FUNNY BUT TRUE

A comedian, an iconic Singaporean, and now a man much evolved. After overcoming two years of pandemic limbo, unlocking career milestones one after another and undergoing a life-defining physical transformation, Rishi Budhrani is ready to emerge into the world renewed-and anew.

- Indran Paramasivam

“If you don’t have something clever to say, don’t say anything.” Etch those words into the stratosphere like hieroglyphics.

Rishi Budhrani is squinting at the sun, as a dented can of Coke Zero is subconsciously subjected to various degrees of tension between his hands. The power that mantra inspires within him cannot be understated. Even as those words leave his lips, their truth takes hold of him. With brows furrowed and arms tense, the 38-year-old considers their import, measuring his whole life by the length and breadth of their meaning.

Whether or not you’re inclined to think of one’s trajectory as following the design of destiny, the conclusion is ironclad: Budhrani was built for this. This being comedy. Not the slip-on-a-banana-peel-and-fall-on-your-bum kind, but the incarnation of it that puts you on stage, where you’re facing an intimidating expanse of seats—armed only with a microphone and the truth you speak into it.

Truth. It’s how Rishi Budhrani became one of the most sought-after stand-up comics in Singapore, with a blast radius that includes Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United States, Australia, India and Sri Lanka—not forgetting stints on Comedy Central and Netflix. In all the excitement that surrounds his various accolades as a comedian, actor and host, Budhrani is quick to redirect the conversation to the beating heart behind all his success: his longstanding passion for being true to his muse and rendering it in a voice that is uncompromisingly his own.