Cable TV in my place has stopped working for a couple of weeks and I have intentionally not taken any interest to fix it. I am living in a world without TV for the last two weeks and it has been quite an experience. Suddenly, I find a lot of time in my hands especially during the weekends. So, what do I do, i have started reading and using my computer more.
Stand up comedy is big in the United States and I love standup comedy. It is a mirror of your life and captures the events that happen soaked in humour. I love observing these small things that always seem to happen all around you and laughing about it. I was always thinking that why is standup comedy not popular in India. With the variety of people who are living in India and the kind of naatak that they make, standup comedy has the potential to be a big industry and the art needs to be marketed more. The main problem in India is that comedy is always a side dish and never the main course. Also, there are very few comedians and they were always doing mimicry rather than standup. In this regard, the name of Johny Lever or Dayanand in Kannada come to mind. If you watch their shows, the main theme was mimicry and they had these short jokes (questions and answers kind of style) floating around. It was never that they engrossed an audience with things that go on in day to day life.
With all this history behind me, I got a google video that said Raju Shrivastav, best standup comedian in India participating in the Indian Laughter challenge. I watched that 10 minute clip and atlast I knew that i found a true Indian standup comedian. He just described the things that go on during a marriage celebration and how all the people react and it was just too good. Then, i started searching for his different videos and I found a bunch of them and saw that he had such a great variety, he was daring to be different from others, and how he went in depth into a situation, his facial expressions, his own delivery style and his novelty. He is the king of comedy i should say at the moment in India and hope he popularizes it and a lot of comedians make it big. I found later on that he has been a television actor for a long time and he has acted in movies as well. The Indian laughter challenge tv show has given him a big break and his talents have come to the fore.
On the same note, i came across a couple of interesting standups. One is on cricket and the other is by a kannada standup. Hope there are more Raju Shrivastav's coming up and making people laugh.
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