How standup comic Urooj Ashfaq turned her life experiences into award-winning content

She is engaging and chatty with audiences and quick with responses. Ashfaq has turned things that have happened to her, including periods, into entertainment content. Her show at the Fringe, Oh No!, revolves around some landmark events of her life, such as her parents’ divorce and going to therapy, but offered with a comedic flourish. “Therapy is very expensive and a lot of people can’t afford it. So, I take my friends’ problems to therapy and pretend like they’re mine because they can’t afford it,” she tells the audience.

Her family is her mother, father and older sister, who have “not given any more issues than anybody else gives their child in typically Indian families”. Going to therapy was a choice because she had studied psychology at Jai Hind College in Mumbai. “It was not because of my childhood issues that I sought therapy. It was because of very adult issues of anxiety, depression and sadness. My therapist said, ‘A lot of this stems from your childhood so let’s look at your childhood,’” she says. “I think I’m very sensitive. I care about my emotions. I don’t mind talking about it and my family doesn’t have a problem either. Almost every comic goes to therapy and they’re all talking about it,” she adds.

Born in Dubai, Ashfaq spent her childhood in Abu Dhabi. She always liked comedy, whether it was watching cartoons on TV or attending shows aimed at children and young adults. She was also always making jokes and, since her friends were like her, they were laughing and this encouraged her.

At 12, Ashfaq moved to India and began living in Navi Mumbai in 2007. After countless jokes about Navi Mumbai, she told the audience one evening. “Guys, I have to break this to everybody. I am not a Navi Mumbai girl any more. I moved to Bandra two years ago. Ab main sirf sourdough bread khaati hoon. I think there was always a Bandra girl in me, which was why I was resentful of other Bandra girls. It’s just that my pocket could not match my personality,” she says. In 2013, Ashfaq joined Jai Hind College, just as the standup scene was exploding in the country. Ashfaq and her friend, standup and writer, Sumaira Shaikh, would watch comedy shows and decided that they were both funny because they made each other laugh. Ashfaq graduated in 2016.

Standup comedy in India came into its own in the late 2000s, with Vir Das’s Weirdass Hamateur Nights giving the genre a boost. In Mumbai, Canvas Laugh Club and the Cuckoo Club were full of comedy shows while performance spaces such as Hive had people putting up different types of pieces and open mics. The Habitat is one of the longest-running comedy clubs in Mumbai and where the pioneers of the art and newcomers congregated.

Ashfaq was among those who were watching or doing standup because it was “the cool new thing.” “A lot of comedy producers would also host open mics at restaurants, creating temporary spaces that were important for comics to show their skills. The life cycle of a stand-up means watching shows and absorbing and, then, practising by failing. There are nights when you experience utter humiliation on stage, but you have to get past that. You have to be like, ‘This is what I want to do’ and get on stage again,” says Ashfaq. She still gets anxious every time she has to go on stage but has learned to deal with it.

India has an uncomfortable relationship with standup comedy, with comics being put behind bars for offensive or controversial content. Ashfaq turned into a performer in 2016 “so I’ve been self-censoring ever since I began”. She has found it safe to make self-deprecating jokes about herself and her identity, including being a Muslim, in a way that would not get her into trouble. “I don’t know what kind of a comic I would be if there was no censorship, maybe I would be better,” says Ashfaq. “I understand that we have a lot of anger and pent-up frustration as a country and it’s easy to take it out on social media or on artists, but you have to think about what you’re actually mad about. Why is your life not better? Is it because my comedy is bad, according to you, or is it because your government is not doing enough for you?” she asks. She will continue with more jokes, standup events and stages. “I also like eating, if it counts as an interest, and reading and my cat,” she says.