If Pooja Tripathi did not resign in the midst of a 2018 conference, she might not be a successful comedian.
By then, she said, Tripathi had been in the fashion industry for five years but was defeated after dealing with a toxic boss. One morning, at the last minute meeting, her boss began to insult the Tripathi in front of the manager in person. She said she watched her colleagues experience similar bullying in the past and decided to resign, and she received a five cents salary on the spot.
“Everyone thinks it sounds cool…and then it’s not easy to think that you can’t achieve anything every day,” said Tripathi, 32. “You feel like you’re a lie.”
She said the second act of Tripathi’s career was more real, fulfilling and profitable twice. She said she and a friend started writing and performing for the YouTube series and over time she became a successful content creator.
Tripathi started her most popular project, Brooklyn Coffee Shop, in June 2023. In a short video posted to Tiktok and Instagram, she plays a dry, boring barista who interacts with him and often rejects stereotypical Brooklyn customers – a Pilates teacher, a Pilates teacher, a person who likes to order, like a small amount of cream, paired with an unsatisfactory and has to order.
Some The episodes of this series Has been viewed over 3 million times.
She said the success of the series helped Tripathi personal social media brand deals. She said she now earns more than twice the amount she earned as a fashion marketer in the past enough to quit her job in order to work full-time in December 2024.
She added that the series also began its own brand deals.
Risks and rewards for content creation
She said Tripathi had to take risks to achieve this. She had no experience writing comedy or acting before leaving her fashion marketing job. She said she rode her roommates in a one-bedroom apartment in New York to save money and worked part-time marketing to pay bills while building social media in her spare time.
“I have a very powerful North Star, and that’s another salary I need,” she said. “My mom will call me and remind me that I won’t have health insurance (once I’m 26)… I think the core of all Americans is worried that if we don’t perform, if we don’t make money, we can’t go to the doctor.”
Tripathi said juggling multiple jobs are mentally exhausting in trying to succeed on an uncertain career path, but Brooklyn Café is natural. In 2023, she spent 30 minutes discussing alternative dairy products such as buffalo milk in a cafe with friends and cafes.
She said she went home, set up her iPhone on a tripod and filmed her conversation in front of a temporary green screen in her apartment – playing the barista and the customer. She said the first part of the series received over 1 million views.
The production of the series looks very different now. Tripathi breaks down production workload with her boyfriend Sagi Shahar, who is sound-designed, and her friends Nitay Dagan and Eyal Cohen are the series director and photographer Eyal Cohen respectively. Another friend added special effects, such as kiosk screens, which prompted fictitious customers to increase by more than 200%.
Comedians like Kyle Gordon, Grace Reiter and Gianmarco Soresi are now customers too.
“We can only do (what we have to do) because everyone is technically savvy,” Tripathi said. “Working with guests (and staff) is probably the most meaningful thing in my entire career so far.”
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