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Journalism of Courage
Ash Chandler,arguably Indias finest stand-up comedian,on creating humour, Indian audiences,fedora caps and how they are all connected.
When Ash Chandler tells you that he hasnt seen any positive outcome for his negative turn in Guzaarish,you think its a joke. Chandler,however,keeps a straight face and explains that the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film was just like any other project and that he has still to gauge if it made an impact on his career. I think films like My Bollywood Bride and Mixed Doubles made an impact on my career. More people know me from my work in Shikhar. I dont know about Guzaarish, he says. You want to laugh at this brazen nonchalance but as the conversation flows,you realise that Chandler takes everything with a dash of humour.
The entertainer attributes his scale of skills to starting early. Chandler began working at the age of 15. Then,at 17,he decided he liked the freedom and money that came from leading an independent life and has been on the road ever since. Over the years,he has entertained varied groups of people in different cities,notching up visits to five continents in the process. And it was that while he was traversing the globe that he picked up the nuances of the trade that would hold an audience in Mumbai spellbound through its three-hour duration.
At the opening show of his new series,Ash .. And You Shall Receive,staged at Mumbais Comedy Store last week,Chandler brought the house down with his take on Mumbais roads,police and elitism in the first half. He came on as a Middle-East character and then changed into a Spanish lover before he closed with jokes made on the idiosyncrasies of the members of the audience. The applause and standing ovation that he received at the end seemed like a perfect post-script.
My humour is based on observation. They are about things that you have seen but not in the way I interpret them. My connect is based on the familiarity of the topics of the audience. Thats the only way I can relate to an audience. I must know your life and surroundings to make you see their lighter side, Chandler says of his humour.
He has been doing stand-up comedy for so many years that his grip on the audience is rock-solid. Nevertheless,there are some guidelines that Chandler follows for all his shows. For example,in his first few minutes,he tries and cracks safe jokes. He has to be entertaining and not funny,he says. I am performing for an audience,not in front of the mirror, the performer muses,almost to himself.
For all the safety- valves he has developed,there is no saying when an audience will turn hostile. The trick then is to guage what the audience wants by trying all your jokes and seeing how they react. I have been doing stand-up for 23 years but the day I stop getting butterflies,I will quit, he says gravely,if only to emphasise how important his commitment to the audience is. He cites the example of corporate gigs,where he is told by the company not to pick on their client. He cant crack jokes with double innuendoes and sexual references either. If Chandler sees 40 per cent of the audience fidgeting in their seats,he breaks into a song. Chandler always performs with his band called The Ash Trays and back-up female singers called The Fabulous Ashettes. He sings in Hindi,Urdu,Spanish,English 8211; anything to get the audience going. Thankfully,languages are not a problem for the comedian who has a Punjabi father and a Tamil mother.
The plan for a stand-up comic is not to have a plan, he tells you. If you go with a plan and the audience does not respond to it,then you are finished. I have various things in my bag that I keep throwing at the audience until they respond. Sometimes my jokes may not go down well with the audience,sometimes they may not understand my accent,anything can happen when you are on stage. For every hour you spend up there,you need 15 hours of material to be safe, he says sagely.
Chandler is excited by the change in Indian audience over the years and says it is a harbinger of things to come. The threshold of the audience has changed remarkably ever since The Great Indian Laughter Challenge came on television,Indians discovered Russell Peters on YouTube and Seinfeld became as popular as F.R.I.E.N.D.S. There are still certain quibbles. As Chandler says,he has not found an Indian joke yet. Everybody knows a Gujju joke or a Sardar joke or a Mallu joke. But not an Indian joke. These are things that divide us. Speaking on religion or politics is still taboo and people are still not comfortable laughing at what is called non-vegetarian jokes, he says. As Chandler says in conclusion,only when we are ready to laugh at our silliness and idiosyncrasies,will stand-up comedy truly arrive in the country.
Until then,there are always Govindas films to watch.
