I am, as Churchill said about Russia... only fatter, balder. And Bengali,” stand-up comic Anuvab Pal (inset) told t2 before presenting his show, The Empire, at Vidya Mandir on Friday as part of Stage42, a festival from OML, the company behind Bacardi NH7 Weekender. The 37-year-old’s “tribute to the losers of my generation battling to stay relevant” has already been staged to appreciative audiences in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai.
And this Mumbai-based Bengali will not take it easy after the Calcutta show. Besides attending the prestigious South by Southwest Festival in Austin, in March, he has been invited by Harvard University to do a show.
Here’s more from the Ballygunge boy.
What’s the story behind The Empire?
Often I would look at my audiences as I travelled around India and I realised how much of a middle-aged misfit I am. Born between socialist and liberalised India, from an India of safari suits to one where a Samsung Galaxy Tab is a birthright, I realised this is a losing battle as I get older entertaining younger and younger people who give you about three seconds of their attention before the next tweet or Vine or Gif distracts them. The Empire came from that… as a tribute to the losers of my generation battling to stay relevant. It is like the Birdman of stand-up.
What are some of the guaranteed laugh-out-loud topics most Indian stand-up comics fall back on?
Nationally: Bad language. Politics. Rahul Gandhi, Modi. Big Boss, Sunny Leone, Bollywood actors…. In Calcutta, the obvious name. These are essentially things I try and avoid. I’m more interested in the nature of people and communities. Why are we Bengalis so interested in being intellectuals and so on.
Would you like Calcutta to be the backdrop of a Wes Anderson, a Woody Allen or a Roland Emmerich film?
I finished a show in Bangalore and a Bengali gentleman came up to me and said I see you as the Bengali Woody Allen. It was the nicest compliment. Hopefully, he didn’t mean the personal life! Luckily, all my favourite comedy filmmakers were stand-ups before they became filmmakers. Woody, Mike Nichols. Judd Apatow. Well, not all. (Satyajit) Ray came from advertising and Wes Anderson always made movies. Perhaps all my years of stand-up have just been to run away from what I really want to do –– which is Wes Anderson/Woody Allen-type movies set in Calcutta. By the way, I get a much larger Bengali audience for my stand-up shows in Bangalore than I do in Calcutta, which goes to show how many working Bengalis live there now.
(As for) Calcutta as backdrop for a Ronald Emmerich film, doesn’t he do those movies about the whole world covered in snow or aliens attacking the planet?! I don’t want to do a film where aliens destroy Calcutta. Things are bad enough without it. And I like what we have.
What else are you working on?
I’ve written a film for Excel Entertainment which starts shooting in June. Also, I am going to the South by Southwest Festival, the world’s largest technology, design, comedy festival in Austin, Texas, to do a show. I just got invited by Harvard University to do a show and apparently, the National Lampoon, which is Harvard’s comedy club (alumni include David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel), just sent me an invitation to perform there and I’ve been told I’m the first Indian comedian and writer Harvard has invited, so that’s nice. I received the message literally two minutes ago!
What: The Empire, a stand-up act by Anuvab Pal, as part of Stage42
When: February 27
Where: Vidya Mandir
Time: 8pm onwards
Tickets: Rs 400-600
Crack a joke about, well, Anuvab Pal!
I am, as Churchill said about Russia, an enigma wrapped in a mystery surrounded by a puzzle. Only fatter, balder. And Bengali.
Mathures Paul
