Laughter challenge
Gurnaaz Kaur
We seem to be getting serious about comedy. Wondering why or how? Well, it’s simple and it’s evident. We are talking about the growing demand for stand-up comedy shows in Chandigarh in a way not many anticipated. In the last two-three years, almost all Indian comedians have performed here. The very first month of the New Year has witnessed names such as Vir Das, Appurv Gupta and Parminder Singh entertain the city audience. The upcoming shows are as promising. Pritish Narula and Harsh Gujral will be performing at SOCIAL tomorrow. The very next day we’ll have Jaspreet Singh live. Come February and comic veterans Jeeveshu Ahluwalia and Amit Tandon will take the city by storm!
These comedians love to perform here. Jeeveshu, for instance, says, “I must have performed in Chandigarh over 20 times; people are well-read and travelled, which makes it all the more fun.”
Money & fame
Credit it to the likes of Kapil Sharma, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Bhagwant Mann and Jaswinder Bhalla in Punjab, Jeeveshu and Amit Tandon in Delhi, Vir Das and Papa CJ in Mumbai, that people are realising there’s money and fame in comedy.
Says TV host and comedian Balraj, “Since I am a Punjabi living in Mumbai, somewhere in the back of my mind I have this doubt about whether I have to perform in Hindi or Punjabi when I go to Chandigarh. Stand-up comedy is all about timing, so I have to be sure about the mix. Another important thing is to keep in mind the audience. Chandigarh has a lot of youth and middle-aged people, so my content focuses on them.”
Tough job
Preparation is a must for all these live performers. Even after being 10 years in the industry, Appurv Gupta says making people laugh is the toughest thing. “I have done around 1,000 shows at all big colleges, IIMs and IITs; believe me, each time I prepare for it for almost six months. For everyday shows, I bring a few changes based on which city I am going to.”
It’s no exaggeration to say that comedians are the new superstars of this generation. They receive quite a lot of adulation; the new crop joining this space is happy that times are changing. “The gestation period has come down in comparison to when stand-up comedy started gaining ground in our country. While the likes of Amit Tandon and Zakir Khan may have spent four to five years for reaching a point, these days it has come down to a year or two,” says Pritish Narula, Chandigarh-based businessman and comedian.
Being from the city and having performed here before, he opines, “This art form is a recent phenomenon in Chandigarh. Initially, people didn’t relate to satire immediately, maybe because the comedy parlance was not that mature, but things have seen a sea change.”
For Harsh Gujral, the city audience poses a challenge to his prowess, “It takes time to make people laugh in Chandigarh, maybe because they are so sophisticated.” Comedy is the new wave in entertainment and everyone wants to ride on it. Srishti Arora, 22, started a comedy club, Laugh Out Loud, last October and has already done a show. She thinks there should be an exclusive space for comedy shows. EYP Creations, an event management company, is known to have brought maximum comedy shows and festivals to the city as well as the region.
