Journalism of Courage
Premium
This is an archive article published on September 26, 2015
Easy for me to stay politically correct, says man hosting Modi’s San Jose show
Standup comedian Rajiv Satyal says it will be tough for him not to be politically correct, especially since a script has been submitted and cleared.
4 min read
Standup comedian Rajiv Satyal says it will be tough for him not to be politically correct, especially since a script has been submitted and cleared. (Source: Nandagopal Rajan)
A standup comedian might be the last person you want to entrust an event featuring a head of state, but that is exactly the gig Rajiv Satyal has landed for this weekend when he will co-host Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s community reception at the SAP Centre in San Jose.
“I think it is pretty easy for me to stay politically correct, because I am used to that especially since I come from a corporate background having worked for Procter & Gamble. A lot of the shows I do are for all ages. Still staying clean for a state visit is a different game because with 17,000 people any remark made by anyone during the show could be tied up with the Prime Minister. So it will be like opening for the President,” says Satyal, who switched to being a full-time performer about six years back. The Los Angeles resident is now one of the popular Indian American names on stage in the US with performances in other parts of the world too.
[related-post]
It will be tough for him not to be politically correct, especially since a script has been submitted and cleared. “That is fine. I have submitted scripts before too. It takes some of the fun out, but it is okay since the audience does not have a copy of the script,” he says, adding that there will be deviations based on the situation “as no one expects you to be verbatim”.
He will be touching on themes close to PM’s heart like Make in India. “It is hard to walk that ground, but luckily, I think I have some lines ready for that,” Satyal said.
Satyal’s co-host will be popular actress Ashwini Bhave, before they hand over to NBC’s popular Bay Area news host Raj Mathai who will introduce the Senators and Congress leaders at the event. The cultural portion before Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes on stage will have a couple of dance performances as well as a recital by singer Kailash Kher.
Satyal became popular in the US and across the world with I am India video.
“I have been doing stand up comedy for over 13 years, but decided to go full time in 2006.” Yes, there is an Indian punchline he would like to pull on, but not always. Satyal thinks the handful of popular Indian standup performers in the US like Russel Peters and Azis Ansari all have their own distinct styles, though “there has been a bit of overlap creeping in” recently. “Russel almost macheted through the forest. He was the trendsetter, starting as early as the late 1980,” Satyal says about the man who performed at his wedding just over a month back. “Those guys are huge.”
Having performed in India for the first time in 2009, when he has to hold up on his own for over an hour, Satyal is happy with the way the scene has improved in India since. “This time was so different and much more challenging to match some of the local performers who knew the culture so well,” he adds.
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Live Blog
Top Stories
Advertisement