It’s April fool’s day and somebody’s going to get hurt real bad! on this day of tomfoolery and clowning around, we all pray to not find ourselves at the receiving end of people’s pranks, but rather that the devil within us rises to the challenge and spring surprises to leave some unsuspecting ones amused/flustered/embarrassed. while we may restrict mischief mongering to a single day, there are some who consciously work towards perfecting their gags, 365 days of the year. tsi salutes this brave breed of people who throw caution and better paying jobs to the wind and show us just how to get a good laugh out of people! delivering round after round of good humoured low-blows, these comedians are not all born funny, but instead have painstakingly perfected their art. in the following pages, get a glimpse into the whacky minds of funny-men Russell Peters, Colin Mochrie, Cyrus Sahukar, Papa CJ and Aron Kader and also learn how to wake up much funnier tomorrow morning…no kidding!
This doesn’t hurt!Russell Peters’ wry commentary on race, class and cultures has the audience rolling on the floor with laughter. This is a canadian comedian of Indian origin, who went from being an internet sensation to one of the highest-paid comedians.
How do white folks react to a brown man cracking jokes about them?They don't seem to mind. I make jokes about everybody, so everybody gets hit at some point in my show. They actually get mad if I don't make fun of them, or their communities – "Hey man, how come you didn't make any jokes about Latvians?"
Given the cultural differences, how different is it to perform in countries such as India and UAE as opposed to the US?Not as much as you'd think. I don't change my act or anything like that. I generally find that people who come to my shows 'get it'. They know what I do and are pretty ok with it when it comes to my references and jokes.
You’ve cracked loads of jokes on your dad. How did he react to them?He was cool with it. He'd just say, "I don't talk like that!" And it's true, he doesn't. He had more of an English kind of accent, but comedy is about exaggeration and finding the funny, so I did that with him. He had a great sense of humour anyway, and loved comedy long before I got into it.
How often did you actually 'get hurt real bad'?It's funny, I only remember getting hit by my dad about three times. The way I see it, if you have to beat your kid more than three times in their lives, then there's something wrong with both of you.
It takes a genius to create comedy, and madness to fuel genius. How much of Russell Peters is pure madness?There's actually not a lot of madness within me. I've been told that I'm pretty normal for a comic. I'm not like one of those comics who are only funny on-stage and super-serious off-stage.
Do comedians face a 'liquidity crunch' as well?Sure. I can tell you that in 2004, I was pretty much broke. I was just about making my car payments and other commitments. I don't have that problem anymore, but this business is pretty fickle, so you never know...
Was George Bush the best American President ever? Do you find his actions funnier than yours?He wasn't a great President, but I've heard from a lot of people who met him that he was a nice guy and funny too. I have a funny feeling that I'd kind of get along with him if we met.
Who are your biggest inspirations – Indians, Chinese, Americans, Brits, Africans or Canadians?People in general. I'm always paying attention to people, even if I don't look like I am. I won't talk about a group of people unless I've really taken the time to get to know them and understand them. That's what people respond to in my act – I'm not just making fun of people, I'm acknowledging their differences and sometimes showing that we're really not that different after all.
Which part of the world would you want to be reborn in?I can't say that I'd really change anything about where I was born. I probably wouldn't be 'Russell Peters' if I was born in England or the States. Being born in Toronto and growing up there, made me who I am today.
How different is Russell Peters the man, from Russell Peters the performer? Not that much. I mean, I'm not always 'on' because that can be annoying, but I'm not super serious.
Who is your favourite stand-up comedian?I really respect Louis CK a lot.
Which daily routine of yours would you wish to be ‘Outsourced’?Probably waking up and then having to get on a plane. If there was a guy I could hire to do that, that would be great.
What time in the day are you serious? When I'm tired – so if I don't sleep properly, that could be any time of day.
Give us five easy steps to becoming the best brown stand-up comedian in the world.
1. Spend 15 years playing gigs for next to no money.
2. Do a comedy special that gets uploaded on Youtube.
3. Come up with 'Somebody Gonna Get a Hurt Real Bad'.
4. Spend the next six years touring the world.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4, but come up with a new catch-phrase.
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It’s Colin’s line all the way!Colin Mochrie, of whose line is it anyway? fame, shares his experiences, tips and tricks for doing what he does best – improvisational comedy!
When did you realise you were funny? Did you teach yourself to be funny?I guess I realised I was funny when I got my first laugh, then second and third in rapid succession. It seemed to come naturally.
Are you funny in real life?I tend to be quieter in person. Funny in a dry and understated way. Nothing like what you would see on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
How was your first show? Were you funny at all?On my first Whose Line…?, which was shot in the UK, I psyched myself out. I met the other improvisers an hour before the show, started worrying about whether my comedy would travel outside of North America. I think I had one funny moment.
Did the crowd ever go wrong?The crowds that come to our theatre shows are always great. We do corporate shows wherein we are hired by a company to be the entertainment during their awards night or employee appreciation night. That sometimes can be difficult. There is a different feeling with an audience that has bought tickets to see you, and one that is forced to watch you between dinner courses.
Could I learn to be funny?I don't know if you could learn to be funny, but you could learn to be funnier.
Give our readers five tips that will help our readers wake-up funnier tomorrow morning.•Wake up alive.
•Immerse yourself in funny things. Movies, TV, on-line sites and hang around funny people.
•Never think what you do or say is funny. Never push.
•Know your audience. Never tell off-colour jokes at church or sophisticated puns to three-year-olds.
•Always ask yourself...What would Colin do?
Tell us five topics that always raise a laugh?•Somebody hurting themselves in a non-lethal way.
•Passing gas.
