For The Love of Stand-Up Comedy

I hope we get Mizo Stand-Up Comedians one of these days that can do a 20 minutes to an hour set, in Mizo or English or Minglish I don’t care but it’s about a Mizo experience, and it is not about “There is this one guy…” which is how Mizo comedians tell jokes but yk the story might be funny and I’d laugh but I would still always prefer self-referenced comedy and I think I’d find the joke funnier if you convinced me “the guy” was you or maybe your friend, someone with a name, the Martin to Gabriel Iglesias, yk.

That’s a really long sentence. If you read that without taking a breath, take one now.

I like comedy. My favourite ones tend to be, like I mentioned, the self-referenced ones, the first person narration, and if it is self-deprecating, it is even funnier to me. What that says about me IDK; you make of that what you will. 

I think presently my favourite stand-up comedian is Trevor Noah who Atu and Momo introduced me to, with the Zambian Escalator joke. He has smart comedy. I even bought his book "Born A Crime" and read it; quite enjoyable. Back in college, I was, as were most Englosh speaking Millennial Indians, partial to Russell Peters; somebody gonna get a-hurt real bad, yk. And then later, Fluffy.

Recently I’ve started listening to Indian stand-up comedy in English and am thoroughly enjoying some of the sets. I even have favourites now. My current favourite is Shamik Chakrabarti who got me hooked with the story of how he lost his laptop one night. I could relate! Especially with the policeman training him how crime is investigated in India, and how most office passwords are Admin123. I know some of your office WiFi passwords are exactly that. Or yk, Admin1234.

Or his muse on how Indian parenting somehow trains you to be "sickeningly honest" that you find yourself a sleeper cell, reporting on yourself to your parents. They don’t know you bought a laptop, but you somehow find yourself telling them you lost the laptop they didn’t know you bought, so that now the only outcome is you are forever the Laptop Loser. Hilarious. Because it happens.

The school bus driver story, the Karnataka tiger reserve, the buying a Hall AC for a one bedroom house, the auto charge of 77INR… I play them over and over; relaxes me while it amuses me. 

A close second would be Niveditha Prakasam who’d wryly ask you if you knew that people with generational wealth looked just like us? Or how from Tamil Nadu, everyone else is a North Indian, much to the possible chagrin of Mumbaikers and Bangaloreans, maybe. I laughed hard at how she described her sexual awakening and exploration of it, and how it connected to IRCTC booking!

Laughed too, at how Hollywood, unlike Bollywood, preferred the dark-skinned Indian girls to represent India but how they also get it wrong and then you have two Tamil girls representing Indians in Bridgerton and their names were “Sharma”. Chagrin of thw fair-skinned Sharmas, maybe.

Then there is Somnath Padhy who I started to listen to because of his hilarious set on Vitamin D Deficiency. Because I was researching Vitamin D deficiency on Google, perhaps. Algorithm, yk. His relatable stories include Indian classrooms, frogs v. cockroaches, engineering over MBBS, and electrical engineers at war. Hilarious. 

In Mizo, I think comedy form is theatre drama over stand-up. All our stand-ups are basically people telling a series of jokes, but not exactly as a set. Which is what is missing from our stand-ups. Even so, my favourite Mizo comedian used to be Thangkura drama party; I memorized the drama too back in cassette days, because I listened to them so much. I also enjoyed Leikhi Miss even though that was highly slapstick. In contemporary Mizo comedy, I really enjoy the more cerebral and dry humour of Chhara and Mastea. A little earlier, the drama of Zephyr comedy club, headlined by Mapuia. Fun. I also truly enjoy Tleua and gang. 

I believe I enjoy them because these performances come in a larger picture scenario with their own Titles holding the whole set together, I think. And also because they are a reflection and contemplation of Mizo society, without being preachy, and I enjoy that. I even prefer a sermon that is delivered as a funny musing over the Hell Penalty ones. 

But again, not exactly stand-up. I truly hope we get those soon. I am pretty sure the next gen will be up to the task. IDK about reception though. Maybe I’m the only weirdo who enjoys stand-up comedy so much she is hoping to listen to a Mizo/Minglish set soon. IDK. Could be.

I leave you this time with an advice from Somnath Pathy: if you are going to drink and drive in India, do it during the day because the police don’t have their device; they’re charging it for the night.