Sunday 17 January 2016

Stand-up Comedians of India : Blog # 258

Stand-up Comedians of India


          For the uninitiated, stand-up comedy is that art form where a person converses with the audience. As the name suggests, it is largely to evoke a laughter, and spread some humor among the audience. I am not going in to the definition of the art form for Google is still alive.

          What I would want to tell you though is about some young Indian artists who are taking the stand up comedy scene by storm. They are abundantly talented, well read, well-traveled and young enough to be open to new ideas and thoughts. Most of them make us laugh, some of them make us think and a fewer still make us act and speak up too. Now why should you listen to them? To begin with, just to LOL – to Laugh Out Loud J. If you are not a fan of reading newspapers, watching their shows can be a way of being in touch with the happenings around you. The plurality of their thinking minds will enrich your perspectives. If you are interested in public speaking, I can’t think of a more fun way than this to learn some tricks of the trade to get your audiences’ attention.

Kanan Gill & Biswa Kalyan : If you love Bollywood movies, you must watch ‘Pretentious movie reviews’ by these two. This very unconventional, refreshingly new movie reviews will leave you in splits. Their individual stand up acts are largely a fun take on the Indian society and people around us.


Kenny Sebastian : This Kerala born, brought up all over India , Army kid uses voice modulation to his advantage. His at times - self depreciating – straight from the heart – comedy has won him many fans. The fact that he can sing and play a guitar does give him an extra edge during his performances.


Daniel Fernandes : If you are among those who gets a kick from intellectual jokes, you must watch this guy. It is not that his shows aren’t light hearted. They are. But many a time, they will have a small message en wrapped in it, of course without being preachy.


All India Bakchod : This is the Yash Chopra ensemble of stand-up comedies. A group of artists namely Gursimran Khamba, Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya make up this group. Their AIB Roast had become quite famous or notorious depending on which side of the getting-offended-fast scale you are on. Their take on current affairs is richly creative and widely different from what we are used to seeing. They also have a TV show titled ‘On Air with AIB’

Aditi Mittal : Now she belongs to a very exclusive club – of  female stand-up comedians in India. Along with being a successful stand-up comedian in her own right, she also lends the much needed female voice and thought on stage like the feminine gaze we talk about in movies.

Virdas : This hugely popular stand-up comedian can be considered a pioneer in stand-up comedy who became popular among the youth in India. He is an actor too. His take on current affairs is astute, brave and irreverent.
         

          In this time and age of social media, many of us are forgetting to indulge in conversations or at least have a long enough talk. Watch these folks and you might end up getting some talking points that will help you look intelligent – not essentially intelligent though ;)

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