‘IT Manager Annachi’ Ramkumar went on a digital detox. The result is ‘Retired Not Hurt’ (original) (raw)

Stand-up comic Ramkumar Natarajan

Ramkumar Natarajan has seen a lot of applause and claps. But what does he do when he is surrounded by silence, and reaching out for a phone that isn’t there?

When this Chennai stand-up comic went for a Vipassana retreat recently — in which he was totally cut off from social media and other distractions — he underwent a lot of realisations — most of which will feature in his upcoming show.

While his first comedy special — Alt + Tab - Life of Ram — was about his physical transformation, which ultimately led to his choice of career, his upcoming special will focus on matters of the mind. Titled Retired Not Hurt, it will zoom on the mindset shift he experienced post quitting a comfortable IT career. It will also have an entire segment on the life lessons he learnt from his recent experience at Vipasana.

“For the first 48 hours, I was restless. I was always searching for my phone,” he says, about the Vipasana experience that had him cut off from the world for a few days, “But once I got used to it, my mind focussed better. I hope to talk in detail about this in the show, peppered with humour, of course.”

It was difficult for him to remove the stand-up comic hat when he was there as well. “I immediately thought of a concept imagining how major political leaders would feel in here,” he guffaws. His mind started playing games, but slowly, the 41-year-old Ram came to the fore, with memories and self-realisations that he never knew was within himself.

The filmi connect

Ramkumar will soon debut in a Tamil film, titled Moonwalk. Starring Prabhu Deva and with music by AR Rahman, the film features the stand-up comic in a major character role. “It will feature in the beginning, middle and climax, and the makers mentioned that it was written keeping me in mind. I shot a couple of sequences with Prabhu Deva, and he made me so comfortable on set,” says Ramkumar, who is also starring as a Tirunelveli-based bus conductor in an upcoming Tamil film starring Gouri Kishan.

Ram records his observations about life in his YouTube and social media — his ‘Being a Kamal Haasan fan’ has garnered more than a million views — but in his specials, he follows a specific theme, with a message in the end. “I am very comfortable being vulnerable on stage. I also plan to give a sticker to every member of the audience that says, ‘I am retiring from...’, so that there is a takeaway.”

Is it important for stand-up comics to end a show with a message? “It depends on the material and the comic. I watched a Louis CK show in Bangalore recently, and there was absolutely no pleasantries or messages. Closer home, Alex (Alexander Babu) spreads messages in his material, while Praveen Kumar is a storyteller with puns. I feel my audiences expect some sort of takeaway at the end.”

Ramkumar Natarajan

Both the names he mentions combine two aspects to provide comic relief for audiences — while Alex uses music liberally in his shows, Praveen employs tropes of a relatable family man to bring in the laughs. Ramkumar’s USP has the fact that he liberally draws from his experience in the IT sector, thus making him relatable to ‘IT dudes’. Isn’t Retired Not Hurt avoiding that niche he has carefully built over the last few years? “I am slowly moving away,” he agrees, “It’s been a while since I was in IT, and things are changing rapidly there.”

That does not mean he will totally avoid it; in fact, his most popular on-screen character remains ‘IT manager Annachi’, using which he often does Reels and short video comic content taking off from news events. In these and his specials, he puts himself at the centre, apart from weaving in characters. “I consider myself an anecdotal comedian. I need characters to tell a story in a funny way,” he says, pointing out a fictional Divakar in his apartment complex or fresher Ramesh in his IT content, “Storytelling is my forte and my audiences love it.”

Retired Not Hurt will premiere on June 12 in Chennai (Medai – The Stage, Alwarpet), followed by shows in Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Salem, Erode and Nagercoil

Published - June 09, 2026 08:01 am IST