Will the real comedian please stand up?

Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of final published version in The Week

Home to Carnatic Music, Chennai has also been known for different varieties of performing arts. Carnatic musicians, Bharatanatyam dancers, Tamil theatre actors and folk artists rub shoulders with western musicians, ballet and modern dancers, English theatre artists and light music performers. Quite comfortably, too. No wonder Chennai has been the birth place of the fusion style in both music and dance.
Apart from the various ‘Sabhas’ and music and dance associations, the vast variety of television channels also helped nurture and expose talents in different fields of art. Comedy was one such art which thrived, albeit in a totally different format. With films being the provider of staple entertainment to the multitudes, most comedy shows on television consisted of comedy scenes, song and dance shows, contests and what have you. While soaps did very well on television there were hardly any sitcoms worth their name.
Of course, one-man comedy shows did spring up now and then, but most bordered on films and its loud, comic fare like mimicry. The real thing, a Stand-Up Comedy show, was neither available live nor on television, except for someone like Ash Chandler from Bombay. It took a person of Indian origin, Russell Peters from Canada to regale Bangalore audiences recently with a series of sold-out shows.
What is Stand-Up Comedy?
It is a style of comedy which allows the performer to address the audience directly, unlike in a theatre or a mono-act where the performer is seemingly enclosed in an invisible wall between him and the audience. In a Stand-Up Comedy, the performer stands on stage, or paces around; he does not sit – hence the name. Normally, Stand-Up Comedy shows consist of just one performer. The content of his address to the audience consists of fast-paced succession of humourous anecdotes, short jokes, one-liners and barbs. It takes a lot of hardwork to prepare for a show which normally runs to about an hour or so if it is of one performer.
It is not that we don’t have abundant talent in our country. It just needs to be packaged, produced and promoted in a more prefessional manner and presented to the audience in a classy way. When Taj Connemara took upon itself the onerous task of doing something about it, Raka Chakrawarti, Public Relations Manager, Taj Hotels shouldered the entire responsibility. And, she unearthed three very talented young men who were independently very popular Video Jockeys on Chennai’s own SS Music channel. Enter Cary, Craig and Shyam, Stand-Up Comedians in a show which was aptly called Stand-Up Connemara. And when one spotted the acknowledged master of stand-up comedy Ash Chandler at the event, one knew what to expect from the show.
The performers
Cary Edwards, while doing college in US moonlighted as a stand-up comedian at clubs and shows. When he returned to India he headed for Bombay where he met up with Ash Chandler who was already a known name in the circuit. Cary teamed up with Ash, opened shows for him, filled up the gaps and in the process learnt the nuances of being a stand-up comedian.
When he moved South to Chennai to take up a VeeJay’s job with SS Music, the stand-up comedy thing took a back seat for a while, although it would show through his TV presentations and live compering of various events. At SS Music, Cary met with another VJ, Craig Gallyot who was a funster personified. Craig didn’t have any exposure or experience in stand-up comedy but was dead keen on trying his hand at it. Says Cary, “I was quite amused at finding Craig interested in this as I was sure that Chennai did not know what a Stand-Up Comedy act was. The very fact that Craig was talking about it made my hopes go up. Here was a like-minded guy.” From then onwards Craig and Cary hit it off well.
Around this time, thanks to a VJ Hunt, Shyam Kumar joined SS Music. He too showed a rare streak of humourous talent and was willing to try his hand at stand-up comedy. “A few years had passed by then and nothing concrete materialised despite sincere efforts by us to do a show,” says Cary, who meanwhile left SS Music and teamed up with another friend to do radio hosting. Simultaneously he got an offer to join an FM radio station in Bangalore; so he upped and left.
One evening when Craig and Shyam were dining with Taj Connemara’s Sales Manager Aamir Faisal, the topic veered around to the show which they had discussed earlier. Aamir was keen to do the show but despaired at Cary not being available in Chennai. Craig and Shyam hurriedly called Cary who, coincidentally was coming back to Chennai anyway.
Meanwhile Aamir was also leaving for Colombo on transfer but he ensured that the project was on and handed the trio over to Raka who was in charge of Public Relations at the hotel. With a missionary zeal, Raka went about the preparations for hosting a mega show, a first time event in Chennai. “It was a first time for the Taj Group which had never before done a Stand-Up Comedy act,” says Raka. Fortunately Dinaz Madhukar who had just moved in to Taj Connemara as General Manager, had no reservations. “Raka seemed so convinced and the trio portrayed so much enthusiasm that I just could not hesitate even for a second,” says Dinaz. Thus came about Stand-up Connemara, a two and a half hour show which launched the brilliantly talented Cary, Craig and Shyam to instant stardom.
What went in their favour, to a large extent was that they were all known faces having been on SS Music shows and at various events and parties. Add to this that all of them were individually very talented people. A full month of scripting and stage preparations went on. Raka says, “A lot of censoring had to be done, not necessarily for the language, but more for the content. We were not sure how the Chennai audience would take to blatant references to community, language, religion, etc. So we watered it all down a bit.”
When the project was finalised, it was Cary who the other two depended on largely to finalise their script and presentation. While Craig and Shyam were quite adept at hosting shows and facing audiences, they knew it was imperative that in a comedy show, the trick was to hold the audience’s attention. And, the jokes had to be contemporary and current. The pace had to be just right to fill the required duration. Lapse of memory was sacrilege.
But, when the show started, there was no holding them back. Nor was there any let up on audience response who was at their rip-roaring best. “Connemara had spared no efforts in making the show a super success. The stage setting, the décor, the food and beverages and the choice of invited audience lived up to the exclusive event,” says Cary. You would have thought that these were established performers in the league of Ash Chandler and Russell Peters.
And, in a show where the performers were coming on stage one after the other, the last one was bound to get the least attention. To make it worse, Shyam was scheduled last and he was the least experienced of the trio. Cary notes that the audience attention was waning just a little when Shyam would have noticed it too for he quickly launched into a local language accent and brought it all back under control. Such timely corrective measures are the requirement of stand-up comedians. “But,” says Raka, “Shyam was really the underdog. He took everyone by surprise with his flawless delivery and timely execution of jokes.”
Mr Ashok Aiyar, a guest at Taj Connemara who had attended "Stand Up Connemara" said that it was a delightful event and that he had not laughed so much in a long time. He said that Taj Connemara should make this event a regular at Distil to attract the young crowd and also to change the perception of the hotel. “Hats off to the team who had come up with the idea and organised this event. It was indeed an unforgettable experience. People will definitely speak about it for days to come,” said Ashok.

