MUMBAI: "I am Aadar Malik. I am Anu Malik's nephew. And that was the punch-line." To achieve popularity on the basis of content and not as 'yet-another-Anu-Malik-relative' itself defines Aadar Malik’s talent. Stand-up comedy has attracted enough trouble in the last two years and while several comedians focus on ‘calming down’ a bit on aggressive comedy, Malik has definitely found new channels and ways to continue doing so.

Malik, on the verge of quitting stand-up comedy, created two original compositions, on the request of Varun Thakur (fellow SnG comic) and what happened will literally blow your mind away. Well, not really. Not even close. The compositions only garnered attention from the web community and one thing led to another resulting into Malik continuing with comedy. So did music rekindle his love for comedy? And saved his life? And provided him shelter and food and future for his kids and alimony money after his marriage ends in a not-so-funny divorce? “Well..Yes,” replied Malik. “I was more into theatre. I tried my hand at comedy, and soon I realised I need to get back to comedy, that is when Thakur asked me to just compose two songs, and thus were born ‘She Called Me Bhaiyya’ and ‘BMC Song’.”

Music gave the comedian a small voice once again and a major breakthrough. Well, ‘major’ in stand-up universe means another show at Tuning Fork with free food and two extra passes. Apart from stand-up, Malik has shifted his focus – partly – on music videos to his original compositions. The latest video ‘Driving Song’ was sang and recorded live in the car with a guitarist and sound engineer to assist the comedian as they drove around the streets of Mumbai.

Speaking about how unique and new the concept of stand-up musician-comics is, Malik added, “It’s a niche within niche. And that makes it more difficult for existing artists to strive, and acts as discouragement to those who wish to enter in this space.” Malik acknowledges the evolving community and its perception towards such genres. On one side, Only Much Louder’s NH7 provided platform for these artists to reach out to larger audience, whereas Malik has also been exposed to the darker side of being a musician-cum-standup comedian. “I ask young musicians to collaborate with me and more often than not, the reply arrives – ‘We do not want to do that kind of music’”.

Malik educated how one can excel in the genre, stating, “Alien Chutney excels at parodies. They have few originals and they excel at what they do. I am a full-time comedian-cum-musician. I approached the path of original compositions, because I have been doing music for half of my life. I am related to Anu Malik yaar.”

The small community provides an opportunity for Malik to share the content with fellow artists from the space before putting it up. “A lot of comedians asked me not to put up the Goat Song . I share my content with Kenny Sebastian and Abish Mathew and the two assist me with necessary changes. That helps us grow.”

Appropriate utilisation of music (and musical instruments) for stand-up acts is not a new universal phenomenon. The art has been practiced for almost a century, and Malik drew inspiration from the old acts and the new. “Tim Minchin is definitely my favourite.” The 40-year-old Australian stand-up comic extensively carried out his act using orchestra and precise execution of sounds without affecting the funny lyrical punch-lines.

So what does the filmy family think of Aadar’s music? “I have been lately exploring some music acts. Before that Tim Minchin and Victor Borge covered most of the music knowledge I possess. Even Amaal does not listen to a lot of music.” Well, of course you are a Malik. You do not listen to music, you steal it.

When asked on providing equal emphasis on music and how many stand-up comedians follow the approach, Malik jested, “Only the good ones do.”