experience. When I arrived at the venue, overly keen comedians welcomed me wearing face masks and obsequiously offered hand sanitiser; perhaps they are buttering me up before their acts, I thought. In between each performance somebody wipes down the microphone, conspicuously waving about a Dettol packet, making sure the audience knows they are not just using cheap baby wipes.
There are multiple jokes about the pandemic and I'm not sure if I'm ready to hear them, considering we are still in one. Anecdotes about Covid wards cropped up repeatedly; as did the "new normal", dating in a pandemic, unemployment, inept politicians, and proclamations about how the individuals sitting at the tables were of course all from the same household. Each time the latter is mentioned, I inch my seat towards the wall.
Thankfully, Mehra avoided these topics and it was refreshing to hear her speak about life before Covid. She is fairly new to comedy - first trying standup when she went to university, but I met her way before her comedy club days. We have known each other for nearly a decade; long enough for us to obnoxiously only refer to each other by our last names. We attended the same secondary school, and although plenty of ridiculous situations occurred during our time there, she does not draw upon adolescent experiences in her sets. I can't list what she actually says as that would ruin her next gig, so you'll have to believe me when I say she is genuinely funny.
I have seen her perform (several times in fact), yet each time before she goes on I get butterflies, as if I were the one going on stage. During one particularly boring act, I ruminated about this; trying to discover why I feel second-hand nerves. I think it's because I'm worried about her set going wrong - I have never witnessed this in person, but I do ask her about any disastrous moments (in our interview below). Ironically, at the Soho club, one comedian forgot his entire set but still got the biggest clap of the night. Fortunately, the audience were very forgiving and there were no hecklers present.
Towards the end of the evening, we were transformed back to our school days when the host told us off for talking during his concluding speech. I felt nostalgic, if not slightly embarrassed. I morphed into my teenage self: slumping in my chair and praying not to be picked on again.
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Hi Mehra! Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by little old me. How has the turbulent year of Covid affected you in terms of a comedian?
Hey Braddick! Well gigs have mostly been cancelled or very odd for the past year. It’s been a case of sporadically getting in stage time in between lockdowns, really reduced audience numbers, and forcing pals to buy substantial meals.
How do you create jokes for your routine? Do you often draw upon "real life"?
This is such a difficult question because honestly I have no idea - I’m not even sure I write jokes. I just find certain concepts and phrases and ways of saying things funny, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t! If I do take anything from real life it’s always very much falsified in some way, sometimes it’s a straight up lie, part of the fun is tricking the audience.
Do you have any inclination of how well they'll do or if they'll land?
Sometimes, but honestly my favourite bits are often small throw-away lines that get no audience response but I keep because I love. That’s most often what I enjoy in other peoples sets too - a very specific turn of phrase that isn’t even the punchline. A friend of mine’s policy in standup writing is “one joke for me, one joke for the audience” which I think I tend to follow too.
How often do you change your material?
All. The. Time. I’m dreadful for this, most people have a set they like and stick to it. That’s really important for perfecting your material. I just get bored after doing the same set more than five or so times (maybe that’s just my comedy roots in improv showing). I’ve so far dabbled in storytelling, musical, and character comedy.
After the show you went up to some of the other comedians. Do you often bump into the same crowd?
Sometimes! After a while you’re quite likely to run into the same people - and when you do it’s fun to watch them improve and perfect their sets. You can see someone do a totally fine set one night, then the next night it’s utterly hilarious. Maybe they changed something in the delivery, added a crucial punchline, or maybe there was just a different energy in the room. Either way, it’s so cool to watch that growth.
Dare I ask: what is your worst stage experience? If it's something embarrassing, how do you deal with it/ bounce back?
Thankfully I’ve never really had an issue with hecklers, but my worst experiences come from silence. Nothing is more horrifying than doing a 5 minute set to absolute silence. But the thing is, standup is absolutely fickle. You could do the exact same set in the exact same way another night and have it go incredibly. Sure, sometimes you just need better jokes, but other times it’s just not your crowd and that’s okay.
In today's political climate, are there any topics that you avoid and others should avoid? Should it be regulated?
I don’t think anything should be off limits, it is very much possible to have an amazing joke on a difficult topic. When I watch standup, I need to fully trust a comedian before they go into charged topics, or else I find it incredibly uncomfortable because I don’t know where they actually stand on the issue. I don’t think that should be regulated, but do wish people would be more careful and remember to punch up, not down.
What's next for you?
I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with my theatre company while comedy is on hiatus, and we have very exciting projects on the horizon (@ElephantTalkTheatre, follow us on Instagram, what a plug). I’ve actually just booked in my first standup gig of 2021 for the start of June so that’s very very exciting - assuming this article doesn’t skyrocket me to fame first...
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Check out Mehra at @ameliamehra & @ElephantTalkTheatre
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