He came onto the Indian comedy scene a decade back and made it to the top ten comedians list. Comic Praveen Kumar now has his show ‘Mr. Family Man’ on Amazon Prime and is busy writing his next major sketch around his wedding day.
Ask Praveen whether his wife and daughter – around whom most of his comedy is based – enjoy his jokes or say oh god, he smiles and says, “The latter. But my wife is my sounding board and I try my jokes on her and improve them with her feedback. My daughter, who is 10 now, has seen so many stand-up shows of various comedians that she even gives me tips on how to do my shows better!”
One of the things that Praveen Kumar is known for is his love for biriyani. In fact, in ‘Mr. Family Man’ he brings up the whole upma versus biriyani debate with much regale. Did he enjoy a lot of biriyani on Eid? “It was tough getting biriyani but we made it at home and ensured we had a feast,” he laughs.
One of the unique aspects of Praveen’s comedy is that he switched to stand-up in Tamil a few years back. Tell him that his comedy reminds one of Crazy Mohan, a renowned comic, actor and writer in Tamil, and he says, “It’s an honour. I love Crazy Mohan and his brand of comedy. I would have watched his play ‘Chocolate Krishna’ at least six times!” Praveen reveals that writing in Tamil is much easier since he thinks in Tamil and he loves performing in Tamil now.
The comic is now shifting to Chennai from Bangalore after 17 years and says he’s looking forward to performing at more open mics and trying out new avenues as well. Ask Praveen if he’d like to write a comedy-based TV show or movie script and he replies, “Yes, I’d love to explore all options including web series. I think moving to Chennai will help expand the horizons. But whatever else I do or don’t do, I will be a stand-up comic for the rest of my life.”
