Chirag Jain, better known by his stage name 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 Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and producer. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008. In 2013, he was number three on ''Forbes'' list of the world's highe ...

in Amsterdam.

Early life and career

Papa CJ did his schooling at the Lawrence School Sanawar in India where he was the head boy and then went on to do an MBA at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from the Said Business School. 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 The 6th season of ''Last Comic Standing'' began airing in May 2008. This competitive reality show on NBC was hosted by Bill Bellamy (continuing from season five) and a new co-host, Fearne Cotton. The contest was won by Iliza Shlesinger from Dallas ...

'' on NBC, where from over 3000 worldwide contestants 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 The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typicall ...

, 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 The Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, in London, England. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three performance spaces. The the ...

in London and got two standing ovations on his Broadway debut in New York when he headlined

Carolines on Broadway Carolines on Broadway is a venue for stand-up comedy situated at 750 Seventh Avenue, on Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. History Caroline Hirsch opened Carolines as a cabaret in ...

Publishing career

Papa CJ's debut book, an autobiography titled 'Naked', was published in the Indian subcontinent by Westland, an Amazon company, on 16 December 2019. He has also written articles for multiple publications including

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Ma ...

Philanthropy

Under his initiative called The Papa CJ Happiness Project, he performs in support of charitable causes across the world and particularly in India. In addition to fundraising shows he also performs free shows in hospitals and for long suffering patients in their homes.

Motivational speaking, corporate training and executive coaching

Papa CJ runs multiple different training modules for organisations, the most popular of which apply learnings from stand-up comedy into the personal and professional lives of people in the workplace. Two unique sessions he runs are 'A Comedian's Guide to Communication Strategy' and 'Naked Leadership'. Naked Leadership is a unique approach towards leadership training that combines a multi-genre theatrical production with a learning activity that forces participants to reflect deeply and prioritise their personal and professional lives. They leave the session with a great sense of gratitude. Papa CJ is regularly invited as a motivational speaker and has spoken on multiple platforms including

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

and Josh Talks.

References

External links

* * Video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2nVO4P7QU * Razor TV Singapore - comedy in hospitals: https://web.archive.org/web/20131113211144/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: https://archive.today/20130419222850/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 *BBC UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8419225.stm *CAREER AHEAD INDIA: https://www.careerahead.in/post/q-a-with-papa-cj {{DEFAULTSORT:Cj, Papa Indian stand-up comedians Last Comic Standing contestants Living people Alumni of Saïd Business School Year of birth missing (living people)