In a Twitter thread where he pours his heart out, Sharma takes readers through his personal journey. Radio production, testing material on poets at open mics, severe medical issues, an uncomfortable shift from a lavish lifestyle to one filled with struggle. Until finally, after a series of losses, life turned around when a waiter at Canvas Laugh Club (Mumbai) recorded his smashing two-hour-long set and showed it to his boss, asking, “Sir, yeh aadmi yahan kyun regularly perform nahin karta?”. It’s been an upward journey for him since, and he’s now a popular name on the circuit with millions of views on his YouTube videos.
How did he get there? There’s a series of inspiring and eventful stories behind the droopy-eyed comic with the slow delivery style. Here you go, in his own words:
After a flourishing radio business in Delhi, which didn’t work in Mumbai, Sharma experienced the first fallout of failure when he realised that those who used to hold him in high regard, now made fun of him to his face.
His isn’t a story of having left home with only Rs. 200 in his pocket, or spending nights eating bread dipped in water—his father supported him with money; Sharma just didn’t know at the time that his father was struggling with it himself.
When his radio business didn’t work in Mumbai and he ran out of savings in two years, he realised this was serious. He’d grown used to the luxuries of life in the past decade (Sharma is now 35). Then came a stomach surgery and witnessing two deaths, which ended with him on PTSD medication for five years. This explains his droopy eyes, he says, and his weight, and the reason he sometimes forgot his lines on stage—all of which he was made fun of for.
He didn’t say anything because he didn’t want anyone’s sympathy. Why’s he telling us now? Because he’s finally back to being financially and emotionally secure, and his health is back on track AND he’s going to be doing a Bollywood movie with big actors and directors.
He insists that even the last four years, when he struggled financially, would’ve been fine if he still had others’ support, which he realised very quickly that he didn’t. That depressed him more than anything.
He talks about the life-changing moment when a waiter recorded Sharma’s two-hour-long set at Canvas Laugh Club in Mumbai and showed it to his super boss the next day while serving him coffee.
And the rest, as they say…
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