Often referred to as the ‘comedy piece’ of her group, Syama Harini caught people’s attention when she featured in Comicstaan: Semma Comedy Pa on Amazon Prime Video. A Telugu girl based in Chennai, Syama is one of the few female Tamil stand-up comics in our country and is known for her self-deprecating wit. Even her bio on Instagram reads, ‘Fat and funny, trying to be less fat and more funny!’
Harini’s journey though, never really began with comedy, even though she would always be found writing jokes instead of making notes in college. Her heart was actually set on theatre. During her college days, Syama acted in plays and even took up an acting course. Even then, she was always more attracted to playing funny characters, because she felt she could do justice to such roles.
Later, while hanging out with friends, she realised that she had a knack for making people laugh, even if what she was doing was complaining about something. Harini began watching the acts of comics Aravind SA and Karthik Kumar. This is when she thought of dabbling in stand-up comedy herself. Rabhinder, a stand-up comic with Evam, asked her to start writing her own jokes and attending open mics, which she did. That was when Syama began to find her footing, going on to perform at events such as Chennai Comedy, Evam Stand-up Tamasha and Tanglish Comedy.
Harini’s jokes are funny because they’re delivered with a straight face. You most definitely won’t see those punch-lines coming. She easily makes fun of herself and her natural, tell-it-like-it-is persona is a treat to watch on screen.
Her rise to fame came with Amazon Prime Video’s Comicstaan: Semma Comedy Pa, in which she was the only female contestant. Her sets earned excellent responses from the judges, especially the one where she declares that contrary to popular belief, she didn’t choose stand-up comedy because there aren’t enough women in the field or to talk about women’s issues.
She also stars in Mixture Mama’s Tamil YouTube series called Naanum Ponnu Dhaan (I Am Also A Girl). Here, she talks about Queen Elizabeth, making light of the fact that the queen has two birthdays, while she herself doesn’t celebrate even one on a grand scale.
In this video, Harini lights in on everything from viagra to the strange fact that Apple doesn’t provide chargers with their expensive phones.
Here, Harini offers her two cents on the concept of voting and the Lok Sabha elections.
On Instagram, she makes South Indian parent jokes. #HardRelate
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In September 2020, Harini launched her first stand-up solo special, Vada Poche (Oh, Man) on Zoom. It was sold out thrice in a row. Now, she’s gearing up to bring this popular special to a live audience in Chennai. In this one, expect everything from jokes on family superstitions to cocktails and Mani Ratnam films.
Vada Poche will be held on Saturday, April 10 at Alliance Francaise of Madras.