how it started
A TIRUNELVELI KID, A MATHS TEACHER’S SON, A VERY BAD IDEA
Ramkumar is a Tamil stand-up comedian and writer, best known for his IT Manager Annachi character. After 16 years in IT, he quit the corporate life to tell jokes full-time. He grew up in Tirunelveli as the son of a strict Maths teacher — which neatly explains both the work ethic and the deep, lifelong need for a live audience to approve of him.
He spent 16 years as a software engineer and project manager — quietly shipping BI dashboards, enterprise chatbots, and a world-class collection of Monday-morning trauma. Then, in 2019, he did the single most reckless thing a comfortably employed IT manager can do: he picked up a mic at a stand-up comedy open mic.
Today he’s a full-time stand-up comedian, actor and humour coach - turning every sprint retro, appraisal cycle, and 2 AM client call into a punchline. Clean, relatable, painfully accurate.
My vacations start on Monday
Then · 2006–2022
PROJECT MANAGER
- Peak thrill: a green build on a Friday
- Audience: 4 people on Zoom, all on mute
- Applause: a thumbs-up react, if lucky
- Uniform: laptop bag & quiet despair
→
Now · 2019–present
STAND-UP COMEDIAN
- Peak thrill: 500 people losing it at once
- Audience: sold-out auditoriums in 17 countries
- Applause: the real kind, with hands
- Uniform: same beard, better lighting
16 years of corporate stress — now a 90-minute set the whole team can attend.
exhibit A: my research material
16 years of receipts
FROM DEBUGGING CODE TO DEBUGGING LIFE
The full career — every title, every company, every questionable decision that led to the stage.
Comedy era
Stand-up Comedian / Performer / Humor Coach
ramkumarcomic · Freelance · Apr 2019 – Present
Quit the day job to tell jokes for a living — probably the best bug fix of my life. 😄 450+ shows, 17 countries, 150M+ views, countless laughs and hugs later, I’m still incredibly grateful for every single moment.I’ve toured the globe, released my first stand-up special, ALT + TAB – Life of Ram, and now I’m on the road with my brand-new special, Retired NOT Hurt. 🎤❤️
’19
’15
love for that blue oval
Ford Motor Company
Chennai · 2015 – 2022 · 7 yrs
Manager, Strategy & Governance → Product Manager, Chatbots → Project Manager, BI Enablement
My best corporate era. Work while you work, play while you play. The company that first put me on stage and gave me countless opportunities to hone my public-speaking skills. Little did I know, the stage would eventually become home.
First time manager, Visiting USA and all of that
Project Delivery Manager
Hexaware Technologies · 2011 – 2015 · 4 yrs
The good IT years. Travelling across Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and the USA. I wore my Manager shoes for the first time — and the seed for Manager Annachi was sown.
’11
’10
QUICK Jump 2
Lead Developer
Computer Sciences Corporation · 2010 – 2011
Stood up a BI team for a UK fashion retailer in Leeds. Awarded Employee of the Quarter in Q2 and left the company in Q3. Peaked early and left early.
Quick Jump 1
Senior Software Engineer
CGI · Bengaluru · 2009 – 2010
Mentored a team for a Canadian telecom client. Learned the eternal truth of corporate life: a “quick call” is never, ever quick.
’09
’06
Fresher era
Senior Application Developer
BNY Mellon | iNautix · 2006 – 2009
The first real job, and the birth of a lifelong, comedy -fuelling grudge against IT.
Where it began
B.Tech, Computer Science
Govt. College of Engineering, Tirunelveli · 2002 – 2006
Mentored an EDW team for a Canadian telecom client. Learned the eternal truth of corporate life: a “quick call” is never, ever quick.
’02
the toolkit
WHAT I ACTUALLY DO WELL
- Stand-up Comedy
- Corporate Comedy
- Public Speaking
- Humor Coaching
- Executive Coaching
- Corporate Emceeing
- Improv
- Comedy Writing
- Presentation Punch-up
LANGUAGES I PERFORM & PANIC IN
Tamil
Native. Obviously.
Tanglish
Full professional. And joke-fluent.
Japanese
Elementary. The Duolingo owl knows my address.
off the record
FUN FACTS
Runs entirely on lemon tea
Son of a strict Maths teacher
Will absolutely do a Monday 9 AM show
17 countries and counting
Once built the chatbots. Now roasts them.
meeting faces, but funny
THE SUIT STILL FITS
objection: that deadline was fake
you. yes you. stop replying-all
please hold your questions till never
let me circle back to that punchline
actual feedback!
“He took our team’s most painful sprint stories and made 300 engineers cry — from laughing. Best offsite decision we made all year.”
— every HR lead, eventually
the answer is yes, let’s talk
now you know too much
LET’S PUT ALL THIS TRAUMA TO WORK
Corporate show, humor coaching, hosting, or just tickets to the next one — I clean up nice and I bring my own mic.