My Beta Does Computer Things

There can never come any harm from reading a guy who can make you laugh. Like America-born-comic-desi Sanjay Manaktala, who has been winning Bengalurean hearts with his stand-up acts for a few years now. Better known as the IT Guy on the contemporary comicscape, Sanjay was the typical Indian techie in NY who decided to ditch the profession and instead make a living cracking jokes on it. His upcoming book is a ready reminder of the fact that even the drabbest job in the world has something to crack up over. He kept his answers serious, though.
    
Tell me a little about your background and your journey from being a techie to a stand-up artist.
I was working in the IT industry my whole career. Typical Indian middle-class techie story, although we grew up quite poor and so I wanted the stable job to dig myself out of that life. After a few years in the career I would travel and be very bored in tier 2 cities of America. Always being the funny one at home and office, and having been an avid fan of American comics such as Chris Rock and Russell Peters, I discovered comedy nights in these small cities far away from my friends and family. I slowly started trying it in the evenings and then after four years of doing comedy and working together, I started making money in comedy and then left the job to give this a shot. 

What’s your first memory of writing? 
I used to write these notes about how God was cool when I was five, and my mom really liked that [e.g. God is life, God is good, God is fun, God is in the ocean]. Really random but I guess that's my first reaction to someone reading my writing. Then I started writing plays or sketches for friends’ birthday parties, and later when I started comedy I had to write jokes.  

What has inspired your debut book?
Most of my viral YouTube videos talk about tech life, and techie people really enjoy them. So they look to me for questions about their careers and often I reply back. There is not much job satisfaction in tech as the job can feel dry, and techies aren't the most extroverted to take charge of their careers the way extroverts might be, so rather than answer 20 emails a week I figured let me write a book. I started blogging and as people responded, I figured it would make sense.

Can you give us a blurb on it?
My Beta does Computer Things is a guide to working smarter not harder in IT. It discusses why so many of us burn out in tech and offers tips and advice on how to be a rockstar in it and improve your overall professional and personal satisfaction as well. Plus it's funny with jokes only those in tech may relate to. 
 

Does it tell tales of the trade that haven’t yet been spoken or written about? Or is it more a personal memoir with a message? 
They're a lot of tips in the book about how to get promoted easier, how to get jobs overseas, even flirting with a girl at work in the non-creepy way. I wasn't the office nerd but I wasn't the dumbest or smartest, and I feel most people just overanalyse their careers. So it has a lot of both, with some personal stories in it also. It's basically self-help-meets-comedy-meets-autobiography. 

Comedy and books often seem like two ends of the pole. Of course, Radhika Vaz and Kunal Nayyar are other artists who’ve done both, but what made you believe you were patient enough to write? 
I'm ironically sitting in a cafe trying to write a chapter I've been stuck on for two weeks. Writing a book is way more a long slow burn than a quick churn like a blog or comedy script might be. It's fun but I'm looking forward to being done! 

Can you take us behind your creative process, both onstage and in writing?
Writing: I like to live my life. For example I could be at home writing the book, but I'll get bored on seeing the same stuff on FB 100 times. Instead, since I don't have a daily office commute anymore I go out to a cafe, I meet friends and colleagues for lunch; hell, even now I'll wait in line at an ATM. You have to experience life [work, dating, eating, travelling, social media] to be able to tell stories which are interesting to people, so I try to do that and then make notes about what interests me. I keep an app called Evernote which I jot down stuff on, and then it syncs to my laptop and I sit every Sunday or when I'm bored and try to flesh it out. I also try to look at a situation from every angle. So for example, suppose I went on a Tinder date and the girl shows up and tells me she has a boyfriend [a joke I’m trying on stage now]. Apparently it's happened to so many guys and girls. So most people will think 'Oh man, so embarrassing, so annoying, some joke about being single,' but I try to think, what was this girl thinking? What does the waiter in the restaurant think? What about the other people? What does the Tinder developer think? Why did he let her log into Tinder when her FB relationship status was 'in a relationship', etc.. I've found when you explore all the worlds it helps.   

On stage: you have to condense what you want to say into just the essential information. So instead of saying 'I was on a date in Bangalore on Tinder and blah blah blah' the audience doesn't need to know it was Bangalore because it's not essential to the story. So I cut that down. That way you get to laughs quicker. In comedy it's called 'Having a Tight show' in that you keep things non fluffy. 

What’s the serious part about being funny all the time?
Sometimes you have to get serious before getting to the joke [e.g. talking about women's rights in India]. So the audience can quickly get awkward if the punchline isn't around the corner. But I'm learning. Also, being funny constantly is a 24-hour job. We're always working because we're always thinking. So tonight at midnight I'll be ready to sleep but then my brain watches Narcos and I get 200 other ideas for jokes. Now I'm staring at my phone for 20 minutes and now I won't fall asleep for another hour. 

What are you currently working on and what is next?
Book, stand-up comedy, YouTube videos. Also a few small projects helping startups with their comedy/marketing.


Text Soumya Mukerji