(From top) Kunaal Roy Kapur & Anuvab Pal

aywright, screenwriter, author and stand-up comic Anuvab Pal is “a little worried about performing in Calcutta”. Ask him why and he admits his fears are for “wicked reasons”. In his show Nothing Like Anything with funnyman Kunaal Roy Kapur (of Delhi Belly fame), he talks “a lot about being Bengali”. That’s essentially what makes talking about stand-up comedy so difficult for him — the similarities between him and the person on stage!

“Because when you’re talking about a book or a film or a play, you’re talking about experiences or the journey of another person. Here, I’m talking about a character who is only slightly more disturbed than myself and, although not very much, sharing the same kind of things with his audience as he’d share with friends at a dinner party,” says Anuvab, tongue firmly in cheek.

Much of Nothing Like Anything is about absurdities. Absurdities like? “Like <beep> (the name of a popular news TV anchor). Like Indian Airlines and what it was in the ’80s and what it’s now or even modern bankrupt airlines. Essentially, it’s a set of comparisons… between what things meant when I grew up in the ’80s and what it means now in ‘modern India’… on politics, history, economics and even language…” explains Anuvab.

Language? “You know how today it’s accepted and even encouraged that the spoken English language will be distorted with ‘what’s up?’ and ‘yeah whatever’. I don’t mean to make value judgements but earlier we were taught to speak clearly and properly and emphasise, like we were all cast members of Gandhi… and we all ended up sounding like we were Alyque Padamsee’s grandfather!”

Kunaal — his partner in crime, or laughter — also talks about similar absurdities. Of how ridiculous it is to try and buy real estate in Mumbai. Or how absurd some advertisements can be. Pssst: The tag line for a mobile phone commercial is what inspired the show title Nothing Like Anything. “It was a tagline for a phone (I do hope they aren’t the show sponsors). A bunch of marketing guys must have come up with this line while deliberating… is this phone like a car? Is it like something else? No, it’s nothing like anything… in no context whatsoever. Mass, weight… nothing!” Anuvab laughs.

So if a fresh and lighter look at the banalities of modern-day existence is just the dose you need, don’t miss the laugh riot on November 1-2 at GD Birla Sabhagar, 6.45pm onwards.

Malini Banerjee

Who are your favourite stand-up comedians? Tell t2@abp.in