There’s no better stress buster than a stand-up comic act. Multiply the act nine times and one is guaranteed a walk out of the auditorium with a jaw ache from too much laughing-out-loud! The audience at Netaji Indoor Stadium on September 25 was in for a treat with Comedy Visarjan 2, in association with t2. Nine comedians took the stage with one purpose — to make the holiday-happy crowd break into guffaws. Each brought to the table their distinct brand of humour — some in a group, others owning it solo. “We’d like to thank our guests for the overwhelming response! We’d expected a good turnout and weren’t disappointed with 3,500 people showing up. We were initially apprehensive about the response, since it was the very first time both Hindi and English genres were clubbed in a stand-up comedy show,” said Subhasish Paul of Greenback Media.

Four funnymen — Sunil Grover, Ali Asgar, Kiku Sharda and Chandan Prabhakar — sat down to chill with t2, minutes after their comic act. Here’s how our adda went... 

Did you get a chance to go around Calcutta? 

Sunil: No, ya! We came and got into rehearsals. We will be going out tonight. We will go to Howrah Bridge and have tea somewhere with friends whom we have met this evening only. We might go to a club from there. 

Is there anything you look forward to whenever you touchdown in Calcutta?

Sunil: The bright yellow cabs! 
Kiku: While coming here (to Netaji Indoor Stadium), I thought I would see a few trams but I couldn’t. I come from a Marwari family so they want mithai. 
Sunil: Yeah, sandesh!
Chandan: Rosogolla! 

Since Sunil, Kiku and Ali play women, what kind of Calcutta men would you like to date? 

Sunil: Oh, from the perspective of a woman? (Smiles)
Kiku: We have to choose a man? It’s difficult. (Laughs)
Sunil: Rabindranath Tagore! Kyunki humme akal hi nahin hai. Aur baaki sab kuch hai! 
Kiku: I can’t imagine myself wanting to date a man! 

And, if you have to pick a Bong bombshell? 

Kiku: Sunil is the dude among all of us so he should answer. 
Sunil: Bipasha Basu just got married so I have come to Calcutta with a broken heart. She is still hot! I love Bengali women because of their grace and beautiful eyes. There is something about Bengali women. They are very attractive. 

How do you switch between your onstage avatar and your real self?

Sunil: We respect women so much that we become women (smiles).
Ali: Yeh hotey hotey ho gaya. We want to thank this gentleman (introduces t2 to make-up artist Sufiyan) who is responsible for all of this. He has made us women! He is with us since Comedy Nights With Kapil days. Tab sey haath dhokey para hai (laughs)!

Tell us... is it important to be politically correct all the time?

Kiku: Are you asking this to me? (Everybody ROFL) I don’t talk too much about the incident (Kiku was arrested in January for mimicking a personality) and I’d rather forget it. But the bottom line is that if you are not politically correct, a lot of things can happen. I have said this before that people should take their lives a little lightly and joke around and be easy. We are having fun. There are so many people who tell us that there’s so much joy and happiness we bring to their lives. That’s our motive. That’s exactly what we are trying to do. If somebody takes it in a different way then…
Sunil: (Cuts in) Some people want attention from these things. There are a few things that you shouldn’t joke about. 

What are some of those things? 

Sunil: Anything we will not be able to watch with our families. We believe in family entertainment. We try and avoid religion-related jokes because we respect all religions and it’s a very sensitive issue. 
Kiku: We avoid anything below the belt and we aren’t crude. 
Ali: That has almost become a genre. Jokes that hit below the belt or double-meaning jokes have their own audience. We don’t try to enter that zone. Until now, we have been successful despite not doing that. 
Kiku: We understand that zone also. It’s just that people do it very crudely and that’s the problem. There are people who can do it nicely without being dirty. Some people do it with panache and do it well. We have no problem with those people but we generally avoid it. 

What’s a day in the life of a stand-up comic when he is not entertaining us? 

Kiku: I drop my kids to school and pick them up. I do everything. I go to the mall, watch movies and chill with my kids and family. 
Ali: Either I am shooting or I live for my kids because this is the time they need us. My son is 13 and daughter is 11. All our kids are almost in the same age group. 
Sunil: I am Alibhai’s elder son!
Chandan: I love to paint. 

You make us LOL. What makes you LOL? 

Sunil: I look at myself and laugh! The only show I follow is our show (The Kapil Sharma Show). I don’t see anything else. 
Chandan: I look at common men. 
Kiku: I have a friend Gaurav Gera (comedian). I love the stuff he does.
Ali: I am old-school. I watch black-and-white films. I learnt acting from Mehmood saab. Nobody is bigger than him. I have met my idol. Rhythm House (in Mumbai) had a huge, vintage collection of old movie prints. Now, they are shut. I used to get movies from there. 

We are sure you come across people who ask you to be funny all the time…

Kiku: All the time! It’s very irritating, ya!
Ali: ‘Arey, aap toh hasate ho toh abhi aap chup kyun baithe ho?’
Chandan: Kuch joke sunao aur hasate raho!
Sunil: People expect us to be funny all the time. Sometimes we are but sometimes we aren’t. We are also human beings, ya! But when all of us are together, we only laugh and never talk serious things.

Who’s the naughtiest? 

(Everybody points at Sunil Grover)
Ali: Yeh (Sunil) Krishna Kanhaiya hai hamara! Yeh Bal Gopal hai. If we start talking about him, your recorder will be full! He is our guru! (Laughs) 
Sunil: No, I just love life. 
Ali: God has been very kind to us. Right now, it’s like we are on drugs. Don’t get us wrong. Everybody at K9 Productions and the creative team, we don’t know how to exist without these people around us. 
Sunil: We travel for shows so we spend a lot of time together. We went to London last month and we extended our trip by three days. We all enjoyed and came back. Most of the time we celebrate our birthdays on the set. 

SUPER STROKE

ROFL GANG

AWESOME FOURSOME

The first act for the night were The Improvisers — (l-r) Kenny Sebastian, Abish Mathew, Kanan Gill and Kaneez Surka. The comic foursome took the stage together, something most didn’t expect, and played a series of ‘games’ with the audience, improvising with on-the-spot jokes. Not an easy task! The highlight of their act was this one special girl who the four called up on stage. “When they first called me up, I thought they’d make fun of me. But what they did was very sweet. It was the best part of the evening for me, having The Improvisers, especially Kenny Sebastian, serenade me and sing me a song,” said Shilpa Chatterjee, who has “a big crush on Kenny because he’s really funny, looks good and plays the guitar”.

THE HA-HA MOMENTS

Text: Ratnalekha Mazumdar and Riddhima Khanna
Pictures: B. Halder