Weekly Date With Mic for "Siblings of Doctors" Comic - Naazish YarKhan

If you are of Indian or Pakistani descent, you know the drill. When you grow up you have to be either a doctor, engineer and lately, a computer programmer. If you're anything else, guess what? You're not worth much. Apparently that's what even brides think when they go a-hunting for grooms. Any Indian matrimonial column will attest to this and comedy writer Ranjit Souri, who is of South Asian heritage, is acquainted with this factoid only too well.

Ranjit is a Chicagoan. A comedy writer and actor, he has performed his work at colleges and universities throughout the United States, as well as at comedy festivals in Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York City, Portland (Ore.), San Francisco, and Seattle. He has co-written numerous comedy shows for the stage with Stir-Friday Night!, Cupid Players, Paper Monkeys, and Siblings of Doctors (an Indian-American comedy trio which also includes Rasika Mathur and Danny Pudi). He has improvised many one-act plays with the dramatic improvisational group doubleplay.

I think what must give desi parents in the audience sleepless nights is the fact that Ranjit has an MBA from Columbia University (!!!) and a B.S. in Accounting from Case Western Reserve University. I can almost imagine parents quaking in fear when their teen comes up to them after a Souri performance and says, "I want to be like him once I have my MBA!"

"All those loans and you want to be a comedian!?!" I bet they gag, recovering quickly only to begin shouting, squirming and bulging eyes.