Paul Sinha was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, in May 1970. He qualified as a GP in the ’90s and began performing stand-up while working as a junior doctor. He has since taken eight shows to the Edinburgh Fringe and has been nominated three times for Best Club Comedian at the Chortle Awards, winning in 2014.
In 2011, Sinha joined the cast of the ITV quiz show The Chase, where he has the nickname ‘The Sinnerman’. He has also appeared on Mastermind, University Challenge and Only Connect, among other quiz shows, has presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary on quizzing and placed 11th in the 2018 World Quizzing Championships. He has also appeared on Taskmaster, numerous radio shows including Fighting Talk, The News Quiz and Just A Minute and hosted his own radio series, Paul Sinha’s History Revision. In 2019, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Speaking to The Big Issue for his Letter to My Younger Self, Paul Sinha looks backat a remarkable life which hasn’t quite gone the way it had been mapped out for him.
Being 16 was a crucial stage of my life. I was halfway through doing A levels, and it was the first time that I was aware that I was academically struggling. I’d always been quite a gifted kid academically and so, due to family pressures – my dad’s a doctor, my mum is a midwife – I was pushed into science A levels that I found really, really hard. So everything else seemed more interesting than academic work. I was very interested in politics. I’d been on a CND march the year before, and a big anti-apartheid march to Trafalgar Square.
I was a very shy and nerdish kid, very bookish. Not someone people expected to make them laugh or offer insight or wit. I was just the general knowledge kid. Struggling at school made me very frustrated. It became clear that I wasn’t going to go to Oxford or Cambridge, which my parents wanted. The problem was I had no better ideas for the future myself. We expect kids in their teenage years to know what they want to be doing for the rest of their life. And that is far too early. I was a very good junior chess player, and I wanted to be a chess grandmaster, but I just wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be an ice skater, but the first time I went on the ice, I fell down five times in the first two minutes.
I was very interested in sport, and a very big life event happened for me when I was 16 – I went to watch my beloved Liverpool FC win the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. It was a bittersweet experience for me because it was great seeing my team, but I was racially bullied on the train up. I was mugged for the first time, by Liverpool fans who found my posh accent immensely amusing. At one point they asked me, because of my ethnic background, whether I actually spoke any English at all. Then they took my watch at the end as a sort of symbol of their victory over me, just to humiliate me. But I refused to let it spoil my enjoyment of the game, because Liverpool beat Everton 3-1.
2012: Paul Sinha performing stand-up at a comedy night in Dulwich, South London. Image: Ruskin Photos / Alamy Stock Photo
My mum found out I was gay through an act of emotional sabotage when one of my friends in medical school got drunk at a party, rang her up and let her know. So that wasn’t ideal, and it took quite a long time for the wounds of that very brutal revelation to heal up. But heal up they did. My dad found out in a more traditional way. I had run out of explanations as to why I’d never brought a girlfriend back home, and my dad had summoned me for the big heart to heart. But surprisingly to me, it went well because, you know, it’s easy to forget that your parents are more people of the world than you think.
I wasn’t funny to talk to but I wrote funny jokes. I wrote little parodies and sketches and things when I was around 14 or 15. But I was never someone you’d tip to be a comedian until I got to medical school, where alcohol, and finally being able to pursue my sexuality, freed me up. I think it makes a massive difference becoming more comfortable in your own skin. It means you become a more entertaining, happier and funnier person.
I was absolutely terrified before my first comedy gig, in a pub in West London. I still remember nearly all the jokes. It was a night for new acts so I calculated that I probably wouldn’t be the worst act, right? Unfortunately for me, the first act was the winner of the previous week’s new act night. And he was absolutely amazing. And I suddenly felt… have I made an absolutely terrible error of judgment? But luckily by the time I got to the stage, there had been at least two bad acts, which made me feel much more relaxed.
2024: Paul Sinha with husband Oliver Levy at the Attitude Pride Awards in London. Image: See Li/Picture Capital / Alamy Stock Photo
Eventually, when I was a working doctor, I got my stand-up break in 1998 with a five-minute spot at the Comedy Store which went so well I actually got myself an agent. This was three and a half years after I started, and I’d been paid about twice in that time. So if there’s one thing I would advise any comedian on their way up – don’t be afraid to do the five-minute slot at the Comedy Store. It might sound terrifying, but it’s the best comedy club in the country, and therefore the audience are really positive and supportive. It’s not the scariest five-minute spot you can do.
I had no ideas about long-term future planning. I was just jumping from one misadventure to another, keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. It never even occurred to me that I’d be a professional comedian. I did my first gig because I wanted to be a more interesting person at a dinner party. If anyone was to hear I’d done stand-up comedy they would say, ooh, that’s interesting. That really was my one ambition. And it worked. I did become a more interesting person.
The possibility of being a professional stand-up comedian would terrify my younger self. And the possibility of disappointing his parents by leaving medicine would be quite terrifying. But one of the things that would be very nice to tell him is that I’m married to a same-sex partner. So I’d like to tell my 16-year-old self to hang on in there. There will be years and years and years when you’ll think you’re never going to find love, you’re never going to find the right person. But you will be surprised. It will eventually happen. And I think the thing that would most surprise the 16-year-old me is that I found myself not only a boyfriend, but a husband. And that my mum and dad would enjoy the wedding day thoroughly and have a great time, and would be totally approving of the whole thing.
The Chase was a life changer, it’s impossible to deny. My comedy career was going quite well at the time, and then I got this amazing opportunity to go on The Chase. I’d only been doing serious quizzing for three years. I’d stumbled on this world of very high-end individual and team quiz tournaments, and I took to it like a duck to water. I just loved it. I love meeting people, getting to know them, becoming friends with them, finding out what makes them tick. I love the competitiveness. I loved the fact that I could be competitive at something, because I always wanted to be good at sport, and I wasn’t able to be.
2024: Paul Sinha celebrating the show’s 15th anniversary with host Bradley Walsh and his fellow Chasers. Image: ITV
The way I look at my Parkinson’s diagnosis is to be as positive as I can be. That’s not an act of defiance or courage, it’s just an act of pragmatism. I’ve got a life to lead. I’ve got a living to make, and the more things I can do within the parameters of my illness, the better living I’ll make. My mum and dad are inspirations. They’ve never asked for pity, despite the fact that my mum had a double mastectomy for breast cancer in 2008 and my dad had a cardiac arrest in 1990. They’ve always been fighters, not in an especially courageous way, but just because that’s what you’ve got to do. If you allow yourself to wallow in an illness, you’re not going to get better any quicker.
If I could live one time in my life again it would be when I was nominated for what was called the Perrier Award in 2006. Between the Wednesday nomination and the Saturday announcement of the winner – which wasn’t me – was miserable as hell. I felt under so much pressure. You know, my name was in the national press. I wish I could go back to that time and just take deep breaths. I’d say to myself, this is what you got into comedy for. This is a golden moment. Don’t be stressed. Don’t suffer. Enjoy it. Soak it in. Get seen by as many people as possible. And congratulations, Paul.
A special episode to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The Chase is on ITV on 2 September at 5pm.
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