Making it work

Stand-up artists Nishant Suri and Nitin Modol talk about the changing themes and expression of comedy

December 10, 2016 12:12 pm | Updated 12:12 pm IST - DELHI:

Nishant Suri

Nishant Suri

Comedy is serious business. For all the laugh riots and irreverent punchlines thrown in the air, stand up comedy requires understanding the audience and quirky spontaneity. An emerging trend in India, stand up comedy is slowly progressing from the pubs of metro cities to the halls of tier II cities as well. Yet as Stand Up comedy attempts to set foot in the national landscape, there are still problems with its reception and occasionally a volatile audience to deal with. The Stand Up Comedy Show-Funions presented by Choti Chipkali, held at the Akshara Theatre, stirred insightful comments on relationships, stereotypes, and living in Delhi. Hosted by Nitin Mandal, the show saw a mix of amateur and seasoned artistes like Amar, Rahul Dua and Nishant Suri. Talking about the art of comedy and sharing anecdotes, Nishant Suri and Nitin Mondol shed light on their experience and comment on their journey so far.

Nishant Suri won the Comedy Central Chuckle Festival recently and remarks, “I think it’s so amazing that today in India, you can tell jokes for a living! I would say that I was fortunate to get into this field at the right moment, where the comedians senior to us had already done a lot of hard work to get Indians accustomed to this new art form.” As a form that largely derives from personal observations, it is often difficult to make the jokes relatable to a wider audience. For Nishant, the solution remains in keeping the idea simple. “I try and avoid writing about things that are very local to where I am, very specific to my life or related to current events that are going to lose relevance as quickly as Sonam Gupta lost her wafai (fidelity). Of course, you can always talk about something not very generic, provided you explain the context well enough to the audience.”

Elaborating on the hardships of being a newcomer back in March, 2015, Nitin Mondol recalls the difficulty of getting spots for open mic and denial of shows earlier. A little more than a year later, Nitin has now performed on the hit Red FM show Comedy ka Ghanta and holds regular shows across Delhi. But comedy can just as suddenly change tracks, he realised at a show in Saket. While hosting an open mic in a pub, he got heckled by a group of men while interacting with the audience. He tried to calm down the situation with a few jokes but things took a turn for the worse later. “As a comedian I was trying to make that conversation funny. But after the show I heard they were offended and searching for me to beat me up! Somehow the manager of the bar helped me get out safely. As a comedian that was the most terrifying moment for me.”

10dmcNitin Mondol

10dmcNitin Mondol

With a target audience that comprises mainly the young adult and employed group, live shows can very soon topple into a recipe for disaster. Set in an intimate space with a small stage and a small crowd, the act offsets a casual, informal vibe. But the downside to this implies greater vulnerability for the comedian on stage as people coming to bars and pubs are not necessarily coming for the show. Short attention spans, a penchant for distracting interaction during a show and quick tempers, the open mic always sits on a threshold of awkward conversations between the comedian and audience members. Describing a hilarious albeit mortifying moment on stage, Nishant talks about an incident that marks the absurd nature of such shows. “I was 2-3 minutes into my set at a pub, when a janitor working there probably decided that he had had enough of my nonsense, got on the stage and started mopping it. While I was doing my jokes on a very tiny stage. For a moment I had no idea what to do, then I cracked some jokes on the situation before the manager grabbed the janitor and took him off stage.”But the scenario is different at a dedicated comedy setting where people are far more relaxed. He explains,“Comedy club audiences however are amazing, and are mostly receptive to anything that you want to throw at them.”

In such situations, Nitin prefers to turn the situation around by changing the course of interaction. Usually I creak a joke on myself after that”. To be a comedian, one must not only be able to make others laugh but also be able to laugh at themselves. The art of comedy for both the artistes, remain in the perfomative aspect of telling a joke that balances the private and the public and strikes a chord at the very centre of our common experiences.

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