Lawyer-turned-comedian Sashi Perera on doing things that scare you
IMAGE VIA @sashbomb/Instagram
WORDS BY NICHOLENE CANISIUS
“Stand-up comedy is particularly brutal because you learn by doing and everyone is mostly terrible when they first start.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
Looking for a new 9 to 5? Head to our Careers page for new listings daily.
Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
This week we hear from comedian, writer and former lawyer Sashi Perera. You may know her from her stand-up comedy shows, Ending (2023) and Boundaries (2024) or her viral joke about counselling and the ‘browndaries’ she grew up with. The success Sashi has achieved in her recent years in comedy is impressive, and although it didn’t come overnight, she’s enjoyed (mostly) every part of the journey, “For the first five years of comedy, I didn’t think it would go anywhere. I’d take a tram an hour one way to do a five-minute unpaid spot, then come back the other way.”
Up until 2018, Sashi was a practising refugee lawyer who never thought comedy would be more than a hobby. A spontaneous decision to enter the national Raw Comedy open mic competition is what led her into the world of comedy clubs, until she eventually started getting booked. According to Sashi, there’s no ‘one path’ to comedy, “everyone muddles through in their own way,” she explains. Below, we unpack her career pivot, what it’s really like to go viral, and when she discovered “being funny is way more welcome on a stage than in a court hearing”.
Hi Sashi! Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
I’m a comedian, writer and recovering lawyer. I’m split across a few projects at any given time. In 2024, I toured my solo show, Boundaries, around Australia and the UK, chatted on television and radio shows, did some acting and writing and yelling at strangers on the internet.
View this post on Instagram
Take us back to when you were first starting out. How exactly did you go from lawyer to comedian?
Comedy is weird because there is no one path. Everyone muddles through in their own way. Stand-up comedy is particularly brutal because you learn by doing and everyone is mostly terrible when they first start. I moved to Melbourne in 2018 and entered Raw Comedy after a new friend at the Meredith Music Festival told me I was funny and should enter. I didn’t know it would change my life.
Raw is a national open mic competition run by Triple J and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. My first gig was the first heat and I went through to Victoria’s state final. I didn’t get through to the national final but I was hooked.
I never expected comedy to be more than a hobby. I had no idea how all the big names in Australia became the big names, it was worlds apart from the open mics I was doing in empty rooms. But someone saw me somewhere then booked me somewhere else and so on. My jokes got better and one day I was paid twenty bucks for a ten-minute set and I couldn’t believe someone paid me to tell jokes.
That’s amazing. What challenges have you faced getting to where you are now?
I’m a writer first and a performer second. I spend a really long time alone trying to figure out the best way to say dumb things. Then I have to perform it. That’s thrown me into a world where I can only learn by doing. I didn’t do drama, holding space on stage doesn’t come naturally to me. Nor does touring or learning how to be a person on the internet, radio or television. Each step is fun, weird and hard, and I’m grateful to the comedy community for a lot of advice along the way.
The biggest challenge for me is internet comments. When my reels started going viral in 2023, I grew 100,000 followers in three months. It was wildly exciting, my first solo show at the comedy festival sold out its run a month before it opened. But the wider the net went, the more garbage comments came in.
It’s nothing new, all comedians deal with the ‘you’re not funny, this isn’t funny’ comments. But the acidity of it has surprised me and some of the worst comments come from my own community – it’s strange to feel such ire over jokes. I used to see Hollywood folks complaining about the internet hate and I’d think, ‘oh boo freakin hoo, go cry into your giant pile of money with your perfect bone structure’.
I still think the same thing because I don’t have a money pile and my bone structure sucks. I try to focus on all the good that’s come my way, all the people I’ve connected with around the globe. Any time things get too hard, I put my phone down and go spend a long while in the real world.
What’s the best part about being a comedian?
My favourite thing about being a comedian is the moment when something you’ve written alone in your room, comes out of your mouth on stage and makes a room full of people laugh. There is no feeling I can compare to that. Everything in the news makes it feel like the world is so divided but those moments at comedy shows, it feels like we’re all one. It’s the best antidote to the news.
View this post on Instagram
What would surprise people about your job?
It’s a lot of fun but it’s also work. There’s a lot of admin involved behind the scenes and I’m lucky that I have management now. My first show was self-produced and I learned so much about everything that goes into a show; hiring a venue, paying the staff, working with techs, advertising and marketing to get people to come and budgeting to make all of it happen. And no matter what’s happening in your personal life, you leave it at the door when it’s time to make people laugh.
What skills have served you in your industry?
A lot of skills in law transfer to comedy, maybe that’s why there are quite a few lawyer comedians around. It’s helped me with the writing side of comedy, with researching and structuring information. With the performing side of comedy, with presenting information – though being funny is way more welcome on a stage than in a court hearing. And with the admin side of it all, knowing how to budget, read contracts and fill out forms.
View this post on Instagram
What advice would you give someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
Keep going. This applies to anything you enjoy doing, even if it makes no sense financially or if you think you should’ve started earlier. If it makes you happy, keep going. Unless it’s against the law, definitely strongly consider stopping then.
For the first five years of comedy, I didn’t think it would go anywhere. I’d take a tram an hour one way to do a five-minute unpaid spot, then come back the other way. I enjoyed it. I liked performing and I liked watching everyone else perform. It seemed like a very silly way for an adult to spend time but it made me happy so I kept doing it.
If you have that in your life, keep going. It doesn’t have to make sense or money, you don’t have to be the best at it and you don’t have to go all in. We’re all going to die so we best do the things we like while we can. If you haven’t found it yet, go find it!
Keep up with Sashi here.
Liked this? You’ll love these...
