Humor, on a serious note

56
TheIndianEXPRESS
JUNE 23, 2006
With themes ranging from racism to Bollywood, these stand-up comics have established themselves as a new breed of
funnybones. Inspite of hardships, they find it fun while simultaneously carrying a fair share of pain and truth ◗ NUPUR SHARMA
Humor, on a serious note
E
T. A . L . K .
D.E.S.I.
SURESH MANJANATH
DGY, spontaneous, irreverent,
fun, a trifle confused and contradictory—these are some of
the typical expressions that
best describe the style of Indian-American stand-up comics. It’s a relatively new breed of comic artists with the
tradition going back not earlier than 1996.
Aladin, Russell Peters and Vijai Nathan
were amongst the first few to come in and
others like Rahul Siddharth and Harvin
Sethi have followed. Their themes vary
from racism, politics and gender issues to
Bollywood, generation gap, family values,
sexuality and religion. The tone is self-depreciating like a lot humor can be but the
veneer is confident and assertive. The treatment is light and frothy but the underlying
themes are serious.
Says Vijai Nathan, one of the few female
comediennes on the scene today: “It all began with the racism I experienced growing
up in school as the child of new immigrants.
I was called every thing from ‘brown punk’
to ‘blackie’ and that’s just by the teachers!”
Nathan’s childlike desire to say something
back was the primal urge behind taking to
comedy. It has since evolved into a unique
spin on gender politics, parent-child dynamics, pop-culture and politics. In the
business since 1997, she gave up a career in
journalism, cancelled her wedding, and became a stand-up comedian in New York.
However life has a way of coming full
circle. While Nathan’s adolescence was
angst ridden and driven by a desire to prove
that she was a ‘regular’ American, at 34 she
feels a higher comfort level with her hybrid
identity. “Initially when I started out in
comedy I wanted to show that I was an
American who happened to be brown. I
bragged that I had lots of boyfriends which is
of course completely untrue because I had
a fairly conservative Hindu upbringing.
Now I feel far more confident about my Indian heritage and American life experience.”
As a female stand-up comic, Nathan is
conscious of the fact that she is in fact that
rare thing—a funny Indian woman. “Being a
woman can help you initially to get a foot in
the door. However later it can be doubly
hard if you’re non-white and female. They
only want to put on stage the kind of people
they are used to seeing on TV. There in lies
the challenge.”
Rahul Siddharth entered the arena over
eight years back and talks about the challenges and pay offs of choosing this off beat
path: “My parents certainly had reservations about my decision. They wanted me to
choose a ‘solid’, conventional career like
medicine or engineering. So I have tried to
Vijai Nathan calls herself a rare breed because
she is a “funny Indian woman”; (Right) Russel
Peters of Canada
This new breed of artists
seek to give voice to a
minority that felt almost
invisible while growing up
We have our own
subculture and are not
disconnected from India.
Visiting India is important. I
look at my friends and they
are all kind of like me in the
sense that we are Indians. We don’t have
to live dual lives to fit in anywhere.
—KRITHIKA KAVANOOR, 20
Before I went to a
college, I was completely
American. Then I started
going to college, met
people like myself and
started doing more things
Indian. I could relate to Indian Americans
more because of similar background. So I
started spending more time with them.
—NEIL BANSAL, 26
N O R T H
A M E R I C A N
E D I T I O N
meet both the requirements. I studied Marketing, Computer Science and Theatre in
college.” He now balances a career in management with a vocation in the comic arts.
Siddharth feels the life of a comic artist
is grueling with very few monetary rewards.
He adds: “There’s also the very practical
constraint of not being able to get enough
practice. As a stand-up comic I get an average of five minutes per gig. So I basically
have to be in about twelve performances
just to get an hour’s live practice. Also,
many clubs require comics to bring in a minimum number of people.”
Like Nathan, Siddharth too was something of a rebel as a teenager. Embarrassed
by all things Indian—his parents, their desi
accent, Hindi films and relatives—he was
the quintessential ABCD (American Born
Confused Desi). Things are much more settled now. “I have come from being ashamed
of being different to being proud of the fact.
I feel no one culture is better or worse than
the other. Our culture may or may not be
the ‘best’; it has its pluses and minuses but
it’s definitely ours.”
In Canada, Russell Peters has emerged
as one of the leading comic acts. His riotous
comedy has a raunchy edge that pushes the
envelope every time. The themes he takes
up are similar to other Indian American comedians but the treatment and language
have a clear working class demeanor. For
Peters the stand-up comedy route was an
escape from lower middle class finality. In a
career spanning over a decade, Peters has
seen the full spectrum. Having toured four
continents, acting is the next logical step for
him and he is just waiting for the right offer
to come his way.
When asked about the dilemmas that are
inherent in a multi-cultural upbringing he
says, “I was never really an ABCD and nor is
that reflected in my brand of humor. That
confusion is more of a middle class phenomenon. Coming from a lower middle
class family my concerns were much more
basic and I shared them with poor folks
from other races. Mine was and is a working
class perspective.”
The Indian-American comedy brigade
brings a welcome point of view that seeks to
give voice to a minority that felt almost invisible while growing up. Being an Indian
might have been considered nerdy in the
80s, but now it’s hip and that self assurance
is reflected in this genre. That said, it is also
a relatively new and young category. These
comic artists continue to bring Indians and
non-Indians together in a dark room to
laugh and cheer. There is a lot of fun and
behind that is a fair share of pain and truth;
●
and those are universal values.
When I came to Barnard
College (of Columbia
University), there was a
whole Indian scene that I felt
completely left out of. Then I
joined a group in the college
and now I tend to be more active in the
Indian part of my identity. I realized I have
a lot of people to share it with now.
—TINA BHARDWAJ, 21