Sharul Channa calls herself a “sanitised pottymouth”. Sanitised, because she lives in Singapore, “and we are a clean, sanitised country, even in our humour.” Pottymouth, because, well, that is the term a reputed Singapore-based newspaper used to describe one of her standup comedy performances.
But Singapore’s only full-time female comedian wasn’t particularly upset about that review. In fact — she recalls over a phone call from Singapore — she loved that phrase so much that she emailed the reviewer to thank her for it, and decided to adopt it as a stage name of sorts. “I never got a reply to that email, of course,” she says, laughing over the call. “But I did decide to make it the name of my upcoming India tour.”
The 10-city tour — covering Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Jaipur, among others — is a special one for Sharul. It is her first solo tour in her country of origin, and, naturally, her relationship with the country forms a large part of her on-stage material. “I visit family in India every year, driving from Delhi to Chandigarh and stopping at a couple of villages along the way,” she recalls. The perceptions and interactions in each spot are different, as is the sense of humour. And they aren’t restricted to India and Singapore: it changes wherever she goes to perform.
“When I’m doing a show in Australia, for example, they see me as an Indian woman who happens to be from Singapore. In India, I am seen as a Singaporean who happens to be of Indian descent,” she explains. These perceptions affect the way she tweaks her content for different audiences, and all these contradictions make their way into her boiling pot of comic material.
But in essence, the performer describes her brand of comedy as centred around “the experiences of being a woman, a woman of Indian descent in Singapore, my perceptions as an NRI, and the perceptions that people have about NRIs.” There are tools that she uses to explain these conflicting perspectives, the most popular one being her character Aunty Sunita. Needless to say, dissections of the male psyche — particularly the Asian man — will be thrown into the mix, as will a generous dose of her trademark dirt talk.
Pottymouth, produced by Weirdass Comedy, will be held in Chennai on August 24 at CounterCulture Comedy Club, Alwarpet. Passes cost ₹499 each. For details, call 8220832419.
