Serious Business

Despite a fairly non-existent comedy industry here,Ward hopes to cultivate it as he did in Britain. Ward says that,“the humour was pretty crude and bigoted at the time. Alexai Sayle was the first to get it right with his observational humour; he was an angry young man from Liverpool and the conservatives were in power,thus providing him with very good material.” Asked about tempering down the humour for Mumbai,Ward says that he draws the line at racism and sexism,but often comedians will try to push that line a bit.

Although he has worked with several comedians such as Ben Elton,Chris Rock,Paul Merton and Jimmy Carr,Sayle remains his favourite. He refuses to disclose any of their jokes (“one should never quote another’s joke”). Ward does,however,recall an incident when Eric Douglas,the son of legendary actor Kirk Douglas,performed at the Comedy Store. Before the show,Eric ensured that Ward didn’t disclose his identity in case he was ridiculed. As it turns out,Eric was ‘dying a death’ on stage and the audience simply didn’t react to his jokes. “He then said,‘you should give me more respect,I’m Kirk Douglas’ son’. The audience was quiet until someone at the end stood up and heckled,‘No,I’m Kirk Douglas’ son’,swiftly followed by others in the audience,” Ward chuckles. While the purpose is to make the audience laugh,comedy is like any profession as one has to ‘keep re-inventing’. Asked about plagiarism and copying another comedian’s jokes,Ward says it is hard to copyright a joke. However,it is a well-connected community and if someone steals another’s joke,they either settle or never speak again. “I’ve had times when I have had to be the peacemaker during a bust-up backstage before it gets really violent. Comedians can get very precious about their jokes.”