Jamie J is following her father Johnny lever’s footsteps and will make her TV debut in the forthcoming season of Comedy Circus. She spoke to Divya Kaushik on growing up, reading comic books and watching videos her dad collected from all over the world
Being born to one of the finest comedian in Bollywood, Johnny lever, it was but natural that Jamie J was fascinated with the stage and comedy since an early age. She participated actively in theatre during her school and college days but getting a marketing degree was her priority. “My parents wanted me to complete my education first, have a degree and then think of theatre or comedy seriously. Since I was not good in literature, Science or Geography, it was thought a lot on what should I study. I chose mass media and went to london for higher studies. I was doing it to make my parents happy. For my creative satisfaction, I was a part of theatre and stand up comedy, it gave me joy. My father understood my liking for comedy as I acquired it from him but as a parent he wanted his children to be educated first,” she said and added, “I told my father seriously that I want to do stand up comedy when he visited UK for a show. He gave me a 10-minute time to perform with him on stage. That was my chance to prove my talent to my father. It was a fantastic experience to share the stage with my father and the audience just loved it. I was invited by the BBC to act on radio. I then decided to come to India, it was last year, and started performing at The Comedy Store in Mumbai.”
Jamie will now make her debut in the forthcoming season of Comedy Circus on Sony. It will be reportedly titled Comedy Circus Ke Mahabali. She went for the auditions and was chosen like any other contestant. “Comedy Circus is a great platform and whenever we talk about Hindi comedy shows it is the only name that comes to mind. I watch a lot of TV and love reality shows a lot. Be it Dance India Dance for dance or Bigg Boss, I enjoy them all. I also watch serials to know the plot, what are the common trends and how the actors usually speak or act. As an artist this knowledge helps you to initiate a conversation with the audience. Earlier, comedy was a lot about imitating and a lot of stand-up comedians use it even today. But I feel audience loves an interactive act. I usually pick up a subject and talk on that and sometimes I realise that I am being too funny when I watch the audience laughing their lungs out. During one of the performances at The Comedy Store I just stepped on the stage and started to talk and I noticed people in the audience were covering their faces and laughing. The feeling was fabulous,” shared Jamie. The stand-up comedian says that she has learnt to be passionate from her father, who also often tells him that to be a good comedian you need to observe people, your surroundings. “The kind of research that he does for his work is outstanding. He is constantly reading, watching comic videos and TV shows, not just Hindi and English but even the regional ones. Sometimes as kids we used to get annoyed as we used to sit with him to watch TV for entertainment and he would watch Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and whatever you can imagine to study. Every time he travels he gets back with so many books and videos and when at home he is thoroughly engrossed in them. Some of the books have found space in my room as well, so I also grew up reading those books and watching the videos,” she said.
She shared that her father was mostly busy and she particularly remembers him “dressed as a Santa Claus coming in the middle of the night and keeping gifts for us. Otherwise, whenever he was at home he encouraged us to read Bible, books and taught us to be humble.”