Please stand-up

The average Hyderabadi’s sense of humour may centre on the slapstick but there has been an uprising of sorts over the past couple of years. Stand-up comedy, which  was pretty much non-existent in the city before 2012, has seen a rise in popularity with more and more stand-up and open mic nights promoting the genre.

Funny Side Up’s Rajasekhar Mamidanna says it all began with a show at the National Institute of Fashion Technology. “In 2012, we organised a show at NIFT and ever since, we’ve been conducting stand-up competitions and open mic nights.” “From April 2013 onwards, we’ve been hosting auditorium shows, also bringing in comics from other cities.”

One of these comics is Bengaluru-based Ahmed Shariff, who counts Hyderabad as one of his favourite cities to perform in. He has already performed thrice in the city this year. “Hyderabad reminds me of the Bengaluru comedy scene two-three years ago,” he says, adding, “There is definitely a market, there are people out there who will lap up this new form of entertainment and the talent in Hyderabad is very promising.”

However, Rajasekhar adds that the scene is still alienated with Madhapur and its surrounding areas being their preferred choice for venues. “But in the last couple of months, we’ve been conducting three open mic nights every week. So it has picked up, and we have 10 to 12 good comics now who have a minimum of 10 minutes of good material.”

With the city seeing its first independent Telugu stand-up night soon, the format itself will be put to test. Another Hyderabadi comedian, Hriday Ranjan, says, “In Hyderabad, almost everybody understands Hindi and most Indian comics have Hindi punch lines. So I don’t think language as such is a barrier.”

“The format is pretty much set but with Telugu,  we have to start from scratch,” agrees Rajasekhar, “In English, we have one-liners but in Telugu comedy, it has to be a story format.”
Bengaluru-based comic Praveen Kumar, who has performed in the city more than 10 times in his career, believes that having a growing comedy culture also helps.

“It may work well for a comic with a ‘fresh’ crowd and when the audience knows what to expect, the pressure to make them laugh is higher,” Praveen says, “But it’s a good challenge. It lifts the whole scene by making comics work really hard. It’s always better to have an audience who has seen comedy before.”

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