The Comedy Store

Friday 21st July, 2012 -- The Dark Knight Rises... Well, he rose and continued to thrill the audience but we suffered through an hour and twenty minutes of traffic from Apollo Mills to Phoenix Mills (I'm led to believe it’s less than 5kms), to reach just in time, in complete snitty moods, at the perfect place - The Comedy Store. As part of a multinational company few perks that we get are corporate events and laughs if not a healthy pay-check. So a group of 26 odd 'corporate slaves' headed to The Comedy Store & we all needed a couple of laughs !

This rather short show of two hours was hosted by Kunal Rao, an ex-Chartered Accountant who quit his job to become a stand-up comedian. As part of his short opening act, he got a few chuckles from the crowd and generally warmed them for the acts to follow. Kunal also had the opportunity to reacquaint himself with our colleague, the Consultant - Vivek. Vivek was the enthusiast from the audience who got picked on all through the show for having a few funny liners of his own. Note to all - don't mess with comedians in their element. They are like bosses out to get you! 

Kunal and all the other comedians for the night did the standard lines of 'First time to comedy store?' and 'Why would you sit in the front row if it’s not your first time here?' Fortunately for them there were 3 pretty girls in the front row...

Next on stage was Abish! This guy was good and had some brilliant material. From how terminator would sound in Bengali 'Asta Livista Dada' to what actually happens on the cricket ground - his enactment of MSD in slow-mo was simply brilliant! His song to irritate his 'mallu' uncle and auntie is worth memorising - you never know when you need to get those off your back! He also made jokes about how Indian names are derived and how his simply rhymed with his brother’s - Anish. Well Abish is definitely worth watching again. This guy from Delhi was on fire and kept going at it all throughout. His personification of cities when given characters and voices was simply superb.Yes the Maharashtrians are still angry and will stay so !

After a rather long twenty-minute break (you can carry your drinks inside) Kunal was back on stage talking about comprehensive condom machines and jokes on CA’s and as such his spontaneity was not to be missed. There was a lot of interaction between the comedians and the three pretty girls in the front row and a young guy Pratyush. There was a special feature by Ahmed Sharif (he has apparently shared the stage with the likes of Vir Das) but as Kunal forewarned us - have no expectations. Though he had good material, Ahmed’s jokes fell flat, maybe because of his timing or otherwise, but there was something amiss. However, worth mentioning were his jokes on Al-Qaeda, Dumbledore and how Indians are so fond of shortening names - poor Gandalf will never visit India.

Post a very anti-climatic stint by Mr. Sharif the mood definitely was very glad to have Kunal back only to introduce Rajneesh Kapoor, yet another Delhi-ite. I was a little apprehensive but this guy’s simple jokes had us in considerable stitches (After the show our sides hurt from all the laughing). He talked about flying and superstition and about kids and how stupid they are these days with their low IQs. He did the classic ‘my Punjabi mom’ has two solutions to everything - get married or else eat something. It solves all !! J Rajneesh apparently wastes a lot of time googling/surfing the net and shared his insights about people’s comments on Youtube. Funny it seems, but a war between India- Pakistan can/does start on youtube. He observes that every third comment is 'to view pictures of girls click on this link'. We ended the night clucthing our sides.

All in all, the 25 CA - consultants left the Comedy Store very happy. All the comedians were very certainly on their feet and think rather fast, their spontaneity and interaction with the crowd makes the evening very memorable (if you are with Vivek).  So, The Comedy Store is a must visit - because any wo/man who can make you laugh till your stomach hurts a little is certainly worth the 600 bucks. You can also watch the shows by Vir Das and international comedians at NCPA, Sophias, Bhabha Hall and etc.

The Comedy Store: (website link) http://in.bookmyshow.com/events/Abish-Mathew-Kunal-Rao-Rajneesh-Kapoor/ET00010232
http://www.thecomedystore.in/


P.S. - Just to test Rajneesh's theory lets see if the third hit/comment on this blog is ..'to see pictures of girls ...' 

About the author: Namrata Mahtani

The first review to have gone public and is pretty ecstatic. Thank you Coffee and a Quill – this is my Oscar moment!! Is paving her way to become a consultant in HR. With a knack for organising and talking too much is also trying to complete her MBA in HRD. You can also follow her on twitter @njmahtani