In this episode of Raising Parents JioSaavn Podcast, Sorabh Pant, one of  India’s top 10 stand-up comedians, talks about himself as a dad other than a comedian.

On who really laughs on his jokes

Actually both my son and daughter both laugh at the most stupid stuff. I realised my kids and I have the same sense of humour and I don’t know who I should be worried about in that regard. Like, he was looking at my arm once and he’s like, Papa, What is all this? Like? It’s hair. Then he looked up and he’s like, oh, it fell from top to down. I use these and recycle in my jokes.

On relationships change after pregnancy after first child after second child

Yeah. I mean, it does. It does evolve. I think I like my wife and we used to when we were dating, I think we used to be out pretty much every second night when we think we will matter the first one and a half years was great again, and then the one and a half years in. You started having your daily fights, which are nicely scheduled and most of the fights now are about kids because it’s the centre of your attention, right? Like I genuinely could be a cocaine smuggler right now. My wife would not know She’s just like, Yeah, whatever. Yeah, you’re doing something. This doesn’t concern my children. So you could being do whatever.

On How Sorabh Pant is as a dad

My son told my wife I and I overheard this, she’s like, papa is my best friend. He’s like, papa is my best friend. And I’m like, yeah, I think he’s my best friend too. And I think my daughter is also and then my wife was obviously like, I am not your best friend??? I was like dude just stop this its not a competition and you lost. 

On things he learnt from his parent as a kid

I think my parents to an extent relatively communicated with me with regards to money, depending on how old I was. So I answer every question my son asks, like everything my daughter isn’t talking properly yet, but I will answer everything she asked as well because I think I owe it to them too. And the toughest conversation is about death. I think one of the things I’ve learned from my parents is that before leaving the house, I always do Su Su.

On his kids’ admission to Playschool

Those videos on the playschool show helped my son get admission to the current school. They had closed the admission about a month and a half back. And I am a freelancer and schools look at freelancer as drug dealers or something. A one-and-a-half month after admission closed they called saying hey someone has dropped out can you come for the interview. So my wife and me showed up at the interview and the principle was like have you guys forgotten something looking at both of us. My wife and me are like we have got everything all the documents, and she was like but ya where is your child? Its an interview with the child and we showed up without the kid. But my son got through school because somebody had seen those videos and liked them.

On when interacting with other parents at the school and do ppl ask pls ek joke bolo

So during one of the annual days, they said aap thode jokes sunayenge? And I was like why not and it was a hall like a 900 seater and was excited as I had no stress to sell tickets which usually you do and I did 7 mins a stand up for about the school targeting all the parents and I thought it was very funny. So second-year annual day happens and there was some delay due to tech error and principal very sweetly said there is some delay that has happened so let’s have some comedy from Sorabh Pant.

On did he as a child ever get overshadowed by his sister

My sister has always been ridiculously supportive of everything I’ve done. And so even when I started my comedy career, she’s always been like a cheerleader on the side. I’ve never had any jealousy or any such thing. It’s always been about celebrating it. And I want the same for my kids, nothing more is sort of exciting for me than to see my son stand up for my daughter or vice versa.

On whether to have one child or two as there is a debate as raising one is too much where is the scope for the second

I think if you’re having one kid or two or none at all, it’s entirely your decision and whatever you’re happy with before the second child, I told my family Hey, listen, this is how much it is going to cost. It will involve me working harder. Because my wife is again as is a career-oriented person and she’s also TV writer but because of two kids and I’m travelling a lot, so her full-time job is taking care of the house and the kids which is a hardcore job. Holy shit, dude. Because I think I had a week where my wife was away for something I just told her like, chill I’m back after like a month of touring, just do whatever you need and I am like, Oh my god, I want to sell this house and move to Mexico. This is too much. What is this?

On pressure of having kids

I don’t think people should be under any pressure to have kids and don’t do it because somebody is telling you to do it. Do it if it’s right for you guys at that point of time, and if you want to, if you want to focus on other things, that’s absolutely fine as well with just no pressure. And if you want kids, you can take mine.