Indian comedy acts to bring laughs to Dubai

Indian comedy works with extra dimensions to make people laugh, one of the country's emerging talents said.

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Indian comedy works with extra dimensions to make people laugh, one of the country's emerging talents said. "No matter which country the audience comes from, the idea is to make them laugh and to make them a part of your act," said Swapnil Joshi, half of the comedy duo Swapnil and VIP (Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar). "Be it Europe, India or the Middle East, the only thing that differs is the language.

"But what we do is Indian comedy, and there are 20 different ways to make you laugh, with just one nuance." The two, who are the opening act for a comedy show at the Indian High School's Sheikh Rashid Auditorium in Dubai tonight, employ Hindi, Urdu and English in their performances. "English is a dry language. It is more sarcastic than, say, Urdu or Hindi, where the humour has an emotion of its own," Mr Joshi said.

"The idea is to make fun of ourselves and then it spills into the audience. At the risk of sounding immodest, I am a very funny guy. Actually, the comedy between us has been ongoing but it's only recently that people have started paying us for making fun of ourselves." Swapnil and VIP, and other acts on tonight's bill, came to prominence in India by competing on the TV show Comedy Circus. Another of the performers, Sudesh Lehri from Punjab, said he would perform material from Comedy Circus because that is what the audience would expect.

"They would like to hear that but with the Dubai audience, we know they like to hear new stuff too. But mostly they like to hear an updated version of what they've heard before," Lehri said. "For Dubai, we don't prepare beforehand. We have to decide on the spot about what they like and what they are open to. It has to also reach out to the kids so I try and use everyday language, like street language to convey humour. It has to be about what they see around them and not something they can't relate to."

bhattacharya@thenational.ae