Kunal to bring his ‘fresh’ comedy
Satire and angst enough to make you laugh out loud – meet the so-called ‘anti-national’ comic of India
Asense of humour may be a subjective thing but what is the most you’ve been penalised for yours?
For 30-year-old Indian stand-up comic Kunal Kamra the hefty fines have included cancelled gigs, an eviction notice and a few death threats.
Unabashed, he carries on, this time in Dubai, where tonight at the Jumeirah Creekside hotel he is set to perform on new perspectives. His show is aptly called Fresh Thoughts.
His routine sparkles with satire and sass, and giggles. “[The] awkwardness of our surrounding, the advice of our friends, the message from our politicians and the collective outcry of the internet — these are the top four things that make me laugh in general and [I] cover them in my special, Fresh Thoughts,” he says in an email interview ahead of his show.
Kamra, who was in advertising until 2013, branched out into standup thanks to the urging of a friend. Still, his pithy one liners only got barbed edges many, many moons later.
When he took on the state with an eight-minute YouTube monologue on ‘Patriotism and the Government’ last year, it took a while for traction to pick up — perhaps the punchlines hit too close to home? But it also seemed the first step in Kamra’s discovery of what really works for him — observation, sarcasm and a dissection of norms.
So when the comic decided to step into talk show mode last year, it didn’t come as that much of a surprise when the narrative ran into politics. Shut Up Ya Kunal — called so because “That’s what most of my friends tell me”, says Kamra — is a podcast that engages with newsmakers on a (semi) calm platform that allows for real — if often controversial — dialogue.
His show’s guests have included vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing Madhukeshwar Desai; Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Congress National Spokesperson; and Jawaharlal Nehru University students Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.
Ironically, his pet peeve has something to do with his style of joke-telling too. “I talk too much politics,” he claims.
And that comes at a cost. Last week, the funnyman lost out on a gig in a Gujarat college, MS University of Baroda, for ‘anti-national sentiments’.
Fortunately, he’s not letting that get to him. He responded to the news — information he got through media and not college authorities — by relaxing and making a few digital jabs. “Ever been so cool that you find out from the news that you’re not going to be working on a particular day? Celebrating my day off in the future on my day off today,” he tweeted.
Considering the backlash though, what keeps him going? It’s simple; he seeks a visceral response. “I just like jokes and I have a special space in my heart for jokes that get an immediate involuntary emotion reaction... like laughter or outrage,” he explains.
Well, it seems to be working. There’s been plenty of outrage, but also some supporters. Like his sudden eviction from home. He says, “Are you assuming that a country of 1.3 billion people do not have liberal landlords? Yes, you’re right it was very [tough] to find one but eventually when I did I signed a three-year lease agreement.”
And just like that you’ve got context — in a land of plenty, you are bound to find someone with a similar sense of what’s funny.
Dubai is always fun, I get a mix [of] Indians and Pakistanis coming to watch me live, Dubai is the closest place to India where that can happen. [Plus, it’s only] 150 minutes in a flight from Bombay [sic].”