Boy, can Satyabrat Mohapatra make us laugh or what! If in a 30-minute-long conversation he can crack us up every two minutes, we have no doubts that his latest show, The Other Side of Me, will be a big hit too. For those who don't already know the funny guy, Satyabrat is the founder of stand-up comedy group Bhubaneswar Komedians, is the second Odia to perform at both the milestone-esque Canvas Laugh Club venues Mumbai and in New Delhi in 2017 and 2019 respectively (the first Odia to do so being Biswa Kalyan Rath, of course) and besides this, the 25-year-old also performs solo. And though we have seen Satyabrat Mohapatra before through the lens of Bhubaneswar Komedians, now it's time to get to know him as a person. And the other side of him too, of course!
"Corporate slavery is a requisite for all comedians," says Satyabrat, breaking the ice with his very first wisecrack. This was his off-the-cuff response to the surprise we expressed when he told us about his job in Pune, which he eventually left to pursue stand-up comedy full-time. On an unrelated note, here a random piece of trivia — Satyabrat used to dub in Hindi as Donald Duck for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the animated series. So as a part of The Other Side of Me tour, which began this year on January 6, he impersonates Donald Duck and talks about all the other things he hasn't spoken about in public. He even shaved his hair off for it. "That's what I tell the audience anyway, though I did it because my hair started to fall," says the alumnus of ITER, chuckling.
And he isn't shying away from any kind of joke — neither Muslims jokes nor political ones. For the former, he talks about the peculiarities of his friend Ahmed. "I ran the jokes by him and he thoroughly enjoyed them. And if the person based on whom the jokes are being cracked is not offended, then I am okay with it," he explains. Then there are the jokes on Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal. We let out an audible gasp at this point. But he just laughs it off, saying, "I talk about the ruling and the opposition party which balances it out. And if the audience ends up complaining, I just blame it on the other side of me, my alter ego," laughs the comedian and believes that he inhabits a grey area when it comes to comedy, unlike Kunal Kamra and Varun Grover. "I always sugar-coat my jokes well enough, but of course, if I crack them in Uttar Pradesh I would be in trouble," he says and cracks us up again.
As long as everyone knows what they are good at, having a solo career while in a group is not very hard. Of course, it helps that Satyabrat is the founder of the group and still calls the shots. As a group, Bhubaneswar Komedians is doing well as they have MoUs with ITER and KIIT in their kitty, and as an individual, Satyabrat continues to shine on. "The stand-up comedy scene is definitely developing in Bhubaneswar and I don't mean developing as in 'India is a developing country'. I think we are in a good space right now," he says and concludes, leaving us in splits.
His favourites
Nishant Tanwar
Tanwar is like a godfather to Satyabrat and he relates to Tanwar the most because they both are in that grey area and do suggestive comedy. "Also, whenever Nishant wants me to open for him, I never say no," says Satyabrat
Sumit Anand
He is one of the few English comics, as per Satyabrat, who really kills it. "There is no difference between how he is in real life and how he is on stage, which is very important," he states
Manik Mahna
This comedian makes it to Satyabrat's list because his shows are one of the best-selling ones. Also, his video titled Classmates has over eight million views on YouTube
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