Known for his uncanny mimicry skill, Dr Sumedh Shinde is a well-known name in the comedy circles. A dentist by profession, Shinde came under spotlight when he performed in Laugh India Laugh, a stand-up comedy show which aired on Life OK. The accuracy with which he imitated celebrities gave him a huge fan base and now he is all set to judge the Marathi entries at Happy Club, a pan-India multilingual digital comedy talent hunt. The competition aims to discover comic talent in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Bengali and Punjabi.
Shinde believes that this concept is bound to work out well. “I think Artist Aloud has come up with an interesting concept for this show. People, even those who live in remote areas of India, have started getting to know about stand-up comedy through WhatsApp and other social media. Going digital and targetting the regional audience is a good way to hunt for talent,” says Shinde.
Talking about his mimicry skills, Shinde recalls how he has always enjoyed imitating people since he was in school. “I was always interested in mimicry. During my school days I used to sing for my uncle’s orchestra. With time, I got better in both singing and mimicry, and then later I decided to take it up professionally. I went for Indian Idol 4 auditions in 2008 and the judges asked me about my profession. I told them about my mimicry too. In fact, if you search for ‘Best Bollywood Mimicry at Indian Idol 4’ on the internet, you’ll find a two-and-a-half minute video of me mimicking Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan. It has got over 10 million views. That is how people started recognising me as a mimicry artist and I started doing voicing and mimicry professionally,” expresses Shinde.
It was after this that he participated in the show Hello Kaun, Pehchan Kaun by One Picture Company. “The director of the show knew me well. He came up with another show called Laugh India Laugh in 2012 which helped me start my journey in comedy,” says Shinde, who believes that comedy shouldn’t be categorised on the basis of language.
He feels comedy is all about connecting with one another, no matter in which language. “Marathi people will connect with Marathi humour and with the other languages too. Irrespective of language, comedy remains the same. Let’s take the example of Mr Bean. He is the biggest example of humour without the language barrier. I don’t feel comedy is language-based,” says Shinde.
Entertaining people is important, he says. “As Stan Lee said, ‘In the end, it’s all about entertainment.’ Everybody wants a chance to be on stage and with so much stand-up content being put on YouTube and the growing number of comedy clubs in cities, talented people have a lot of opportunities. There are so many open mics to give everyone a chance to explore their talent. Comedy is something that won’t go extinct. You can add humour to anything. I always expect clean humour from any comedian. If I am watching a five-minute video clip and I hear slangs in the very first minute, I am likely to skip it. I love sharing videos I like with people I am close to,” says Shinde.
The comedy industry is booming and many new comedians are coming into light. Though one might think that there are less female comedians than male ones on the scene right now, Shinde agrees to disagree. “Female comedians are coming up. Currently I think there are many female comedians and I personally know them too like Jamie Lever and Sugandha. They have exceptional talent,” he says.
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To participate download the Artist Aloud app, record a funny performance of yourself in either of the seven languages, upload it on the app and share it with your friends and family asking them to vote. Those with maximum votes will win. Winners will be declared on December 2