On the sidelines of the LP Cup golf tournament gala dinner in Bengaluru, we caught up with stand up comedian Papa CJ and actor R. Madhavan for a quick chat.
Putting the fun in funny
After four years working as a management consultant, Papa CJ’s inspiration to try standup comedy came from a performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “I took a year off from work and was attending the festival when I saw someone doing standup. Then I thought, ‘Wow, here’s a guy who has a drink in one hand, a microphone in the other, and is having fun. That is his job.’ I thought it was cool.” Armed with his new ambition, CJ went on to leave his job and perform 250 shows over the next 10 months. These numbers would have one believe that getting into the well organised and established standup scene in the U.K. would be easier than in India, but CJ disagrees. “It is actually a lot harder,” he says, “in London, if I want a five-minute slot in a comedy club, there are 1,000 other comedians who want the same slot.”
He believes the Indian standup scene is doing extremely well. “You’ve got everything here. There’s standup, sketch, improv, people performing on radio, TV and the Internet. It is fantastic, you can’t complain.” He believes it is important for new comedians to have fun. “Get good before you try to get famous, learn the trade before you learn the tricks of the trade and be nice to people, they’ll help you out. But most importantly, have fun.” His current tour, Naked , has taken him to Australia, South Africa, Scotland, Hong Kong, and many more places. He also has shows lined up in Mumbai and Delhi this month. He is adapting the show, which he says has a narrative structure, into a book, which will contain additional anecdotes. Ask him to share one and he is happy to oblige. “I once performed at gunpoint in South Africa. I had 500 people in front of me, me on the stage and a guy behind me pointing a gun. So if you ask me whether I can do comedy to save my life? Yes I can.”
All about good storytelling
Perched nonchalantly on a counter sporting the same long hair he featured in his latest release Saala Khadoos ( Irudhi Suttru in Tamil), Madhavan happily obliges fans with smiles, photos and autographs even as he talks about how there is no divide between commercially successful films and those with great stories. “The only good film that is being made is the one that makes money. Even a film of mine which could be considered my crowning glory, if it does not make money it puts the whole industry in trouble. Films don’t go wrong, budgets go wrong. If you make a film within a sensible budget and it makes money, it means the audience has endorsed you. If I say that is wrong, then I’m saying my audience is stupid, and I don’t, I consider them my masters.”
The actor, who reveals he has signed a film in Tamil which will be announced soon, says that he picks the roles that “makes sense” to him. “For me it’s important to do roles where I identify with the material. I believe they need to have a certain amount of intelligence, which we have to give the audience, and has to be worthy of screen. There is no point in doing a film which is small just because it is a great story. In today’s world, nobody is going to a first day first show on a Friday morning with family for an experience that can be seen at home with the same impact.” He goes on to add, “At the end of the day, if the audience like a film and it makes money, that is the film I want to be part of.”
Having worked across languages, does he have a soft spot for any one industry? “No,” he says with a smile, “Just good films.”
