Any live performance is not a joke. In the case of stand-up comedy, it is serious business where the performer keeps the audience in splits by reciting fast-paced humorous stories, short jokes and one-liners.
Hasan Minhaj is one such stand-up artist, an Indian-American based in Los Angeles, featured in a two-part comedy documentary “Stand Up Planet”, the last part to be aired on NDTV Prime today. The film uses comedy as the starting point to discuss issues around the globe. The series, shot in Mumbai and Johannesburg, features stand-up comics Aditi Mital, Tanmay Bhat, Loyiso Gola, Kagiso Lediga, Mpho “Popps” Modikoane — all termed by Hasan as “amazing”. It proves that “comics are all kindred spirits around the globe,” he says in an email interview.
While in college nine years ago, Hasan started performing inspired by a Chris Rock stand-up special and decided to take it up full time. He describes the art form “as one of the mediums where I could tell the truth and not get fired for it.”
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“That’s what blew me away,” he says, adding, “all those things I wanted to say to my teachers or employers I never got to say, but suddenly with a stage and microphone it all of a sudden becomes appropriate and acceptable.”
Hasan describes his performances on stage as “hybrid”. Explaining it, he states, “There are definitely some set topics I go onstage with and want to talk about, but there’s also an element of improvisation and spontaneity that I like to bring to each performance and talk about uniquely in that room.” According to him, the audiences are aware of this and appreciate it. Highlighting the key element of a stand-up act, Hasan says, “When you can tailor your act, you want it to be about yourself but also about the people in the room and the experience you guys are having in that moment, it is really a special thing.”
“Stand Up Planet” concerns itself with everything, from social and economic disparity, religion, political corruption to censorship. The format follows a joke into people’s lives. Giving an example, Hasan says, “When Tanmay Bhat says 54 per cent of the population goes to the bathroom out in the open, we go to Shivaji Nagar in Mumbai and take a look at that situation in further detail. Yes, it starts out as a poop joke onstage but then you actually go into the slums and start diving into the issue further. You see, it is a much deeper issue.”
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The final part of “Stand Up Planet” will be aired on NDTV Prime at 10 p.m. today.