ABISH MATHEWWe are all redefining who we are as professionals. We used to call ourselves only stand-up comics, but now we are being forced to evolve. I absolutely miss live gigs, but we are all in survival mode and redefining what our jobs were. Things won’t go back to the way they were and I’m happy. We needed a shake-up, we ourselves and the world in general. I am looking forward, maybe in a few months, or even years, to doing an event where I may not get thousands of people, but maybe 100, and when I do come back to it, I will be more appreciative of never taking audiences for granted.KANEEZ SURKAWe’re looking to take our gigs digital. For example, the ‘Stay Home for India’ stream we did to raise funds was a good example of how we converted a live stage property into a digital property. Also, ‘The Circuit Comedy Festival’ that got called off last month due to the situation, is now going digital..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}ANU MENONI think Zoom is obviously the future of stand-up right now. Some comedians have been running one-hour sessions there. Through BookMyShow, you buy a ticket and log in at a particular time. Those of us who do corporate shows have also been told that we need to come up with a Zoom rate for half an hour of stand-up comedy. How you used to have AD and BC before, we will now have pre-COVID and post-COVID rates. I was in the process of completing my second stand-up special, but you need to go to open mics to work out your material and that won’t be possible for a while. In a corona-free world, I could have been touring by now! But I do have a few private gig offers from people who say they need some humour in these dark times. I just hope they pay. Because my bank account needs some funds in these dark times as well!PAPA CJRespect for comics has gone up during the lockdown. For the past 15 years, I have been doing comedy, and people kept saying you comedians sit around all day at home, doing nothing. Now they have discovered how difficult that actually is. A few days ago, I did my first online corporate show. For many years, I have been saying stand-up is like sex. It’s best enjoyed live and not in front of a screen. But surprisingly, it was fantastic. It was a Zoom webinar. I was able to interact with people, engage, hear their laughter. I had so much fun, I was ashamed of myself. I did a broad range of content. It wasn’t too COVID focused. They say comedy is tragedy plus time. Right now, it’s too fresh and for many people just hearing ‘Corona’ or ‘COVID’ is depressing. It’s on all the news all the time. So, for a change, it’s nice to not have to hear anything corona-related.ANUVAB PALI don’t see governments opening up comedy as an essential service. But everyone’s watching [things online] for free. Anyone will watch anything for free. That’s why I watch TikTok videos of someone cutting an onion. In these times, you have to keep an eye on what can be made fun of. Of course, you would never make fun of those suffering but how about celebrity workout videos, or people lounging by swimming pools, telling us to stay safe. How about the Kerala police doing a corona hand-washing dance or a fake WhatsApp that tells you to drink lime juice and cow urine and wait for the planets to align? Luckily, stupidity and illiteracy do not go away in a pandemic. And that’s where the jokes are. No virus can destroy humour.SANJAY RAJOURAI did not venture into stand-up comedy to make a career but to have an avenue to speak about things that bothered me that I found unjust and wrong. I don’t think I will stop raising that voice because of the coronavirus. I will write about it, speak about it. It’s an appropriate time to write jokes. Just look at the stupidity. People banging thalis, RWA people coming to your apartments if you don’t switch off lights, people making this a Muslim controversy. These people are jokes in themselves. I will not stop making fun of them. The pandemic has exposed the government and the people. If I survive this, I am going to make a huge comedy set out of this. It is during these times that you can come up with amazing satire. If there is a utopian situation, what satire will there be?AGRIMA JOSHUAIn this new world, YouTubers are going to thrive. As comics, many of us don’t do YouTube, but now I’m sure those guys are laughing all the way to the bank, or at least all the way to their online accounts. The super-comics will thrive, the ones who can do the best camerawork, editing and everything else at once. The other thing is, look at the government response to the pandemic. I wish we could go on stage and talk about these things. Everything is so ridiculous, first the vessels, then the diyas, and all the forwards going around. In a joke you start with a real premise and then escalate with further absurdity. That’s what’s happening. I think the BJP IT cell is doing better jokes than us.Published By: Iram Ara IbrahimPublished On: May 2, 2020--- ENDS ---
