Top (left to right): Aravind SA, Vinay Menon and Raja Sekhar Mamidanna; Bottom (left to right): Karthik Kumar and Praveen Kumar; All images source: Facebook
When it comes to comedy, making people laugh is serious business. India is witnessing a stand-up comedy boom and the men and women running the show are doing whatever it takes to tickle their audience’s funny bones.
However, the flourishing stand-up comedy circuit in the south of India is often missed or side-lined in the larger frame.
From Evam Productions in Chennai to comedians in Bengaluru who are already household names and the young yet promising circuit in Hyderabad and Kerala, comedians from the south are regaling audiences like never before.
In 2003, actor Karthik Kumar (37) along with Sunil Vishnu K founded Evam productions, an organisation which mainly focused on theatre entrepreneurship and management, in Chennai. Close to five years ago they expanded to stand-up comedy, a move which Karthik says was organic.
Formats have evolved, and so have the audiences and venues. "The form shifted outside of theatres, it moved to unconventional places like pubs and more young people took a liking to it," says Karthik.
While cultivating a culture of stand-up comedy, Evam did a total of 120 shows in their first three years. In contrast it produced some 200 shows in the last year alone, says Karthik citing rapid growth.
And their accomplishments do not just resonate at home in India. The company organises stand-up comedy tours in the US and Singapore each year and the response they say, has been phenomenal. "All this while, tours mostly included classical music or dance performances. Now we also have stand-up comedy which young NRIs are loving," he says. Evam is planning a stand-up comedy tour to Australia and New Zealand next year. "Where ever there are south Indians, we’ll go," he exclaims.
Aravind SA, who is also a part of Evam, used to work as an assistant director in Chennai until stand-up comedy happened to him in 2012. For him, changing professions was a conscious and calculated move and not a result of "being funny".
"Being funny is overrated. A lot of us can be funny, but not everyone can stand on the stage and make people laugh," he says, adding that it is here that he put to use his story-telling skills along with his ability to exaggerate.
The stand-up comedy circuit in south India is a "beast" which is severely underrated, he sighs. "What we get to see is just the tip of the iceberg."
"The south Indian population is alienated from the rest of the country, which is north India. There is an assumption that what happens in Mumbai is pan India," he continues.
However, he also knows that there is an audience down south which comedians from the north cannot tap into and therein lies their potential to grow.
Over the recent few years, several comedians have shifted to the world of social media with online videos replacing live gigs- one of the most popular and successful examples being the All India Bakchod (AIB).
34-year-old Praveen Kumar from Bengaluru, one of the top stand-up comedians in the country, says that both are different mediums and though he is not against the form, he prefers doing live shows. "In a live show," he says "I get gratification instantly."
The former marketing professional feels that though the medium gives more visibility and reach, the pressure on those taking the social media way is tremendous. "People expect you to be excellent if you do live shows after making videos. Doing moderately is not an option," he says.
"If you don’t consider YouTube, we are all on the same level."
For someone who has been part of the genre right from when it was introduced in the city, Kumar has witnessed it swell into a throbbing trend. Having performed in over 18 cities across India and in Dubai and Singapore, he feels that the stand-up comedy scene in the southern states is picking up slowly but steadily. "We are on the right track. But we need to continue without getting diverted," he says.
Unlike Bengaluru and Chennai, folks in Hyderabad and Cochin are just beginning to warm up to the idea of stand-up comedy.
Raja Sekhar Mamidanna watched his first Jim Carrey movie when he was studying in Class 12. He was bowled over. "I became a fan in an instant. I wanted to be like him," says the 30-year-old Hyderabad-based stand-up comedian. Following a stint in the corporate sector, Raja Sekhar finally took the plunge into the blooming and yet uncertain world of stand-up comedy in 2011.
Around two years later he formed "Funny Side Up", a stand-up comedy group in the city which believes that there are three sides to every issue- the right side, the wrong side and the funny side.
The group now performs four to five shows every month apart from their individual gigs, and though popular, the stand-up comedy scene in Hyderabad is still in its nascent stages.
"While stand-up comedy was catching up in other cities, there was a lot of political tension in our state prior to the formation of Telangana from Andhra. Even now its spread is limited to HITEC city," Raja Sekhar says.
While they usually generate content which would be relatable to the audience in general, there are certain topics which are still out of bounds like religion, which he feels many comedians would like to explore. "The moment you apply logic to religion, you can get a lot of material," he says.
As for getting offended, Raja Sekhar has a theory. "As long as the joke is not on the audience, they are ready to laugh. But they won’t accept it the other way round," he says.
There’s a lot to be done before Hyderabad can come to par with the stand-up comedy scene in Mumbai and Bengaluru. "In south India, we help each other a lot. Comedians from their respective states go and perform in each other’s shows," says Raja Sekhar who has cracked up audiences in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai apart from Hyderabad.
Vinay Menon (29) is a professor of English in a college in Cochin and a "Malayali" stand-up comedian.
Is he then a part-time stand-up comedian?
"I don’t know whether I am a full time professor and part-time stand-up comedian or vice versa," he quips.
Ask him whether his students know about his other avatar, and he is prompt with his response. "Unfortunately they found it. Thanks to social media." Requests to crack a joke during classes are common and he understands why he cannot be a "serious" teacher.
Having grown up in a time when internet wasn’t as easily accessible as it is today, Vinay found out about open mics only in 2012, following which he realised he could make a career out of making people laugh.
Kerala, most comedians say, is still not exposed to stand-up comedy, but certain places like Kochi, Trivandrum and Kozhikode, with a more cosmopolitan population are "getting there".
Though he has performed in other cities outside Kerala, Vinay has had to start from scratch in his state. "It will take a lot of effort to develop since there is no stand-up comedy culture here," he says. Recent tours by Vir Das, Radhikha Vaz and the East India Company has helped in spreading the word.
"The crowd isn’t super eager even now for stand-up comedy, but they have become more accepting," he says.
Interestingly, he says that it is the older age group, the ones above 50, who enjoy such shows more. It could have to do with them having travelled outside the state and their exposure that the younger generation lack.
"We need regular open mics. Cochin will take some time to reach where Bengaluru was in 2012," he asserts.