The younger generation is sceptical about the news they receive from mainstream media, which is apparently straitjacketed, but prefer to be presented with all facts. And comics are doing exactly that, presenting condensed news without bias. The tongue-in-cheek way of narrating news sure makes you laugh but leaves you pondering too.

Some of the comics who are taking on the political comedy are:

Kunal Kamra

In a secret affair with Modi government, Kunal Kamra is habitual of taking on them with his political humour and accepts backlash in stride. A politician once told him, ‘’Go ahead, do comedy but leave politics for us.’’ To which Kamra says, “Sir, aap pe hi chhoda tha. Par aap log comedy kar rahe ho.”

Shridhar Venkatramana

Known for his ‘Prime Time Jokes’ – a series of Stand-Up Comedy videos based on the Prime Time news events that happened around us. He presents intellectually stimulating ideas which are hilarious at the same time.

Vipul Goyal

Apart from talking about Bollywood, relationships, advertisements, Vipul also enjoys talking politics in his acts. However, he ensures that he doesn’t offend anybody’s political sentiments.

Varun Grover

People these days are more aware now and are fed news at all times through all channels. This makes for a fertile ground for stand-up comics. His tour ‘Aisi Taisi Democracy’ is all about giving satirical twist to news, and audience fell in love with it.

Vir Das

Politics occupies Das in a big way! His gig, The Secret Set includes subjects related to politics, religion, racism and the Indian accent. He is often seen taking a dig at politics.

The post Appetite for political comedy growing in India appeared first on Humour Sapiens.

How did you get into comedy?

I always wanted to do comedy and was keen on writing for faking news. However, I was very hesitant to be on stage and perform in front of people staring right back at me. I was introduced to Toastmasters by my colleague and friend Kaushal. I tried a few humorous speeches and landed to the open mics, which of course I bombed. But I took liking to this process and kept hitting open mics. And I believe, I am doing fairly well. Nevertheless, there is a long way to go.

What challenges did you face?

Initially, it was very hard to get spots. But luckily, at that time there were few open mics which I used to register for by taking leave from office. Being a comedian with a day job, getting to the shows was one of the biggest challenges I faced. But once the jokes work, everything is fine, the world is back to normal.

Your key achievements?

I recently did my 30 mins of jokes, I consider it as one of my achievements.

Any bombing moments you remember?

Hahaha. I remember I had a bet with Sparsh who kills harder than anyone I know that I will rock it. It was a show in the Big Pitcher, Indiranagar and under the pressure of performing well I bombed. Everyone was doing so well, and I had everyone looking at me with a poker face. It was embarrassing. But the next spot I got in the Big Pitcher I didn’t disappoint. I had people giving me laughs. My bombing heart understood what peace meant.

Any experiences with annoying audience members?

I recently had an open mic where one dude began hackling. Apparently, he was drunk and accompanying a female friend. I tackled him a bit and luckily, he received a call and stepped out. Later, after the open mic, he came to me and he sportingly said that he was just checking my capabilities of responding to a hackler. He mentioned how he was attempting to make me a better comic. However, he did get a wee bit nice later and complimented me on handling it well, at the same time suggested a few things I could possibly do to better myself.

Connect with Manish Chaubey on Instagram: @chaubey9001

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How did you develop interest in comedy? When did you decide to pursue it as a stand-up comic?

I have been an introvert trapped in the body of an extrovert. Back in school, I used to be that naughty kid of the class, who had an expert yet funny opinion on every thing happening in the classroom. Often tagged as the funny kid amid friends, I always had that funniness inside wanting to come out wherever it saw the opportunity. To top that funny side of mine, I was a state-level basketball player.

However, things changed after 10^th standard, seriousness came into life, subduing the funniness. After entering the engineering college, and having some time at hand, a friend and I created two videos. One out of those was on girls reacting to friend requests on social media. It happened to be quite raw and was apparently liked by all in my college. This motivated us to create a second one, which was well thought than the previous video and shot in a better manner as well. This video too was loved by most.

Back then, stand-up comedy wasn’t a career, this art form was visible only in hasya kavi sammelans (poetry meets).

But when I came to Bangalore, seeds were sowed when a friend showed me Russel Peters videos. And looking at him made me feel, I could do that too. When I look back, I laugh at my audacity to think that I could pull of acts like Russel Peters. Soon enough, I got engrossed into this art.

It was in 2017 that I started giving it a serious thought, and started watching comedy properly in order to understand the nitty-gritties of the art. I realized, being fun and funny are two different things. Being a fun person sitting at the back bench in a classroom is absolutely different than being funny while standing in front of a room full of spectators.  I decided to stop being a procrastinator and write something funny, but I needed an audience to test my content. Having written two jokes, which still work well for me, I decided to perform at my first open mic at the Jagriti Theatre.

With shaky legs and sweaty palms, I approached the mic, but by the time my turn came, only a handful people were left. It goes with saying, I bombed. The very next day, I joined the comedy workshop, and after a few weeks, the improvement was pretty much visible.

In this process, what started as an interest, became something I loved doing. Thereafter, I did several shows at events hosted by The Orange Octopus. And performed for a larger audience of close to 40.

Since then, I am a regular at stand-up open mics and associated with Suno Bey, a comedy group.

How did you meet your team from Suno Bey?

I met my team at the workshop I attended. The workshop was led by Ram, and that was where I got a chance to meet like-minded people, people who didn’t just think it was cool but were passionate about this art form as well. These people were genuinely interested in comedy. And we hit instantly! Resultant, Suno Bey!

Suno Bey does free shows. Don’t you think that makes things difficult for those who earn a living through stand-up?

