The not-so-wise man

If ‘wife jokes’ crack you up, Amit Tandon is your man! Coming to the city with a fresh load of jokes about his life, his marriage and how he’s not getting any wiser by the year, the comedian is prepared to tickle your funny bone.  But first, here’s a quick Q&A with him:

As you get older, you get wiser. How do you think this concept came about?
I believe this concept comes from our parents. By and large it is a conspiracy by older people to ensure that younger people listen to them. 

What is wisdom according to you?
Wisdom is the ability to not do a lot of things because you know they are going to go wrong. It is about not repeating the same mistakes. Telling others after they have made the mistake and going to them and repeating in their ears, “I told you so.”

Tell us about your new show Not Getting Wiser. What topics will you be touching upon?
In a gist, the show is about the fact that as you get older you don’t get wiser. According to me, the notion that as you grow older you get wiser is not completely true. See, scenarios change as you grow older and so do challenges. Even in a marriage you rarely face the same challenge again. For this show, the topics that I am covering are around my marriage, how it has matured over the last few years. Also highlighting how challenges have changed, for example, with my children I have been challenged constantly, from changing the diapers or trying to know when they were hungry to now helping them decide their careers. 

Tell us about your stand-up special coming soon on Netflix.
The stand-up special is largely on my middle-class upbringing and what kind of effect it had on me. It also contains various anecdotes from my childhood. 
Have you ever experienced a mix-up between you and your namesake, the singer/ actor who loves showing off his six-pack abs? 
Oh yes, that has happened. A few years ago when I was not really a well-known name, I was booked for a show in Guwahati. The local guy did not know me, so the poster they had was of the six-pack Amit Tandon. This was absolutely hilarious. Another rather unfortunate incident that comes to my mind is when the other Amit Tandon’s wife got arrested in Dubai. I was bombarded with messages, to help my wife etc. At that point of time, my wife was my manager so most of the calls went to her. So there were people talking to her and telling her how to get out of jail. Finally, after being fed up for days I put a public notice on Facebook and Twitter clarifying that it is not my wife who has been arrested so for all prison-related queries to reach out to the other Amit Tandon. And I don’t think he is on Twitter so every time some new show of his comes out I am tagged in those pictures and tweets. 

What is your take on foreign festivals like Halloween being celebrated with such zeal in India?
I love festivals. Any celebration I am in favour of, may it be Jewish or Christian as long as it is a celebration. But truly what I am against is mourning of any type in the name of culture or religion.

If you were granted one answer, what question would you ask? 
What is my wife thinking? This is a question that I have been trying to figure out since the last 16 years. Till now, I have been unsuccessful. 

What is the wisest thing an older person has said to you?
Life of failures is better than a life of regrets. This is something that has stuck with me for a very long time.

ST Reader Service
Amit Tandon will perform his new show Not Getting Wiser at Liberty Square, Phoenix MarketCity, Nagar Road, on November 2, 8 pm