•Star Wars fan's virginity.
•Funny sounding foreign foods
•Brad Sherwood's dancing
Who are your favourite comedians and what do you find funny about them?John Cleese – no one does angry funnier than him.
Billy Connelly – his stand-up seems almost improvisational, almost rambling but it's not. It's just funny.
Laurel and Hardy – A great team where both can play straight man and the fool. Such strong characters and loveable ones to boot.
Do you have any no-go zones?I stay away from life threatening diseases, sexual taboos and bald jokes.
Between stand-up and improve comedy, which is more difficult and how are they different?For me, stand-up is far more difficult. There is a more adversarial relationship between the performer and the audience. More of a "All right you think you're funny, prove it" kind of feel. With improvising, the audience has more of a vested interest in it being successful because they have supplied the suggestions. They know we haven't prepared anything, so we have a little more leeway.
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Stand up for Papa CJ!The Indian stand-up comedian who made it to the top 10 of last comic standing on NBC and has been compared with Chris Rock, shares a few secrets of the trade
Are people able to laugh at themselves?With two drinks down, yea, sure! You’ll find even the posture of the people changes over the course of the show. Once they realise that it’s all fun and games, they’re fine.
How did comedy become your calling?I hated my job so much that I just had to get out of it. I went to Oxford, I did an MBA. I worked in London for five years as a management consultant. I hated my job, I don’t like sticking to conventions, and I was no good as a male prostitute, so this was the only option. See, when I tried male prostitution, they laughed at me, so I thought let me take up a profession where laughing at me is a good response. Then I got into stand-up comedy…
Can one learn to be funny?Possibly, yea. You can learn some of the tools and tricks, and the more you perform, the better you get. There’s no real theory to it. Every show is different, every audience is different. The more you perform, the more situations you get used to dealing with. So you know, if this happens next time, this is how I’m going to deal with it. You learn a lot more from a bad gig than a good gig.
I hadn’t heard of stand-up comedy till five years ago. I was always a very naughty child, but I was quite smart, so I used to get away with it. I think that’s stayed on at this stage as well.
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Some more comedy in store!Founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, a regular at La’s comedy store, and the first person to teach comedy in the middle east, Aron Kader speaksabout his experiences and lessons
Can comedy be taught?You can’t teach someone how to be funny. Some people are more funny than others. But you can teach people how to be a better public speaker. Mostly, comedy is about teaching people how to be themselves. The more yourself you are, the more unique you are, the more captivating you are to an audience. So, a lot of people I have taught, they don’t end up becoming comedians, but they’re not afraid anymore to talk to people.
Stand up comedians poke a lot of fun at the audience. In your experience, are most people able to laugh at themselves?Yes. If you do it right, everybody laughs at themselves. Sometimes, it takes some people more work than others. I was doing comedy in the Arab world, in the Middle East, and they gave me a very difficult time, and are not easily able to laugh at themselves. I don’t think Indians have this problem. Indians seem to have a very good sense of humour.
Also, there’s a lot of variety here, there are different religions, different ethnicities, different states, and different people. The Arab world is very strict, sometimes there are religious fundamentalists, and so I find them to be more difficult than Indians. India has Bollywood, songs and dancing, and people like to have a drink and enjoy themselves. So there’s more variety here, and more to talk about.
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Funning it up! Fishing out the humorous from the mundane is what Cyrus has aced. In a one-on-one with the host with the most gags up his sleeve: Cyrus Sahukar.
When did you realise you were funny? Did you teach yourself to be funny?Somehow my life has always positioned me so as to be involved in theatre and art. I was a shy kid, when I turned 15, I started finding things in day-to-day life very amusing. It began at home, as it always does; my mother is a very humorous person. I think it began when I started finding all the things that others thought was funny about my family, very humorous. This outlook has helped me a lot in dealing with the day-to-day circumstances.
Are you funny in real life?I have my moods and moments…I like to observe people. I am usually lost in thoughts. My mother used to be very worried about me as I used to be perpetually lost in thought, and I used to keep wondering about people and life. As the years have gone by, I have started to appreciate this aspect about myself. I believe it is very important for anybody in comedy to look at people, observe them and find things in all of us that are strange and funny, and then to accept them. The greatest gift of comedy is that it can hold a mirror to the society. Comedy is a medium through which we can all tell the truth yet nobody gets hurt. We can all sit back and enjoy it.
How was your first show? Were you funny at all?I hosted my first show at the age of 15, and it is memorable because it was Valentine’s Day. It was for Roshan Abbas’s event company, it was their first show as well. It was a futuristic event and the budget was really low. I was wearing a fish bowl on my head and a silver suit, which wouldn’t unzip. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. The second show was for inmates at Tihar jail, and I ended up getting locked with them, because the group I had come with somehow forgot about me. I was so paranoid that I would spend my entire life being an inmate. I think most of my life I have spent getting out of situations I never wanted to get into, and that led to the humour. It’s the effort to be serious, which turned out funny.
Tell us some topics that always raise a laugh
Well, I think sexual humour always works, doesn’t matter how many books you have read or how many movies you have seen. Also, nothing is completely funny till the time it is completely true. Any small, bizarre observation makes people laugh. I find it funny how love, food and sex become the epicentre of our lives, we love talking about these things.
Do you have any no-go zones?Sadly, in India you have to have ‘no-go zones.’ 95 per cent of things that I can’t do are because of the audience, or the sponsor has a problem, or the channel says we shouldn’t go there. We are yet to reach a point in India where we can openly talk and enjoy all kinds of humour. I am sad that it is not the case right now. Religion is one thing I would want to talk about but I have never gone there. Ripping apart the government is another.
