India wakes up to live comedy acts,both on stage and on TV, as the genre becomes the new rage in entertainment

The scene: Jukebox,a Delhi pub which doubles as a comedy club on some evenings. Atin,the owner of Jukebox and Rajneesh Kapoor,the host of the Open Mic comedy night,appear on stage and shake hands somberly. The place is packed. It’s a middle and upper-middle class crowd,like at most pubs and bars in the capital. Most of the audience is in their thirties. Soon,comic artist,Sanjay Rajoura,in torn jeans,slippers and a black T-shirt with tousled hair,troops in,feigns mock distress and starts to warm up the crowd with a mixture of Hindi and English wisecracks. He’s followed by Neeti Palta,fast gaining popularity as a female stand-up. Host Kapoor,a comedian himself and creator of comic strips,comes on next and his jokes get the crowd energised. “In relationship surveys,women always say that they are turned on by funny men while men say ‘a woman’s eyes’ are appealing. But over all the beers I have had with my male friends,not once has anyone said,‘man,check out her eyes!’” Then comes Monty,a baby-faced sardar,churning out Punjabi jokes about smelly turbans and why couples can never have sex on their honeymoon. Thirty minutes into the show,it’s a laughter riot. Sharmila Bhatia,married with two grown up children,a first timer at stand- up comedy recounts how she became Bhatia from Mascarenhas,poking fun at her Hindi and how it gets her into trouble. From Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to pharmacists who get a sly kick out of selling flavoured condoms,from “big-boob obsessed doctors” to Sindhi,Chinese and Jat jokes and digs at Delhi’s Punjabi-yuppie culture,everything goes,even digs at Rahul Gandhi. “If he really wants to see how unsafe Delhi is,he should send his sister out on a bike instead of riding one himself,” yells a comic as the audience roars.

This is not some crude,misbehaved crowd leering as “sex jokes” fly around: this is a sophisticated audience of a 150-odd people who prefer an evening of laughter to movies or nightclubs. “The comic scene in India is changing over night and we are lucky to witness to it. Humour has become an escapist form of entertainment,” says Cyrus Broacha,TV host and one of country’s favourite comedians.