Let’s go unrehearsed

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Let’s go unrehearsed

Friday, 16 August 2019 | Chahak Mittal

Let’s go unrehearsed

Comicstaan Season 2 winners Samay Raina and Aakash Gupta tell Chahak Mittal how the show changed the meaning of comedy for them

From taking a dig at eminent politicians to blowing up family bastions of political correctedness, from cracking uproarious jokes about sex and gender issues to commenting on national activities — India’s comics do not shy away from presenting the real and raw through humour. And the advent of Amazon Prime Video’s Comicstaan, now in its second season, has enabled us to appreciate the different genres of comedy. It has presented the audience numerous ways in which stand-up comedy can be done on the stage.

Finalists Aakash Gupta and Samay Raina have hit the score high by winning the show. From mimicking food bloggers, being a tailor heartbroken in love who would stitch backless blouses only for his beloved, and a conventionally unusual and short model walking the ramp with style to being the principal of a school who would encourage his student to move out of the school and make a career in art, Aakash’s acts have made the audience term him as a “favourite.” Whereas, Samay’s ‘jailer from the future’ in the crime of offending a woman; observations about the difference between AIDS awareness ads in the West and here; anecdotes from childhood about how he and his group of friends created a fake account of a pervert in their school to pull him down — made him a new voice in the world of comedy as he always gave the audience something relatable.

Talking about the platform, the two winners feel that it’s “great” that comedians are getting such a platform for cracking jokes and showcasing their content. “Here, we don’t have to worry about how the show will sell and be marketed. Because otherwise, if one looks at comedy as an independent career by putting up a video on YouTube or even giving a shot at an open-mic, then you have to worry about everything — from how it will be shot to how many viewers will it attract and how will it sell. But here, we didn’t have to worry about the things on the set or how the show will be promoted. And even from the audience’s point of view, I get a lot of feedbacks and responses from my friends and their acquaintances who are following the show. So it’s a great advantage that ways,” says Aakash who would take one back to his audition set of lampooning the senior citizens and their ‘ageing tantrums.’

While Samay believes that this show has made people realise that there’s so much more to stand-up comedy than we could have noticed. “My friends know I do stand-up but after watching the show they came across the diverse genres of comedy which actually makes comedy what it is. There is observational, topical, anecdotal, improv, alternate, sketch and terrors. Also, another benefit of this platform is that other comics in the city would feel encouraged, ki yaar ab humein mehnat karke vahan pahochna hai. They have something to look up to. They have one more motivation to go ahead with comedy.”

So how did they prepare for the finale? Which, for information, does not look at the scores of the previous sets and shows, no matter how fabulous they would have been. It’s like starting from zero all over again. Aakash calls it as if playing for the world cup finale, where previous performances do not count. “Here, it doesn’t matter how you reach the finals, it’s only that day. So, there was no particular strategy, I just had to kill it and keep on giving the audience laughs.”

Whereas Samay had a different approach altogether. He says that he had saved his best material for the finale, “in case” he reaches that stage. Well, confidence and hardwork speaks for itself. “I had segregated my best jokes and saved them for the right time in a way that I performed my second best material in the audition and did my best one in the finale. And that worked for me,” he says.

Samay, who took a dig at how several Kashmiris were forced to leave the state in his auditions without making it offensive or controversial, was in second year of his graduation when he ended up as runner-up in a stand-up comic competition. He then realised that this could be his “thing.” He says, “I have always been into reading humourous and comedy books, Khushwant Singh’s Joke Books topping the list. I would watch the Great Indian Laughter Challenge. So I was never away from comedy. I gave a shot at open-mics and realised what building up content is. Here, I realised the difference between a set and a bit.”

As he introduces himself everytime he answers a question by saying “I am Samay,” I interrupt him the third time to say that he does not have to tell this to me everytime as I could recognise the difference in their voices very well. He laughs and lists it as one of the benefits of the show. “Actually, we are being recognised through this show. In terms of the audience count, not always would people want to invest in a stand-up bit without knowing the comic who is going to perform. But here, the show sells. Actually, in comedy, you can’t really put numbers in it since everyone has a different voice and humour. It’s not like if I or Aakash won, people wouldn’t go to watch Shreeja (Chaturvedi) or Joel (D’Souza) (the other contestants).”

Talking about the most challenging genres of comedy, Aakash says that it was mentor and judge Biswa Kalyan Rath’s Comedy of Terrors that was an uphill task for him. In the episode, though, it was one of his best acts on the Comcistaan stage, the task was to view random pictures in a presentation and create a humourous story using the elements in the photos — on the spot. “It was something that I hadn’t done earlier. It was very spontaneous and in-the-moment kind of a thing and hence, there’s no hard-and-fast rule to win that. You just have to be alert. It taught us what it’s like to go unrehearsed. Even alternate comedy was very different but since we do stand-up, we somehow know that we could create something else as well. I have an idea of how I can make the audience laugh if not through just jokes. It’s very unusual and bizarre that way.” As for Samay, it was mentor and judge Sumukhi Suresh’s Sketch Comedy, which was the most challenging of all. The comedian was paired with Joel and acted as a guy who fought with an old man to make a phone call after he was running from his kidnappers.

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