By 8.30 in the evening, the small space at the Ashvita Nirvana café is packed. Each time someone opens the door and tries to enter the room, they whack a minimum of three other people and squeeze past another two before they discover that all the seats are taken.
Burma Bazaaar Conspiracy, a stand-up comedy act in the city, in collaboration with Big Mic, is organizing a series of open mic nights in the city, offering amateur and closet comedians a space to perform in it.
You could be an engineer or doctor by day, but this new series of events allows you to be a comic every alternate Tuesday night. And even if you aren’t particularly hilarious, Big Mic gives you the opportunity to amuse a bunch of people who are willing to laugh easily.
Each comedian gets four minutes to make people laugh and every fourth minute, the style of comedy changes with someone new taking the stage. “Open mics give you a wide breath of jokes, which you don’t get to see in a show,” says Deepu Dileepan of Burma Bazaar Conspiracy.
The 16 comics who took the stage this week tried everything from jokes about Chennai to jokes against Bangalore, but the predominant flavour of comedy dished out was, rather predictably blue, which got a trifle tedious towards the end. And though the audience was largely open-minded and non-judgemental, not all the jokes worked with everyone. One contestant, after eliciting a unanimous ‘boo’ from the audience after a particularly sexist joke said, “C’mon, it’s just a joke! Why is aunty giving me that look!”
No matter how bad the joke however, one must remember that the people performing were still amateur comedians who were putting themselves out there and trying something new. While some have performed comedy before, many others were trying it for the very first time. One contestant even signed off saying, “Thank you for letting me pop my stand up comedy cherry in front of you guys.”
With a young and relaxed crowd that didn’t take anything too seriously, the comedians were given the opportunity to try a wide array of jokes. The room was packed, but the atmosphere was casual with contests fumbling with their notes to make sure they’d cracked every joke they intended to.
It’s a fun scene and a brilliant initiative to be a part of, especially if you enjoy watching people take a dig at themselves and others in the room. Something new and interesting in Chennai, Big Mic now needs to move to a bigger venue to accommodate the burgeoning crowd for their following shows.
