From Microsoft to Mic, comedian Anshu Mor talks about his journey to the stage

After 18 years of corporate life, stand-up comedian Anshu Mor started his journey in the world of comedy. Recognised as one of the fastest growing comedians in India, Anshu has done over a hundred shows in less than two years. His style of storytelling and sense of observational comedy on stage will be completing two years on May 27. In an interview with AFTERhrs, the comedian talks about the journey from his first show to now, the shift from corporate to comedy world, and more. He will be performing live in the city on May 26. The show will be opened by Yash Maheshwari.

The idea of being on stage had always fascinated the comedian. “There was a desire to do something on stage like comedy. One fine day, as random as it sounds, I decided to quit my job and give it a shot. Without thinking about anything else, I just quit to see where it goes; after 18 years of work, you are intelligent enough to figure out certain things. I was already in my 40s. I didn’t want to get into old age with the regret of not pursuing one of my dreams,” he expressed.

Anshu has always been told that he is one of the fastest rising comedians " both in terms of making money and doing shows " which is his dream coming true. “The journey has been amazing. In our industry, your measure of success is a one-hour solo show and my first one happened just after six months into the industry, which is really fast. I wish I did this 10 years ago (laughs).”

The stand-up artiste’s inspiration for content comes from his own life stories. He believes that stand-up comedy as an art form requires you to bare your soul out on stage. He says it is about being true to yourself and your feelings and delivering that on stage. “Whatever you present has to be ‘you’ on stage, you can’t pretend to be somebody else; it doesn’t connect with the audience. My first hour was about what happened in my life after I quit Microsoft and decided to become a stand-up comedian. So it’s all about true thoughts and incidents from my life,” said Anshu. Now that the artiste will be performing in the Pink City, he hopes that interaction with people around will give him more content.

Talking about his future plans, Anshu shared, “I plan to hit the international market after this tour that I’m already doing. I also have a new talk-show kind of thing coming up in around a month. It is a video podcast. And then wherever life takes.”