Laugh till you drop

My review of the comedy show I attended this weekend

Laughter is an important element of life. And the most important fuel that propels laughter is humor. Without humor, the journey of life seems prolonged.

So what would a person do after a lengthy and exhausting week, full of work? After several exhausting weeks of work and several weekends hanging out with friends, this weekend I decided to do something different. I decided to go to a comedy show.

After attending a few really good shows hosted at ‘Goodies’, I was hooked on to it. But thereafter what followed was a flagrant decline in the quality of humor in those shows. After a while, it was either all sex enunciated or the same old jokes. After about 5 dud shows, I gave up on comedy shows in 2014. I attended them only when in Mumbai, because surprisingly their quality was maintained.

But this time around, a friend suggested me to go to another comedy show. He told me that I might start enjoying comedy once again. I was intrigued by the confidence shown by this friend but I had serious doubts. What followed was one of the best evenings I had, the perfect medicine to my exhausting week, the show of Abijit Ganguly by Ahmedabad Komedians at Head O State.

This show which was set up in an informal setting, to sit with the groups of friends was a fresh change from the usual rows of chairs. The lighting was low and soothing, setting the perfect mood for the tickly evening to come. As we nibbled on the tasty paneer tikka dry, we were already making our own predictions about the upcoming show. Having experienced bad comedy in the past, some were hopeful and some plain disdainful.

But then the show started and proved us all wrong.

What started as an average show, picked up as soon as the main act started.

The opening act of Nihar Bhagat was funny. For a debutant, Spandan was not bad at all. But the prize went hands down to Abijit Ganguly.

He was hilarious from the very start till the very end. My fears were proven wrong. Instead of the run-of the mill sex comedy, he talked about daily life situations, situations we could relate to and laugh about. What started as a parody on the mother’s love of making the child eat, turned amusing with every passing joke. By the end of about 15 minutes from when he started, there were tears in my eyes, tears of laughter. He was funny and yet not offensive. That is the kind of comedy I have always loved and looked forward to. His jokes on a typical Indian Family, a typical Bengali family and typical Gujarati in-laws were drawn from experience and hence were relatable and immensely funny.

His confusion on whom to offer the cake on his first birthday after marriage, wife or mother, ‘kua’ or ‘khai’ was made funnier with his expression and the enactment. The mockery of every Indian mother’s apprehension for getting a dog as a pet was something that most of us would have gone through.

Considering his varied background, his regional jokes were amusing. But the special jokes on the equation between married couples were hands down uproarious.

The host Brendon Lalkaka, was just like his name, funny.

All in all, it was a superbly organized show, taking care of quite a lot of details. After having experienced a lot of average and sometimes downright horrible shows in 2014, this show by Ahmedabad Komedians was like a fresh breath of life pumped into the comedy scene of Ahmedabad. Kudos to the organizer Gaurang Bosamia who brought in a future star of comedy into our city and for hosting such a superbly planned show.

I am looking forward to more shows to bring me bouts of laughter and fun after exhausting weeks. The only hope I now have is that Ahmedabad Komedians maintains the high standard that its set by this show.