Hopong Chingshong, famously known as HOPONG NAGA, is a stand-up comedian who made his presence in the social media with his side-splitting mimicry of various characters and parody of unique local behaviors and has risen to popularity ever since!

THE STARTING POINT OF THE CAREER:

“I started doing stand up in the year 2016 when an entertainment label ‘SKY ENTERTAINMENT’ approached me to sign a contract with them. I was under a manager till the contract expired. Well, they discovered me through my short funny videos that I used to post on Facebook. I never had any plans to do stand up but they saw potential in me and encouraged me. That’s how my journey started. It was not easy starting because stand up was very new to me and very different from sitting in front of the camera and making jokes.”

ACHIEVEMENTS:

“Doing 73 shows as stand up comic in a span of 7 years is one of the achievements I’m proud of.”

Seemingly not just Hopong but a loadful of audience from around the NorthEastern Region is proud of his rib-hurting worthy laughs and jokes!

IS THIS A FULL-TIME JOB?

“In all honesty, I don’t see this as my full time job. I do it mostly for fun.”

As funny as Hopong is, he has had a few lot of remarkably  hilarious moments himself:“I have lots of memorable moments… one particular moment was when I was called to entertain a group of students of a particular school in 2016. After the show, a small girl came up to me and asked for an autograph. That was the first time I signed an autograph, I was shocked and overwhelmed too.

She brought a full size chart paper and made me sign. That was not only the first time I signed but also the biggest autograph I’ve ever signed hahaha. FULL SIZE CHART PAPER AUTOGRAPH.”

CHALLENGES IN THE CAREER:

“For me the major challenges are the right platform and political correctness. Jokes can sometimes be offensive and it doesn’t suit with most of the platforms I get, for example, schools, churches and public gatherings where we get mixed audience sometimes…we can’t tell certain types of jokes in front of kids or families.

Another challenge is political correctness. I think there’s lots of restrictions with what we can say or can’t say in the public domain.”

WITH RISING POPULARITY, CRITICISMS ARE PREVALENT EVERYWHERE. HERE’S HOW HOPONG COPES WITH THEM: “Yes I’ve received criticisms, both negative and positive. Like I always say, I started doing stand up at a very young age and got fame which kind of spoiled me.

I’ve had my ups and downs and I’ve learnt a lot through experience. Coping up with criticisms was not very easy. It is hard to distinguish between positive and negative criticisms but once we learn to differentiate that, we know what to take and what not to. We know where we need to improve. It’s all about learning to grow with it. I think that makes us a better version of ourselves.”

EXTRA DETAILS:

1. Tribe: Phom Naga
2. D.o.B – 22/10/1996
3. Presently residing in: Dimapur