Said Madhav Das, Editor of Southside, a movie magazine, “I stood at the rear watching Cary, Craig and Shyam do their thing. They had the audience falling off their chairs with their clever take offs on auto drivers, cops and assorted Chennai characters. Couple of women next to me was going ballistic at the more risqué parts. It's amazing how many women love to hear comedians talk dirty but will call the cops if you drop a f**k by mistake. Finally let me say it was not just the free beer that kept me there longer than I intended, but a very funny, punny time.”

Talented trio
That the trio were a talented lot can be gauged from the multi tasking they indulge in in their professional lives. Cary hosts Internet-based Radio NRI. He is also going to do a weekly English music night show on Hello FM. He comperes numerous live shows in the city and elsewhere. To add to all this he is a good musician, too.
Craig starts his day very early as he hosts the breakfast show on Radio City FM. After his four hours on air, he grabs a few hours of rest and is off to SS Music to record his capsule for the day. By evening he is busy researching for the next day.
Till recently Shyam also worked for SS Music. When he is not partying hard, Shyam hosts live shows. He is also headed for one of the numerous FM radio stations to try his hand at Radio Jockeying. An aspirant for filmdom having done one role in P C Sriram’s Vaanam Vasapadum, Shyam has consciously decided that stand-up comedy is one profession that he would like to pursue very seriously. “Since my school days, I have always been an entertainer. I bloom into full colours when amidst friends and launch into funny monologues and impersonations, especially in different languages,” says Shyam, whose inspiration is Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Where once a music performer was mandatory at most parties, or a supper theatre was part of the corporate get together, performers like Ash Chandler are increasingly being hired to lend a touch of humour to a normally dry and boring session. Thanks to its fast changing work culture and super cosmopolitan lifestyle, Stand-Up Comedians are bound to be in demand. With a clear march over others in the field or those proposing to enter this genre, Cary, Craig and Shyam are bound to go places in their new-found expression of creativity.

END