#VoicesOfIndia- Overthinking with Surbhi Bagga
Surbhi Bagga, a stand-up comedian and the podcaster behind @The Overthink Tank, talks about her podcasting journey and more.
Launched in 2019, The Overthink Tank is a podcast where Surbhi’s squad overthinks your problems for you, so you don’t have to. Started off as a sketch idea, Surbhi created The Overthink Tank as she received an overwhelming response by people sharing their problems to overthink with her. She has worked as a podcast producer with IVM and also hosts ‘Dating is Garbage’ which is a podcast about dating habits and experiences.
In this interview, Surbhi takes us through her podcasting journey, talks about her comedy stints, about challenges faced, and a lot more. Excerpts from the interview-
So, in the ‘coming soon’ episode of The Overthink Tank, you mention that you are a certifiable overthinker. Why do you say that?
That’s a very good question, I must say! I think my friends already know this about me. Initially, when I came up with this idea, it was just like another idea that you write down in your book and end up doing nothing about. It took me almost two years to materialize it because I used to immensely overthink the idea itself- is this fun? Is that fun enough? Will people listen to it? and so on.
Even when I put out the first video talking about The Overthink Tank, I went through a whole process of asking my friends again and again- is this interesting? Am I just another person trying to create more content? Will it really matter? Should I just do comedy?
So yes, that’s what went in creating The Overthink Tank- loads of overthinking! This is basically who I am, I overthink everything.
How did you get into the world of comedy?
I moved to Bombay in 2015 after graduating from college. Life was super lit and I really looked forward to having a routine 9 to 5 job. I started out with an advertising agency. But honestly, when you’re in advertising, nobody takes you seriously. For the first few years, you’re writing for pamphlets and then you work your way up. But not being taken for real wasn’t going well with me. However, I couldn’t quit my job either.
So I started putting in all my fun ideas in stand-up. One of my friends was also into this space and both of us were copywriters. We wanted to create something meaningful, to work out something where our ideas don’t go to the trash. We started by attending open-mics, being a worthy audience and just watching people perform.
Then this one day, out of the blue, we decided to write our own set and perform. And it went great! But it wasn’t a career move, we wanted to do stand-up on the side.
You see, it isn’t really easy to discard your degree and change your field suddenly unless you have some experience. So we kept going. Sometime later, my friend dropped and I moved to Delhi for a bit, continuing with my stand-up gigs here in Delhi.
When at home in Delhi, I got a call from Queens of Comedy, which was a show on TLC. We were all required to submit a video and the video I shared was that of my first performance in Bombay. So I wasn’t sure if I’m going to make it because it really was my first attempt at going on stage. I was speeding through jokes, overcompensating for everything and things like that.
But I made it to the show, and that show was another experience altogether. What really changed me was how warm people were in that show! On that show, everybody was following their own timeline and everybody was good at something. And that didn’t make me jealous or insecure. It just taught me how everyone takes their own time and does their own thing.
Everyone will eventually be at the top, meet there and high-five each other! So it really influenced how I look at success and at comedy, and that’s how ventured into the world of comedy.
Could you tell us more about your first performance in comedy?
My first show was at The Habitat in Bombay, known as Tuning Fork back in the day. Two years back, comedy in Bombay was booming compared to that in India, but not as much as now. Now, every other restaurant and cafe organizes open mic nights. But at that time, we had Tuning Fork and it was the main hub, that was the place where the rush was.
Spots were distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis so we would all start lining up by 6:30 pm to get a spot. So one really had to make an effort or they’d miss the chance to perform. Performing there was amazing because the audience was wonderful and super organic, people there came to laugh and enjoy so they didn’t get distracted easily. I had an early evening slot, my flatmates were so excited and they encouraged me so I made it there!
You mentioned that comedy in India is booming now compared to two years back. What do you think has brought about this change?
In my opinion, compared to a few years back, comedy space has a lot more voices now. Now, it isn’t like everyone’s talking about the same joke, or about politics; there’s a lot more perspective.
Back in the day, we had a select few faces- Kapil Sharma, Raju Srivastava. But if I hit an open mic now, I’m guaranteed that I’ll listen to nine kinds of different voices and opinions.
You see how a plethora of options to choose from on Netflix makes it exciting for you? I think it’s the same for comedy now- there’s plenty to choose from, making it attractive.
And the audience is super appreciative, the audience is the force that’s driving the comedy scene in India. They keep asking for more videos and they like to see new people emerge. If you notice, every stand-up clip uploaded on YouTube somehow reaches 1 million views.
People want comedy in their lives, and they want it more. Nobody says they’re done with comedy and are going to watch magic or something! 😁
What inspires you as a comic? How do you go about writing your bits?
First of all, I don’t do comedy because I’m very happy in life! Most of the times I’m going through something and that inspires me to write. My best material has come out of days when I’ve been sad, when I feel like my life is nothing but a giant piece of shit.
Recently I went through a fallout with a person, and you know how it feels like the end of the world. So the only way to come out of it was to write about it.
The first time I came up with a joke, it was about startups. My job had a startup kind of environment and I could see through all the bullshit. I wasn’t paid enough and I needed to talk about it! I have a lot of jokes on dating as well, about how confusing it is.
I’ve also written bits on freelancing. Everybody keeps telling you how freelancing is all about the freedom to do whatever you want. Sure there is freedom, but it doesn’t pay you well! So you don’t have the freedom to shop or to go on holiday and so on.
Basically, all of my jokes come from how I’ve been feeling upset about something and it also helps me to deal with it. I feel nothing is sad enough to not be able to make a joke about it!
Do you think your journey as a female comic has been any different from that of your male counterparts?
