Amit Tandon: “75-80% Of Comedy Is Written About Things That Frustrate You”

What happens when a mic is given to a 42-year-old stand-up comic who is a father of two teenagers? Well, he has lots of funny family stories! New Delhi-based comedian Amit Tandon has come out with an hour-long special titled “Amit Tandon: Family Tandoncies”. The funnyman is over the moon, what with Indian society finally learning to embrace stand-up as an art and a profession, and says that this form of comedy has emerged as a great form of expression.

“It (stand-up comedy) has grown in the last seven to eight years and it is a fantastic movement. Stand-up comedy today is a great form of expression. It is you who is talking about your stories and there is no third person involved in the process. When you go for a stand-up show, it’s your story, you brought it on. There is no censor in the middle. So, it is a very honest form,” Tandon told IANS.

Often tagged as the ‘married guy’ of stand-up comedy, Tandon added: “It is a great catharsis for a lot of us because if you watch comedy, 75 to 80 percent of it is written about things that frustrate you, that you find annoying.”

In the one-hour special on digital giant Netflix, Amit strikes a connection with the audience on problems he faced with the changes in the philosophy of raising children, the evolution of relationships and his “template” for a successful, peaceful and happy marriage.

But how did he arrive at the name “Family Tandoncies”? “We wanted to say that it is about family because largely I am talking about my kids, wife, parents and brother. Then we wanted to keep it a little quirky so somehow we found a word we could use my name as well as still communicate about what we are talk about. “Tandoncies” is somehow a version of tendencies. It worked for us,” said the comedian, who is popular for his reliability and clean comedy, something that makes his shows appealing across age groups.