Papa CJ
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Papa CJ is a stand-up comedian from India. In November 2014 he won the 'Asia's Best Stand-up Comedian' award by Top 10 Magazine in Kuala Lumpur. He has toured sell-out shows across five continents and in October 2011 he taped a Showtime USA Stand-up Comedy Special with Russell Peters in Amsterdam. Papa CJ’s international TV credits include shows on various channels including Comedy Central, Paramount, ITV, BBC, The Comedy Channel, NBC, Showtime USA, Omni TV and MTV.[citation needed] He has been invited as a guest on multiple radio shows across the globe, including NPR in the USA and the BBC.[citation needed] He has also been seen on multiple TV channels in India.[citation needed] In 2012 the event and entertainment industry in India gave him an award for India's Best Stand-up Comedian.
Early life and career
Papa CJ did his schooling at the Lawrence School Sanawar in India and then went on to do an MBA at the University of Oxford from the Said Business School. [1]
He then worked as a management consultant in London. He has also worked as an executive coach and motivational speaker and has trained executives from over 50 blue chip companies all over the world.
Comedy career
After visiting the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004, he gave up his corporate career and started performing stand-up comedy in November of that year. He has since performed in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. After being a regular on the UK comedy circuit he moved back to New Delhi in early 2008, where he started off the English language stand-up comedy circuit in India and began grooming new talent. In 2008 he was also a contestant on Last Comic Standing 6 on NBC, where he made it to the final 10.
In 2009 Papa CJ became the first Indian comedian to be invited to perform at the Just for Laughs festival in Canada. In 2015 he became the first Indian comedian invited to do a solo show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where he took his comedy special 'Papa CJ | Naked'. He has performed multiple times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2016 he sold out the Soho Theatre in London and got two standing ovations on his Broadway debut in New York when he headlined Carolines on Broadway.
Personal life
Papa CJ founded a charity that works with underprivileged children in India, getting them out of child labour and back into the formal schooling system. This charity is supported by his comedy. He is also a qualified Laughter Yoga instructor. He does free shows at hospitals across the world and for the Armed Forces of India.
References
- Video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2nVO4P7QU
- Razor TV Singapore - comedy in hospitals: http://www.razor.tv/video/529118/comedian-brings-laughter-to-hospitals
- Malaysia's 89.9 BFM Radio interview: http://www.bfm.my/finding-the-funny-papa-cj
- Comedy Central: http://press.comedycentral.co.uk/videos/50520
- Showtime USA: http://www.sho.com/sho/schedules/titles/141920/episode-105#/index
- Paramount Comedy UK: http://www.theworldstandsup.com/Comics-A-Z/cj.aspx
- Omni TV Canada: http://www.omniab.ca/programming/signatureseries/details.php?id=106
- BBC UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8419225.stm
- NPR USA: http://m.npr.org/news/front/17680952?page=5
