The Goan Comedy Club has been at the
fore of many a laugh and its point of origin in the state, in more recent
times. Its most recent endeavour will involve the introduction of one Atul
Khatri, who will be looking to take Goa by storm, with his very own brand of
wit, later this week.
By and large, India is a place typically
defined by age; what age you need to be to get your first job, when to marry,
when to have kids… the list goes on. However, being from a ‘marginally’ older
age group, Atul doesn’t find this detrimental to his shows at all. This is
commendable, given that one needs to be able to connect with a younger
audience, which is more open to stand-up as a form of entertainment in the
country. Instead, he finds that it actually helps him to stand out from his
(for want of a better term) younger peers.
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“With my longer timeline of 49 years, I
have more topics to talk on. So, in that way, I have an advantage over my
younger peers. Also, thanks to hanging out with my younger peers, I am fairly
connected with the current trends and pop culture, so a lot of my topics and
references relate with the younger lot,” Atul quips.
At a time when a lot of liberalism seems
to be under threat, given the more right-leaning frame of mind seemingly at
large, something like stand-up comedy is often seen as a ‘threat to morality’,
by some powers that be. Many comedians in various parts of the country have
even had their shows interrupted or stalled. Atul however, has managed to fly
under the radar, and in an explanatory sense, says, “Luckily, I have not had to
deal with such issues, thus far. As writers, it has challenged us to write
jokes much better – basically we should be able to convey our point cleverly,
without the other party realising the joke was on them. Finally it’s comedy –
people should realise that. We have no malice or political agenda.”
Beyond just the age factor though, Atul
also helps exemplify another aspect of how stand-up can help one, as Queen
would have us believe, ‘break-free’. It may be hard enough to dive into a
career as off-beat as stand-up comedy when you’re young, but it’s harder still,
when you’re established in terms of what you do for a living, and decide that
you want to take a step sideways from the known, into unknown territory.
“It’s extremely hard work to make people
laugh. It’s a serious business, so come into it only if you are prepared to
slog it out. Don’t come into it if you want to be ‘cool’. Initially moonlight
along with some other job, and once you feel you can make your living through
stand-up, then take the plunge,” Atul advises people who have similar
yearnings.
And something that has become a bit of a
cause for concern for stage performers is the sound of crickets… not in the
wild, but from the stage. That aberrant moment when you pull out all the stops
with that content you’ve worked on painstakingly, only to find that the
audience is silent afterwards. One can’t help but wonder how hard it must be to
make global content local, in order to constantly connect with the audience.
“Fortunately, thanks to the smartphone
and apps like WhatsApp and Twitter, people are fairly cued in to what is
happening globally. There is an information overload in that sense. Also, we
have to realise that stand-up is a new art form in India, and there is a
responsibility from comedians like us to take the local audience along, and not
to alienate them with topics they cannot handle,” Atul shares in conclusion.
Atul Khatri will perform on June 25,
2017 at the Goa Marriott Resort & Spa in Panjim, 7:30 pm onwards
