By Stephen Tobey – Correspondent
Who would have guessed that Shivani Davé would be a stand-up comedian?
It depends on whom you ask and when they knew her.
“You’d get two different reactions,” says Davé, a 2005 graduate of Concord-Carlisle High School and one of the best players in the storied history of the school’s girls tennis program.
“A lot of people who knew me from tennis probably would be surprised. Those who knew me from my time in corporate America would think it made sense.”
During her time at Concord-Carlisle, Davé was on the tennis team, playing in the first singles spot all four years. As a junior and senior she led the Patriots to MIAA state team titles and state individual titles of her own. She also played in United States Tennis Association tournaments, earning a No. 1 ranking in New England.
Her late father, Rashmi Davé, pushed her to excel in tennis, but he also had a lighter side.
“I did feel a little pressure, but I also had balance,” she says. “My father was also the funny one at family gatherings, and we always had ‘Seinfeld’ on TV.”
After she graduated from CCHS, Davé played for the University of Illinois on scholarship. The life of a Division 1 student-athlete is quite demanding, but there were some lighter, enjoyable moments.
“We were in Los Angeles for our first spring break,” Davé says. “Most college students get to party on spring break. When you’re an athlete, it’s a lot of training and competing. We had one fun night where the coaches took us to a comedy club, where we saw Jay Leno. We were sitting up front in our University of Illinois warm-ups and he absolutely demolished us.”
After graduating from Illinois, Davé went to work for Johnson and Johnson. She later worked in Silicon Valley and held other corporate jobs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York, where she now lives with her husband, Dave. Many of her early dates with her husband were at comedy shows.
While still working in corporate jobs, Davé started writing comedy sketches and screenplays. That eventually led to opportunities to do stand-up performances, starting in 2021.
Davé mostly performs in New York but often goes on the road. During the week before Christmas, she performed in Burlington, Vermont; Cambridge; and Boston. On New Year’s Eve, she was on stage in Burlington.
“She’s done small, intimate shows and really big shows,” says Mike Gardner, who runs the Nike Tennis Camps and has worked with many of the top young players, including Davé, in and around Concord over the past three decades. He’s also attended many of her shows when she’s been in the Boston area. ”She’s also performed in larger venues, like the City Winery.”
She also once performed in India, where her parents grew up.
“It was so exciting,” Davé says. “The audiences were very good. You had young people and old people. They were just coming out to have fun, just like anywhere else.”
One of the bigger shows Davé has worked was at the Chicago Improv, where she opened for Dave Attell in front of a sold-out crowd of 500.
“Dave Attell has such a strong work ethic,” Davé says.
That work ethic has been a key to success for Davé in tennis and comedy.
“There’s a lot of travel, a lot of hustling in both,” she says. “You have to be prepared. Someone asked me if I wrote my own jokes. Of course I do.”
Gardner says, “It’s an individual sport. When you’re playing, you’re the center of attention. It’s kind of like being on stage.”
In addition to Attell, Davé enjoys the work of Bill Burr and Gary Gullman, among others.
She also occasionally performs with another comedian, Amanda Alvich, producing a series called Top Five, which they perform at Rodney’s, a club in New York, and in Times Square and Washington Square, where they do “person on the street” interviews.
“The whole thing has just been a lot of fun,” Davé says.