I don’t, actually. That might have been the case for a few months but now it is super-inclusive. In fact, people make sure they have a lineup of female comics. We get as much attention as the male lineups do. But in some cities that are still growing in this space, like Delhi, that don’t have enough female comedians, there might be some bias. As such in Bombay, there hasn’t been any partiality. The journey of female comics has majorly been the same as that of male counterparts.
Except, of course, there are certain safety issues for women because of which they might not be able to perform in late night open mics, or how some don’t feel safe enough to come out of their spaces. Bombay is working on that too. We have a couple of open mics in the day, we’ve Sunday morning breakfast gigs called Breakfast and Bad Jokes. So we have a super-inclusive system in place here. We address all these problems and work hard to include as many women as possible.
One of my friends, Jia, is a comedy producer and produces open mics called Comedy Ladder. Just to have more women, the ticket prices for women in her open mics are slashed by half. So if a comic is performing at the Comedy Ladder, women would pay 250 bucks for the ticket whereas men would pay around 500 bucks. The whole point is that if more women come to watch an open mic, the more will feel like coming out of their spaces and performing.
What inspired you to start The Overthink Pod?
Okay, so it started off as a sketch idea. A lot of my friends used to send me screenshots of their messages and emails asking me what the person means by that message, why did she use that emoji and things like that.
Basically, I was that friend in my group who would overthink everybody’s messages. So it emerged as a sketch idea where I wanted to do a sketch where I’d overthink messages. It’d be like people would come up to me with anything that’s written in their messages or emails and I’d overthink it for them.
Later I realized that this could be a great idea for a podcast. People could share their problems with me and I could overthink those for them. Initially, I put out a whole thing on Instagram asking people if they’d be interested in sending me their problems because they don’t have the time to do so, and because I can do it better. I got a lot of emails and messages, so many that I am still in the process of going through them.
That’s what the whole theme is now- every episode is me overthinking problems for my virtual friends.
Where do you see it going forward?
Going forward, I would like to have more people. Right now, I do feel like my circle of friends is a lot of comedians. That’s great because they are very opinionated and they can talk but I want to bring people from different backgrounds- singers, entrepreneurs, painters, musicians. Basically, getting all of these people who have the knack to overthink.
The thing is that though I call it The Overthink Tank, the aim is to get to know the guest through the kind of overthinking they do. It’s very seamless. For instance, I’d ask you a question- When do you think is it a good time to own a pet? Now, as you overthink this with me, I seamlessly get to know about your life through your thought process.
So, I am not only overthinking a problem but also getting to know the guest and that is something I feel is very nice, and that’s why I’d like to get people from different backgrounds.
We see that you publish your podcasts in video format too, on YouTube. That’s pretty interesting. How is that helping you?
So, this is my first podcast as a host but I have produced several podcasts when I was working with IVM. As a producer, I realized that it is extremely difficult to get people to listen to audio unless they’re already hooked to podcasts, or they’re all about audiobooks. It is a slow process and people are slowly coming towards podcasts.
YouTube hasn’t helped me as such because very few viewers actually convert into listeners. Imagine that you are watching a video- it’s tending to both your visual and sensory abilities. From a viewer’s perspective, one wouldn’t suddenly switch to audio. So, the reason I put out videos is that I already had a YouTube channel so why not put it there too!
I might even discontinue it after a while because it really doesn’t give me a major boost in listeners and requires quite a lot of effort and expenditure. I will continue to put out teasers and videos but not the entire podcast.
Could you share with us your experience as a podcast producer with IVM? Any tips that you’d like to share with budding producers and podcasters?
If you want to get into podcasting space, your gateway is listening to a lot of podcasts. I listen to podcasts in the shower, while doing laundry, doing my dishes and so on.
So, the first thing is that you surround yourself with all these podcasts. You’ll learn so much, not about podcasting but about yourself. And then eventually you might realize that you too have certain opinions that you’d like to share.
At IVM, I also found out that you should be vulnerable on a podcast. For the longest time, I was worried because I would open up a lot on podcasts. There is a podcast I currently host, Dating is Garbage, which is a lot about my dating experiences. I host that two other co-hosts and we were always worried that we open up too much. But we realized that THIS is why Dating is Garbage has been one of the top podcasts on Apple Podcasts since the time it was launched.
People like other people being vulnerable.
A podcast really gets inside of your brain, it is better than a visual experience because you’re really listening to people talk, and information stays. So if I am vulnerable about something, if I’m talking about it openly and in depth, then it stays with the listener even more. And it makes you feel super-sane because you realize that other people are also going through the same stuff so it is normal.
So, if you are someone who wants to get into podcasting, you really need to minimize the number of filters you have, you really need to talk and be vulnerable.
Do you have any plans for monetizing The Overthink Tank?
Not as of now. I feel monetizing will come in due time. Right now, all my focus is on getting more and more people on-board and making The Overthink Tank a household name. I want it to be a name everybody knows, even if they don’t listen to it. So that’s the direction I’m going in.
If a brand approaches it, then I’ll definitely think about it because who doesn’t love money! But I am totally focussing on the kind of content I am creating- making it crisper and more interesting.
Do you have any message for our readers?
Listen to more podcasts!
It is easier to get the hang of it if you start with episodic podcasts. I started with Serial and S-Town. So, this is for people who feel they can’t listen to podcasts- please start with episodic ones. Eventually, get into more conversational podcasts and you can try true-crime stories.
True crime is my favorite genre. If I wasn’t such an overthinker, I would have been doing something in the true-crime space. Listen to Criminal, it’s extremely well-structured and My Favorite Murder which makes murder sound like fun! There’s another one known as No Such Thing As A Fish where four colleagues sit together weekly and discuss amazing facts. I have a gala time listening to this one so when I go to parties, I can drop all these facts and be cool.
