Laugh Out Loud

Voted as one of the top four Asian comedians in North America to perform at the famous Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 2006,it will be the 37-year-old’s second official visit to the capital when he performs on September 4. But he is no stranger to the city. Kapur grew up in Delhi where he studied at St Columba’s school in the eighties before leaving for the London School of Economics to pursue a degree in Economics. After the course when he migrated to the US,Kapur occupied himself with a few ‘odds jobs’ in the corporate sector before experimenting with comedy. “Indians mostly join a corporate job in the US so they can make free calls to their parents. But comedy was a therapeutic experience for me. I could laugh off the burden of painful memories. It is best to find humour in events from the past,” he adds.

Instinctively his jokes were about being a gay Indian in India and the US,about fighting stereotypes like his parents’ obsession with marriage,his equation with his grandparents,and his jibes at stringent Indian customs. “Most Indian men think they are hot even if they aren’t. Matrimonials will show a buck-toothed 39-year-old Indian male asking for a 25-year-old,virgin,fair,tall match with good moral values to boot,” remarks Kapur,who does regular shows at two prominent comedy clubs —Gotham’s and Caroline’s,in New York. “Each joke I crack builds on the next,so I usually like to knock people out with a big laugh in the beginning and then build on its pace gradually,” says Kapur.

Over the years he has moved beyond gay jokes and makes ‘general commentary’ on NRI Indians,racism,politics and pop-culture. “Americans tend to get excited when they see an Indian especially after Slumdog Millionaire. Most believe that all Indians live somewhere next to those slums,and consequently they love all things Indian— even Bikram yoga,” he says. In his hour-long shows in India,Kapur will be doling out new material with a few trademark jokes from his repertoire. “There will be slight tweaks depending on the city I visit. Since I was born in Kolkata,I have a fair understanding of their kind of humour,” he says.

Other performers at the festival include Preethi Athreya’s Sweet Sorrow,a mixed media performance of dance,text,and music about loss and longing,and an experimental music group,Yodhakaa.