Art
I Haven't Peaked Yet: A Chat With Sumukhi Suresh
From culinary dreams to comedy dreams, Sumukhi Suresh's story took a few turns to get here. And, as Sharanya S finds out, there's still a long way she wants to go.
If you follow Indian comedy, it’s hard to ignore Sumukhi Suresh, no matter what kind of comedy you like. Improv? Sketch? Stand-up? Web series? She’s done all of that and then some. And yet, Sumukhi believes she hasn’t peaked yet.
“I think the reason I don’t get too much hate from trolls is because, a) I haven’t peaked yet, b) they don’t know my political beliefs, and c) they don’t know my pet peeves,” she tells me the first time we meet.
Yes, And-ing
In 2013, unable to find the appropriate outlet for heartbreak, Sumukhi Suresh turned to theatre. “I signed up to audition for what I thought was a play called, ‘The Improv’ and then I got mad when they didn’t have a script for me and I had to act out made-up situations. 'Theatre’s become so lazy,' I thought.”
The Improv in Bengaluru is an improvisation troupe that currently includes Danish Sait, Saad Khan, Darius Sunwala and after that audition, Sumukhi Suresh. For some time, she treated improv exactly like you would a hobby. “I had a job and I was very happy with it. So, I wasn’t really giving it my all,” she admits.
Sumukhi’s previous job titles include librarian, chef and then working in a food lab she helped put together. But it all changed on June 14, 2014. Before the show, someone decided to inform her that she wasn’t funny and it pissed her off. “That show… what a show! It was a monster, at every suggestion I was ON. 'You don’t get to tell me I’m not funny,' I thought.” She was performing two shows that night and after that first one, something had shifted. “For me, in my head, that’s when I really started working in comedy,” she says.
By November the next year, she decided that she would regret not giving comedy a chance and finally quit her job at the food lab. “I found out recently, that my lab shut down and I was so upset! No one cares about food safety! Mark my words, in 2020, everyone is going to be freaking out about food safety! And then, I’m going to… not be able to do anything about it."
Stage Directions
Her foray into comedy began in Bangalore. She featured in a video called 'Anu Aunty' created by Varun Agarwal and the video featured comedians Sanjay Manaktala, Praveen Kumar, Sundeep Rao and rapper Brodha V among others. She performed when she could and she wrote a sketch show with fellow comedian Richa Kapoor called 'Sketch in The City'. She even took an improv workshop with Kaneez Surka. It was at this workshop where Sumukhi met Naveen Richard, comedian, improviser and now a long-time collaborator. “It was so random, we had a free date at Jagriti Theatre and they asked us if wanted to put up a show. I thought we could both do 10-20 minutes of stand-up comedy. But he suggested we write something new and that’s how 'Go Straight, Take Left' happened,” she says.
'Go Straight, Take Left' is an absurd, intelligent and hilarious sketch show that they have performed in three cities so far. Loosely structured with room for improvisation, the show is a very funny and interesting live performance. And it works largely because both Sumukhi and Richard are really good actors and improvisers. “We are a strange duo. We have chemistry, but people think there is something weird; it doesn’t fit. And we milk that,” she says. I caught it last year at Canvas Laugh Club in Mumbai and I distinctly remember a moment where Sumukhi licked an audience member's ear.
Over email, Richards tells me that the process of writing the show was one of his favourites. “She would be bursting with ideas and just as her improv had taught her, she would never say no to an idea. Which is why I sometimes had to be the bad guy that shot down some ideas for the good of the team. Performing with her is also such a pleasure because she's a natural. Never have I ever gone on stage fearing the outcome as long as she's there with me. We were great at reading each other’s energy and matching it as well. Which is why each show was slightly different. We made a great team, I think,” he explains.
A Nose For Comedy
In June last year, Sumukhi appeared in the five-part web series, 'Better Life Foundation' (BLF) - a mockumentary documenting the workings of an NGO created by Richard and his comedy troupe, Them Boxer Shorts. Sumukhi starred as a very impatient and sarcastic character, who is the only competent employee in the NGO. She believes it played an important part in changing her image. "The character was acting-heavy, my jokes came from situations instead of lines and it was my first ever non-aunty role,” she says.
After BLF, Sumukhi signed up with artist management company, Only Much Louder (OML) and moved to Mumbai. Since then, she has created many other popular characters on her social media pages; Parvati Bai, a lazy but empowered house maid, and Kiara aka Bubs, a politically-driven teenager to name but a few. Sumukhi has now acted and worked with many comedians from around the country and she features in videos with everyone from Kanan Gill to Sanjay Manaktala, from TVF to AIB.
But the thing she’s most proud of, that is trademark Sumukhi, is the mini-series, 'Behti Naak'. She plays an ill-tempered 10-year-old with a perpetually runny nose from an unhappy, lower-middle-class family. “Behti is almost like a reaction video to my childhood. It comes from the poverty I’ve seen and lived through. Not that it’s a sad story; half of India has had a poor childhood but Behti is heavily influenced from that time,” she says. The character occurred to her while she was shooting BLF where she tried it on co-actors and comedians Utsav Chakroborty and Kanan Gill. Gill suggested that she flesh the character out and write it, and she did.
In 2016, she created a live property called 'Disgust Me', an invite-only, women-only solo show that revels in discussing everything gross, crass and disgusting, freely and without judgment. If you ever came to a show, you were most likely to be greeted by an all-woman staff at the venue and you could buy vibrators and other sex toys as well. The show is produced by and put together by Pooja Sampath from Monsterpreneur, who believes in the success of women in media. Disgust Me was created when Sumukhi noticed that the ratio of women vs men in comedy shows is always in favour of the men. “I've worked on the show but I’ve never been allowed to see it. I hear it’s good though,” says Prashant Reddy, her manager and also a man.
