Dark truths, funny side up!

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Stand-up comedian Sanjay Rajoura during a performance

It seems it is all about bringing in a change these days. Stand-up comedians do not limit themselves to jokes that tickle the funny bone but are picking up issues that are food for thought. They are choosing topics that concern the society.

The comedians who have taken a different path, say that for sometime “dirty jokes” became a part of the stand-up shows. They wanted to change it and thus initiated the change.
Rajneesh Kapoor, who after working with a newspaper as a cartoonist graduated to a stand-up comedian, says that as a newspaper cartoonist, he was accustomed to refined humour and trained to not cross the limit. His acts became refined as well. He was trained to do “clean comedy”. When he took to stage, instead of just focusing on making people laugh, he made a point to put a message across with his jokes. “Not that I start preaching in my shows, but I consciously try to make sense and focus on reality, rather than just toilet or sex humour,” he says, accepting the fact that in the recent few years stand-up comedy has become very dirty. In his shows, one issue that Rajneesh always takes up is the disparity that exists in the society. “It is a time to bring in change. And though very few, there are people working towards it,” he adds.
However, when we ask his contemporary Sanjay Rajoura if there are comedians trying to bring in change, he responds on a displeased note. His frustration stems from the fact that people who call themselves stand-up comedians are just “jokers” joking about sex and nothing else. In fact, he says that when on stage it is his anger and frustration that comes out after seeing all this. “There are very few people who know the real issues concerning the society. Stand-up comedy was actually meant to be satirical. We were supposed to talk about things that we relate to, or things that affect us, but there’s nothing like that now. Neither the artistes nor the audience are interested in the real issues,” rues Sanjay. His shows have been critically acclaimed for the issues that he takes up. He doesn’t see a change coming in very soon, but is not utterly hopeless.
Theatre artiste and comedian, Deepak Dhamija gives a better perspective. Dhamija took to stand-up comedy very recently. To write a play on the stand-up comedy industry that was growing far and wide, Dhamija started watching shows in the capital about one-and-a-half years ago. “I found something amiss. Not many people were talking about issues that I, as an audience, wanted to see. I took to stage to put myself in their shoes and see if I can talk about real issues. I started taking up issues, like road rage, corruption, atrocities against women among other things. Surprisingly, it was liked. These are the things that annoy you. And if you want to hold the attention of people, put the message across in a lighter vein and it works,” he says. He hopes that more people would come forward with sensible humour.