“Jokes about Telangana,” blurts out Alick Bailey, even before the question, ‘What does the Visakhapatnam audience find funny?’ is completed. Sitting on the dais in a carpeted hall at The Park, Bailey also has a few, straightforward questions for the city. “Why do you have a giant baby on the beach? Is it going to protect you from cyclones, or is it going to help you during terror attacks?” he rattles off, deadpan, and the impact is hilarious.
Fresh from his latest performance with Vizag Komedians to a packed audience, Bailey has a lot to say about his reception here. “This is the fourth time I am performing in the city and I must say that the audience here is warm, receptive and nice. While performing in Visakhapatnam, one does not have to worry much about how the jokes will be perceived by the audience. I have always found the people here to be open-minded, unlike in many Tier-II cities,” Bailey says.
He wasn’t the sole performer at the latest show: other comedians who took the stage were Manik Mehta, Arjun Rao, Rivu Ganguly, Bhargav Ramakrishnan aka Baggy and Raouf Gangjee. Standup comedy is gaining momentum in various tier-II and tier-III cities, thanks to digital channels that have given the field much-needed visibility online.
In Visakhapatnam, standup comedy is at the fledgeling stage. It began with the founding of Vizag Komedians by Gangjee, whose ambition has spread to multiple cities today. From sporadic shows and open mics — only with established comedians — to monthly events and regular open mics in city cafes, Visakhapatnam has seen a rise in the genre in a way no one really anticipated.
“The standup comedy scene has exploded in the last four years. Vizag Komedians was one of the first groups to be formed in a city beyond the metros. Today, I am running similar groups in 23 cities across India,” says Gangjee. While The Park has been a steady patron of this form of entertainment, the slew of new cafes in the city now ensure a growing platform for more and more open mics.
Today, Vizag Komedians has four active standup comedians and six to 10 others who regularly turn up for open mics.
“Digital platforms have played a huge role in penetrating to smaller cities. More people now have access to standup comedy than they ever did. Since a lot of people have started watching it, a lot more have started performing standups,” says Baggy.
Campus connect
Scripting humour is no light gag. Comedians are always on the job, trying to sniff out humour in mundane life in an effort to build a connection with the audience.
“For a beginner, the key is to participate in as many open mics as possible. That’s the best way to hone your humour and understand what works best for the crowd,” says Manik Mehta, who has been a part of Vizag Komedians from the start.
The open mics have not only helped the standup comedy culture grow in the city, but have also helped cafes draw more crowds, in what Mehta describes as a win-win situation.
“The city has a lot more potential. The challenge right now is to find newer locations,” he adds.
Colleges have also been warming up to standup comedy shows, through their annual festivals. GITAM University recently hosted a gig by comedian Abish Mathew, while IIM-Visakhapatnam and Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy have also brought in popular names from the standup field.
One of the biggest advantages of such shows is that amateurs get to open for these established comedians, giving them a moment in the brighter spotlight, and also a chance to watch bigger talents in action.
Observational comedy
The content in these shows has grown past slapstick and mimicry — and even beyond regional stereotyping — and is becoming a lot more news-driven.
A good instance was last year’s show of Shridhar Venkataramana that had a good dose of political overtones and was lapped up by the youngs audience nevertheless.
Seasoned artistes performing in Visakhapatnam say that observational comedy works best for the city. For Baggy, who has been performing across countries, everyday experiences form the biggest source.
“The material for my jokes is what happens to me in daily life, and I know these kind of things happen to everyone in some point of their life. That is the connection we need to make, to get people to laugh,” says the comedian.
However, the job does not end rely on hilarious content alone. It requires constant tweaking, depending on which city the artistes are performing in, the age of the audience and even the its demographics.
“The scripting is done in two layers. Tweaking is not just making changes in the script depending on the city. It is also the impromptu changes that we make on the stage, considering the live feedback from the audience,” says Bailey.