The F Word
“Someone asked me if I’m doing this because I hate men. No, my agenda is not to get on stage and say 'I hate men',” says Sumukhi. She gets the "do you hate men?" question/accusation a lot as a feminist talking about sex, periods and vaginas and hosting an only-women show. But she has taken it upon herself to never let these accusations slide by. When she performs, she's an attacker; she’s aggressive and she will take you down. “I’m my mother on stage, completely passive-aggressive,” she says. Heckle or body-shame her and you’ll find the show has paused to focus on you. What happened to you? Were you beaten by your parents? Is your wife cheating on you? What’s wrong? “Every time I get the, 'Oh, you seem to be a bit of a feminist'-look I always reply with, 'Thank you, I am. It’s very sweet of you to notice,'” she tells me.
While she does feel responsible for educating or explaining feminism every time it’s misunderstood, it is also important to distinguish feminism from privilege. "There are a lot of things female comedians must ask themselves before crying sexism," she claims. "Are you doing things on your own? Are you dependent on other people to create things for you? Can you gauge your market? Can you sell tickets? If you’re not selling, you’re not selling, regardless of gender. When that gets taken as a lack of opportunity, it's wrong. Make yourself marketable!”
But it’s not as easy to shake off body shaming or the limited roles that come your way as a chubby girl. When she was cast in her first ever movie, the Kannada film 'Humble Politician Nograj', which releases in August this year, the headlines called it "path-breaking" and described the casting as "going against the stereotype".
Sumukhi even addresses her weight on stage at the beginning of her set, to get it out of the way. This leads to some people labeling her as a "brave" comedian. "But I’m not being brave! It’s not bravery. It’s so regular. I don’t have cholesterol or a problem with sugar. I have PCOD! We all have PCOD! I'm not even unique in my uterus disorders. So, it needs to fucking stop,” she says. But she knows the affect it has on many other girls who find their body and its perception tied to their self-esteem. “I get so many messages thanking me for what I’m doing, it matters to them. It’s a responsibility, I can’t exploit it for jokes," she says.
Sumukhi was raised in Nagpur in a fairly orthodox Tamil Brahmin family and her parents have a strained relationship with her comedy. While they feature heavily in it, especially her mother’s pursuit to find her a boy, they don’t know much about what she does. They’ve never seen her perform live on stage and don’t actively seek their daughter’s work online. “I don’t explain my work a lot, I don’t think they get it,” she tells me. “My mum wouldn’t be comfortable with the topics I discuss on 'Disgust Me', and I know she hasn’t seen me play a ‘Vagina’ in AIB’s 'A Woman’s Besties'.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t talk, like most mothers, Sumukhi’s mother calls her all the time and really just wants her to be fine, but free and open discussions between them are still rare. She’s working on it, slowly with small conversations over time. Until then, her mother’s frustration over matrimony sites and finding prospective grooms for her comedian daughter finds a big place in Sumukhi’s stand-up comedy.
Work And Play
Currently, Sumukhi is writing a new web series, working on another and acting in videos but her focus is on stand-up comedy. For someone used to playing characters and constantly improvising, stand-up is too personal. "Almost brutal," she says. Although she has been performing for almost two years, she downplays her stand-up comedy performances and she remains committed to improving her performances. “I’m hitting all the open mics, I’m trying to see what works and what doesn’t, I’m watching other comedians and trying to really find my voice,” she explains. “I want my own special. Whether it’s this year, next year or in five years. I’m diligently working towards it now,” she tells me.
A common adjective that came up when I talked to anyone who has worked with her in some capacity was "hard-working". The idea of being sloppy is unacceptable to her. She doesn’t take breaks, she is constantly motivated and she works all the time. “Sometimes I feel like I’ll lose out in life because I don’t cry enough. I don’t demand things or whine,” she admits.
But for now, it’s shoot, write, perform, sleep if possible and then somehow make time to watch stuff. “If someone had told me that this is what I’d end up doing in my life, I would have prepared and only watched shows! I didn’t watch television and I didn’t have access to these things. People are always asking me, 'Have you seen this? Have you seen Sea Horse? Shop Man? Have you seen this documentary by this blind North Korean man who fucking makes cloth with his hands?' No, I haven’t! As a kid I was at home, cooking. In college, I was busy trying to get over my insecurities and be popular. I wasn’t sitting at home and getting stoned and watching shit. And by the time I catch up, there's a new thing I should have watched! I just finished watching Silicon Valley and then it's, 'Oh, have you seen Atlanta?' You know what, fuck off! Everyone finds it hilarious that I react like this but nothing is enough for you guys! Like I should spend the whole day watching stuff. Then who'll do the work?”
If pop culture seems like work too, what does she do to relax? She chooses cooking. As an ex-chef, cooking is her getaway activity of choice. Cooking and feeding people fixes a bad day. I ask her if she’s found new friends in comedians and she says she’s mostly an outcast. "Not because they don't like me but because they are like, 'What do we do with you?' I don’t drink or smoke, the only party trick I have is dancing,” she says. While Sumukhi works and hangs out with many comedians, she depends on her old friends to keep her in check. “Comics are my work friends, you can’t hang with them all the time. I don’t live with a comic, my roommate works in PR and I hear her work stories all the time. It's boring to listen to a comic's life; we have the same struggles in the end. Everything is already about us and we are so close to being narcissistic megalomaniacs.”