Indo-Canadian stand-up comedian, Samir ‘Sugar Sammy’ Khullar, recently performed at UB City’s amphitheatre as part of a three-city tour organised by Comedy Central. For over a decade now, the 36-year-old has been making a name for himself worldwide for his multi-lingual approach to comedy.
At the show, the opening set was by local comedian Ashwin Matthew, who cracked some self-depreciating jokes on Malayalis, recalled funny incidents with auto drivers and even indulged the audience with some offensive jokes on religion and sex from time to time.
When Sugar Sammy took the mic, there was an avalanche of laughter throughout the amphitheatre — from his first joke to the last.
There were racist jokes on Tamilians, Punjabis, Mexicans, Germans, Nepalese and every other race of humanity possible; sexist jokes on how women are demanding in relationships; and mockeries of conceptually pointless Indian ads, among other things.
He fluently switched from English to Hindi to French to Punjabi and somewhere in the middle, even broke out into free verse and rapped.
He was very interactive with the audience, either by picking on them and making improvised jokes or making not-so-subtle passes.
Even his post-show interaction won hearts — he spoke, signed autographs for and posed for photographs with every audience member who wanted to meet him.
There was no filter that he used in his act and the raw, offensive humour was greatly appreciated. “I liked him despite not having checked out his videos on the Internet.
He was really funny and cute,” shares Ayesha, an audience member, adding, “Some of the jokes were really stereotypical and I felt guilty even laughing at them. But in general, he was entertaining and definitely worth the money I paid to watch him.”
But while most of the crowd was laughing throughout, there were a few who were not as impressed.
“It’s been a good experience, but somehow not up to the mark. He’s not as funny live as he seemed in the videos. But what I do like is that the humour is Indian-ised, which makes it relatable,” says Lakshmi, who watched the show.