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Comedian Akaash Singh, a Texas native, is working his way to conquer all territories in the entertainment industry.
As a teen, Singh thought he would follow the typical South Asian route and become a doctor. However, a close friend always thought he was destined to become a comedian. Singh often laughed off the idea but secretly thought it was too intimidating.
“I think it was really intriguing to me but it was so daunting, the idea of being funny on stage,” Singh said.
During Singh’s college years, this same friend enlisted him to perform at an open mic night, which ended up being his first solid step towards his career as a full-time comedian. Singh said he recalls creating material and testing it out on friends before the big night.
“In retrospect, there was no reason for them to be laughing, but it worked,” he said. “They’re laughing so hard [that] I can’t say my next line. I remember that moment when I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
After discovering his true calling, Singh found that getting support from his South Asian parents turned out to be a much different story. He said his parents didn’t approve of the career choice.
“They hated it as they should. No parent should approve of this,” the comedian confessed.
Fortunately for him, Singh didn’t lose their support completely—his parents eventually came to terms with his career.
“As I’ve gotten more successful, they’ve gotten more supportive,” he said. “And my mom, actually—once she saw me on stage—she realized that I had some idea about what I was doing [and] she got much more supportive.”
That being said, Singh admits that there is a level of foolishness a person must have to enter the entertainment industry.
“You have to be a bit delusional to enter this field to think you can be famous or you can be on television,” the New York resident said. “There’s so much uncertainty in this field for someone you love, for your child to enter this field. I don’t know if I can handle it and I’m doing it right now.”
Comedy is the kind of work that is constantly evolving—and thus, is filled with uncertainty on multiple levels. One uncertainty is being able to hold the audience’s attention during his performances, so it’s Singh’s job to write jokes funny enough to keep the audience laughing from start to finish.
In the past year, there has been some controversy about whether or not comedians should even write their own jokes—Singh definitely thinks stealing jokes should never happen.
“There’s not a single comic on earth who’d ever say it’s okay to take another comics joke,” he said. “Some comics have writers and I guess that’s not as big of a deal because at least you’re paying them.”
When it comes to testing his material before including it in his skit, Singh said there’s only one way.
“You have to test it out on the audience, which is the scariest thing in the world,” he said. “There are no test groups [or] focus groups. You just test it out on the audience and if it fails, you just have to sit there and look at them looking at you failing.”
He also mentioned a tactic other comedians often use, which is subtly inserting the joke into a random conversation, but that can easily become awkward.
Through his journey, Singh said he learned the true definition of what a comedian is. “For the most part, a comedian—as a whole, what separates us from everybody else is, we are writers and performers.”
Along with being a comedian, Singh is a cast member on two MTV shows—Nick Cannon’s comedic series, “Wild n Out” and “Guy Code.” He also created the web series “Writer’s Block” on MTV, prompted by his desire to contribute to a different outlook on the world—that of South Asians.
“I see a lot of celebrities, Indian celebrities, South Asian celebrities, kind of distance themselves from their South Asian-ness,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of go away, but I never wanted to be that guy. I want to set the example that it’s okay [to be South Asian] because it’s good to be proud of who you are. It’s good to be South Asian.”
Another endeavor launched by Singh and his co-host actor Arjun Gupta is the podcast, “American Desis.” The podcast, formerly known as “Indian, American,” is geared to discovering what it means to be a South Asian in the U.S. today. They interview guests ranging from professional young South Asians in diverse, new, exciting fields to established veterans of the traditional paths who have paved the way for the younger generation.
[Read Related: ‘American Desis’ Podcast Asks: How do you Identify—South Asian, Indian-American or Desi?]
Even with all that Singh is working on, he is continuously and carefully planning his future in the hopes of leaving behind an everlasting legacy.
“When I look back, I want to do stuff that I can say ‘oh, I’m proud that I did that.’ It’s not always going to happen but that’s the general idea,” he said.
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