We started off at the Cubbon park, crowd sourcing the audience. We narrate our jokes in front of them in order to get an idea about the joke we have written. There is one thing that I have learnt, ‘Never test your content with friends, but with strangers’, for your friends know who you are and where the joke is coming from. While a complete stranger who doesn’t have a background of that story will be able to give you a reality check.

So, what we perform at Cubbon is free because it is for testing waters, while the rest of our comedy events are Open Mics, and thus Free! We realize that it was a mistake at our end to have called our open mics as shows. Now, we are wary about not mentioning our events as shows and have started giving spots to other stand-up comics as well.

The intent is not to spoil the scene for those pursuing it full time, but to encourage more people to attend our events.

It has been cool, full of learnings about the length of the spot, maintaining the sequence of the jokes and the way stories are to be narrated. These things affect the laughter. However, one year is a too small a period to restrict the learnings in the journey. There’s a long road to travel and a lot to be learnt.

Worst Bombing moment?

Bombing is fine, you’ll bomb more than you kill. One of the worst bombing moments has been at FoxTrot. Event was in a weekday and no one seemed interested. I was confident that I will go on the stage and kill it, but unfortunately, no one was interested even then. Though I don’t think my set was bad at all, because there was one group who was aware of someone talking with a mic in hand. Regrettably, in the middle of my act, they too left. I watched them leaving and in an impulse decided to get off the stage.

Another learning here was; you have to be so good that the audience listens. You cannot really blame the audience for being disinterested.

Any encounters with annoying audience members?

I encourage audience interaction; I do get replies from spectators. But as far as annoying people are concerned who keep on interfering and have an expert opinion on whatever is being said on the stage. These people think they are funnier than the person holding the mic. So, I invite such people on stage to share their funniness or politely tell them that they are in a wrong show. It’s not really a debate show. This mostly has been working for me till now.

Connect with Rishabh Kanishka on Instagram: rishabhkanishka

The post Tête-à-Tête with Rishabh Kanishka appeared first on Humour Sapiens.

How did you develop interest in stand-up comedy?

I enjoyed watching comedy shows since childhood, and seeing those, I too wanted to make people laugh. Even during my school and college days, I used to be the go-to guy for laughs. A bunch of friends used to gather around me and I kept them entertained with jokes, and also roasting them at the same time. I had a certain level of comfort with them, so cracking jokes around them was easy. However, in reality, I suffered stage fright.

My sisters played a major role in me taking the humour route, as interacting with them brought out the funny inside me. Any conversation we had was bound to take a funny twist.

While growing up, I always pictured myself on stage and people listening to me attentively, whenever I said, “Mitronn”. And then one day, I went on stage, thinking that it would be the first and the last time I am being here on stage. I proved myself wrong the day I stepped on it for the second time.

Your first step into the comedy world?

It was during the school time, 8th standard to be precise, when I was asked to read the news during the morning assembly. Something took over me, and all I said was, “India defeated New Zealand by 28 runs. Now prayer by the person behind me.” Naturally, I ended up making fun of myself. The whole batch laughed and I became famous for such creative news reading. I sure was a little embarrassed later, but now, I can still pull such stunts with ease. Perks of being a budding stand-up comic, I guess.

How did you get into stand-up comedy?

The moment anyone asks me this question, I instantly go, “mera breakup ho gaya tha.”

But in reality, I wanted people to listen to me and my perspective of things. Yes, stage fear was always there, I did go on the stage with shaky legs for the first time, but prepared to tell people my perspective of things, whether they judge me or not.

I began attending live comedy shows to gain an idea on how to and what to do on stage. Then came the part where I got to perform at open mics and had amazing audiences to perform to. Which was mostly in single digit. Reality hit me hard!

What pulled me into comedy quite literally was that one open mic where the audience showed up in double digits, some 30 odd people, for a change. This first open gig of mine went pretty good. And gave me a confidence boost. Since then, I have been performing regularly at open mics, hosting shows and loving it!

What are the challenges that you have faced in the journey so far?

There have been quite a number of challenges that I have faced, like ‘single-digit audience members’ or No audience during open mics at all. People not supporting live shows or budding artists feel pretty demoralising. But we comics are on it to change it.

As an aspiring comic, I have faced the lack of opportunities, and this is the reason I decided to do something to attract the audience towards live comedy shows. So, I started a small production house named ‘THE BLACKBUCK COMEDY’. Under this name, I organize various comedy shows and comedy open mics at different venues across Bangalore. Everyone should get a fair chance to showcase the talent they possess. TBC is still growing as a production house, and I hope, it becomes well-recognised one day.

Your key achievements?

I performed for an NGO and contributed to raising funds for the cancer patients.

Opened the show for some big names like Jeeveshu Ahluwalia, who was an idol for me during my initial days of comedy, and still is.

Any bombing moment?

First of all, many people think that bombing is when you do good, just to clarify, bombing in terms of comedy means exactly the opposite of that.

Coming back to the question of bombing ‘moment’, I would say there were ‘moments’ with an ‘S’. And there always will be.

Any comedian who says that they haven’t bombed. Don’t trust, it’s a lie! Bombing is an inseparable part of a comedian’s journey.

I have bombed in front of audience ranging from 300 people to 1 odd person. There have been many instances and there will be in future. It’s just that, the best part of performing at open mics is, your ego goes down to zero or rather, negative. So, you eventually become all cool about bombing. It’s a part and parcel of the comedy world.

There’s a thing, I won’t stop because there are good shows too, where I don’t bomb but crack people up. Not every day is the same.

Any experiences with annoying members?

Not yet! And I hope this doesn’t happen in future. If at all it does, I will have another interesting story to tell at yet another show.

Connect with Lakshaya Malhotra on Instagram: pirated__punjabi

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