When today’s crop of Insta-famous corporate employee-turned-comedians were still in school, comedian Papa CJ (who holds an MBA degree from University of Oxford, by the way) was filling clubs across the UK after the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. You could mistake Kolkata’s Chirag Jain aka Papa CJ for Keanu Reeves from afar, a seasoned corporate executive up close, and a Mumbai boy once you hear him talk. In an interview with mid-day before his comeback tour Still Standing Up, the comedian reveals that only one of those is a lie.

Excerpts from the interview.

Where has Papa CJ been, and what sparked this return? Will we see a new version?
Most of the gigs I do in India tend to be corporate and private gigs. So, Papa CJ has been out of the public eye but very much around. When the organisers approached me with this tour to celebrate my 20th anniversary in comedy, I told them if they put my name on a poster, I don’t know whether two people will show up or two thousand. You won’t see the same CJ you remember. You’ll see the older, fatter and greyer version. Hopefully, he’ll be as funny if not funnier.