Jokes Apart

The stand ups are here,to poke fun at you

In the last couple of weeks,Ive watched three live comedy acts,a concert by Rabbi Shergill and an Italian film at a very fashionable 15-seater cinema hall in Hauz Khas Village. Sadly,I couldnt fit a jazz performance in Nehru Park or a visit to the fashion week in my super tight cultural schedule. For everyone whos always rueing that Delhi is the deadest big city in the world where nothing fun ever happens (especially when compared to the much chic-er Mumbai),its heartening to see that the Capitals cool quotient is growing almost as quickly as its crime rate. Delhiites are notoriously aggressive,fast to take offence but,finally,theyve decided to grow up and occasionally,have a laugh at themselves. We are really funny,you know.

But when I watched Radhika Vazs one-woman comedy act Unladylike: The Pitfalls of Propriety there were moments,between teary peals of laughter,where I took a quick look around in the Habitat auditorium,worried that some crazed hardliners may jump on stage and attack poor frail Vaz on the pretext of defending traditional Indian values or something. Vaz,40,is scathingly honest,sparing nobody,least of all herself with her brutally funny monologue about virginity,marriage,boyfriends,husbands,sex and cellulite. Or all the funniest topics in all our lives,anyway. Using humour as a connect,she gently prods,and systematically peels off the many layers of hypocrisy or double standards in modern relationships. One of Vazs taglines is Crass,crude but never rude. (She should add,And certainly not a prude.) Her show is extremely provocative,drawn from personal experiences and it will strike a chord with anyone who grew up in pre-liberalisation India. Vazs style is urbane,occasionally startling if not downright shocking for an unexposed Indian audience.

Im thrilled to note that far from pelting Vaz with tomatoes,most people were cheering and laughing uncontrollably. Making people laugh has got to be among the toughest things in the world and sexual humour and graphic language is probably the fastest way to elicit a few chuckles. Till less than a decade ago,comedy in Indian films meant something horrifyingly slapstick with stupid bathroom jokes thrown in,and its only with films such as Delhi Belly and Vicky Donor that observational or situation humour has found a firm footing. I cannot,for the life of me,understand how films such as Golmaal are called comedies in India,and how they actually do so well. Mercifully,the bar for comedy is rising in films.

Another stand up comic I watched last week,Tanmay Bhat,had a fabulous repertoire of well-thought-out innuendo and he tossed around a coolly disdainful act on Lord Shiva. Followed by an equally engaging tragicomedy on Mumbai. Some of his jokes on Kingfisher flight attendants were tactless and in poor taste,but overall,his jokes on India were bang on,and again,resonated beautifully with the crowd. Bhats act preceded Sugar Sammy,a Canadian Indian and a famous comic. Sammys act was more precisely honed,because he could pick on people in the audience,improvise and make us laugh. Theres room for all these styles of stand up comedy the perspectives and topics are different,and so are the gags.

For a comedian,there is no greater place to be than India,nor can there ever be a dearth of material here. Everything is ironically funny. You just have to see page one of any newspaper,and its all stuff that can lend itself to hilarious comedy copy. The Italian marines fleeing India,right under our noses (even if they have come back). MLAs watching porn in the Assembly or the Presidents sons ill-timed remarks on women in the aftermath of the gang rape. Politics,religion,the media,feminists and cultural cliches,we live in a gag bags paradise. May the punchlines keep flowing.

hutkayfilms@gmail.com

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