Beyond the Law: Sachin Bansal, Stand-Up GC

Lawyers accumulate writing and verbal victories that are measured in clients' freedoms and financial statements. But for this month’s Beyond the Law feature, rhetorical wins can also be measured in laughs. Sachin Bansal, aka Sachin Shaan, is a tech GC by day and a comedian and stand-up producer by night. We sat down with Sachin (he chose to stand up) to learn about how he has turned a hobby into a popular monthly show featuring top comics like Jim Gaffigan and Hassan Minhaj and how the skill set of a lawyer can be a true asset in the vibrant world of stand-up comedy. ► http://www.talksonlaw.com for more legal explainers and interviews with the titans of law. ► Patreon: TalksOnLaw is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at: http://www.patreon.com/talksonlaw ► Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/talksonlaw ► Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/talksonlaw ► Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/talksonlaw ____________________ TRANSCRIPT (Abridged) Joel Cohen: Hey Sachin, why don’t you introduce yourself real quick? Sachin Bansal: My name is Sachin Bansal, I am a lawyer, I am the General Counsel of Security Scorecard. We’re a tech startup, based here in New York City, in cybersecurity. And I'm also a stand-up comedian and a producer. And I hear you, Joel, and TalksOnLaw has got some questions for me. J: In the comedy world, what’s been the highlight of your career so far? S: I think my highlight has been starting my own show and having Jim Gaffigan on it. J: Any other famous comics that we might know on your show? S: Yeah, we’ve had Hasan Minaj Judah Friedlander, TJ Miller, and the list goes on. We’ve been lucky. J: That’s a lot of funny. When you started comedy, did you find it, you took to it easily, was it something that you found you were initially good at? S: I think I found that I was I got addicted early on to the adrenaline rush of being on stage and coming up with material. I was not so great, arguably kind of terrible. J: Okay, appreciate the honesty. S: And I just kept doing it, and when you’re a lawyer and you first start out, you’re not that experienced and you might make some mistakes, but you got to keep going. Same thing happened with comedy. J: What would you say was your biggest challenge with stand-up comedy? S: My biggest challenge was being clean and being funny. It easy to be, it is easy to make some of the more dirty jokes and so forth, but to be creative and think of new material that connects with people but is also mom-friendly, cause my mom will yell at me and I am scared of her, is not easy. J: So you’re a lawyer, you used to be at a global bank. Now you’re at GC. Is that why you stuck with clean material, cause you’re worried you might get yourself fired? S: That’s part of it. I mean, when I was at a big investment bank for a number of years, some big law firms before that, I wanted to be careful. I didn’t want someone taping me, and it ends up on YouTube, and we all heard of those stories of things on YouTube and on Twitter. So I have been careful for that reason. J: You know there’s been this reputation of comics starving, working hard to make it. S: The ramen noodles. J: Ramen noodles and crashing on couches. Have you experienced resentment from other comics when they realize, “Hey wait, you actually have a real job”? S: One of them, when I told him I was a lawyer, was like, "why are you doing this shit?" Um, you know what, I try to really separate the two. I almost think of it like being Batman and Bruce Wayne. When Bruce Wayne is in the Boardroom… J: Are you calling yourself a superhero? S: I’d like to think of myself as Batman and Bruce Wayne without all the good looks or all the money or the cape. But he doesn’t have any superpowers so that’s why I admire him. And he just keeps both worlds totally separate. When Bruce Wayne in the boardroom, nobody knows he’s Batman and he doesn’t talk about being Batman. Same with me right, when I’m at work, and I’m working with our company to grow our business, I’m not being silly and making a ton of jokes. Similarly, when I'm hanging out with a bunch of comics and we’re talking about whatever it might be, I’m not going to start talking about the impeachment inquiry, or some legal principles. So, I keep the things pretty separate. J: Some people like to hate on lawyers which at Talks On Law, we do not approve of. Have you told lawyer jokes? S: I haven’t. And I also get annoyed whenever I tell someone I’m a lawyer or I do stand-up. People feel the need to tell me their favorite lawyer joke. It’s not like you go see your doctor, and you go like, "Hey, before you diagnose me and help me with my illness, let me tell you a doctor joke." We’re like the only profession that people feel the need to tell a joke about us all the time. At least don’t do it in front of our face.