Danish Ali is sharp, smart and observant, with a double-edged wit. As humble, polite and amiable as he is, he should not be mistaken for being simple. He knows and respects his art, and is determined to make it big through hard work.

We meet over coffee on a lazy Sunday morning in Karachi. He almost comes across as a border-line introvert. “I like to have fun but I would not call myself an extrovert. But I need to talk to unknown people. It is part of my work,” he says, explaining how to prepare an act he has to perform in front of unknown audiences in random places and gauge reactions to different jokes.

Danish shares obvious excitement at now having his own show. He is a host and writer for Pakistan’s premier sketch comedy show ‘The Real Show With Danish Ali’ on AAJ TV.

And how different is doing comedy on TV vs. stand-up comedy? “Stand-up comedy is a totally different animal. It has taken me five years to master a single act. There is no room for failure in a stand-up act. If I am charging you money to make you laugh, I better be good. I need to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I need to be the best, not second best.”

Today, he is a popular stand-up comedian. But was he always so good? “I bombed once in the initial phase, but I learnt from that experience,” he says. He nostalgically talks about his initial performances. “A comedian always remembers his first big laugh. I got mine seven years ago. It justifies your spending so much time writing the jokes, organising the show, selling the tickets. It was in that instance that I knew that this is what I would be doing. For an artist, highs are highs and lows are lows. ”

The sifting of jokes is no laughing matter. “If I write, say, a 100 jokes, people will find only two of them really funny. It takes a year to write an-hour-long show. This is really hard work. Med school’s easier in comparison. Ok, in case a doctor reads this, change it to med school’s tougher,” says the witty comedian.

Danish also performs for corporate clients as well as private schools and universities, and charity events. His audience has included dignitaries and diplomats and the crème de la crème of society, but what he enjoys most is entertaining the youth. “I enjoy young people,” he says recalling his performances for the youth in random cafes, universities and schools.

Things are looking up for Danish who has been selected by the New England Foundation of The Arts and ‘Center Stage’ to represent Pakistan in a month long visit to the United States performing as a stand-up comedian as well as engaging in exchange activities with other comedians in the United States in the Winter of 2012. “I would be performing for an American audience, which means I have to find cultural references that the audience can relate to,” he says, looking forward to the challenge.

What is his ambition, I asked. “I want to be a BIG name in stand-up comedy, firstly in Pakistan and then internationally too. If I can be that bit of good news from Pakistan, it would make me very happy,” says Danish, who has had part of his schooling in France. He can speak French fluently which meant a lot more work opportunities abroad, but he stayed on in homeland, as he is a patriot at heart.

He calls PACC his home and Saad Haroon, the other renowned Pakistani stand-up comedian and possible rival, his “colleague, friend, elder brother and mentor.”

“It’s a ridiculously miserable choice, to take up comedy instead of medicine as a career. It’s not a smart choice, neither is easy. But this is what I love doing,” says Danish, whose wife and parents are a huge support for him. “My dad is my biggest fan. My parents watch my show religiously and give regular feedback,” he says with pride. His parents were initially sceptical but not against his choice.

Danish does not like offensive comedy. “I don’t push boundaries beyond a point. I work within the Pakistani system. In the past some of my work has been censored. I’m a family comedian, not a shock comedian.”

On using his art as a form of activism, he says, “I am first and foremost a comedian. Social messages are secondary. So I try not to touch upon religion and politics.”

Sharing his experience of interviewing various celebrities, Danish replies at the drop of a hat that his favourite is Meera. “She was easily the best entertainer. So positive. So friendly. I’d give her a 5 on 5.”

He has fortunately met the legends Anwar Maqsood and Moeen Akhtar. “I can take meeting them to the grave with me,” he says with obvious emotion and a sense of humble pride at having experienced these maestros of the comedy trade.

Both he and his wife are huge “Humsafar fans” which he feels was unique in that it brought people back to watching a single channel with focus in an age of short attention spans.

Discussing the difference between the city hubs of Pakistan, Danish says, “Karachi audiences are more sophisticated, more street smart. They are out for your blood! But in Islamabad and Lahore, the GDP shows: Better-looking audiences, cleaner auditoriums, full of happier people who laugh at the hint of a joke. They are happy-go-lucky and laugh more readily. Karachiites on the other hand are not easy to please!”