India’s stand-up comedy boom is no longer restricted to the metropolitan cities, but fast reaching out to the audiences in tier-2 cities as well. Stand-up comedian Rajneesh Kapoor believes that this is right time for aspiring stand-up comedians to break in. A comic strip maker, Rajneesh has performed across India and abroad and is gearing up for his first performances in Chennai and Coimbatore later this month. Despite the fact that stand-up comedy genre has become the new rage in entertainment, what disturbs Rajneesh is that this new form of entertainment is still largely restricted to an elitist group.
In a recent chat with MetroPlus , the popular stand-up comedian from New Delhi shares his thoughts on this.
How has stand-up comedy grown in India?Stand-up comedy is very young in India, just about four years old. There was no stand-up comedy before 2010. Comedians are growing and luckily for us the audience is also growing and that’s a great challenge for stand-up artistes. You don’t have a school to learn comedy, so you have to learn on the stage. It takes about 10 to 15 years to find out what your voice is and what you want to talk about.
Today, stand-up comedy is booming and TV channels are getting interested. And I am sure a lot more performers will come up. But at the moment, most open mic performers are young. But we need to open up and let more people come in. Women will have their own stories. A 70-year-old will talk about his own health scare. There will be angry people who are messed up because of the system. Let them all join the gang.
Has the Indian audience matured to the level of the western countries?Not at all. And that’s because they are not exposed to so much comedy. Mumbai has a better culture of stand-up comedy when compared to Delhi and that’s because performers from across the world come there. The Mumbai audience has seen enough acts, so you can’t fool them with the same jokes. For instance, if a stand-up comedian goes on stage and starts talking about ‘Punjabis are loud and hairy’, that doesn’t work because the audience has heard it enough times. They want something more original.
So how do you reinvent yourself as a stand-up comedian to match an evolving audience?It’s almost like you are thrown in the pool and you have to find out how to stay afloat. There are some comedians who are very good with marketing and PR. As far as I am concerned, I just love going on stage to make people laugh. I am happy with that. Yes, the jokes have to be reinvented. Times change, your excitement level of that story changes. That is a bigger struggle for me. I live for comedy and I am happy if I can write a great joke. Even if money doesn’t come, it’s ok.
Today, audiences are smart. They may not have seen stand-up comedy acts, but they would have seen ‘ Seinfield ’ or ‘ Friends ’ on TV. And everybody loves to laugh. As long as you are able to reach out your ideas to them, it’s a good connect with the audience.
How different is English stand-up comedy from Hindi acts?Contexts are different when it comes to Hindi stand-up comedy. For instance, in English acts I talk about how people are always angry in the Internet. A Hindi stand-up comedian will not talk about it. He will instead talk about angry people in a queue standing for buying movie tickets. I can make a joke about Matrix or Godfather in an English stand-up comedy act. In a Hindi stand-up act, the joke will be on Dhoom . Also, a Hindi stand-up comedian will not talk about live-in relationships. For me, it’s fine. My audience is more open about it.
Don’t you think the domain of stand-up comedy is akin to an elitist platform?It is very elite. And it bothers me a lot. Stand-up comedy in the US is the voice of protest. People who are struggling without jobs, they go up on stage and talk about the systems and its flaws. But in India only rich people are doing stand-up comedy, especially English stand-up comedy. And they are talking to the rich audience. In fact, I like to talk about the class difference – rich vs poor. But many other comedians don’t prefer to talk about it. But the fact is English stand-up comedy is very elite and just for the five per cent people of India.
What about the scope for aspiring comedians?Money is good. And because there are so few comedians in India, it will be much easier to break in now than it will be in next 10 years.
