Challenges aplenty for Kannada stand-up comedy

The art form has made positive strides over the years but it has a long way to go, say artistes

World Laughter Day will be celebrated on May 1. Metrolife spoke to well-known stand-up comedians from Bengaluru on the evolution of the art in Kannada, its constant competition with Hindi and English content and the way forward.

Young audience

Sonu Venugopal, who has done several shows with the Tharle Box comedy club, says comedy was introduced in Kannada through Harate, a popular regional TV show.

Stand-up comedian Sneha Suresh says that veteran artiste Gangavathi Pranesh took comedy to greater heights by making jokes on the works of the acclaimed Kannada humorist and writer Rayasam Bheemasena Rao (Beechi).

“Humour has always been a part of our culture. Comedians like Sudha Baragur took it forward by telling jokes that you can relate to,’’ says content creator and independent comedian Shreyas Rao.

These artistes say that earlier, audiences who were in their mid-40s attended the shows, but now in the last three-four years, youngsters have been coming to watch open mics.

Extra punch

Anup Maiya, co-founder and manager of Lolbagh comedy team says that it has been involved in open mics, impromptu and mad ads in Kannada since 2016.

“English comedians like Kenny Sebastian and Kannan Gill rose to fame in Bengaluru initially. They now attract 1,000 people to a show but many Kannada comedians are still trying to draw half of their number,’’ he laments.

Sonu says only a certain section of people speak Kannada. “Since people who attend our shows are exposed to good English and Hindi comedy, we always need to deliver something extra,’’ she says. Sneha says that sometimes people criticise Kannada comedians when they speak even a single English word.

Comedian Pavan Venugopal, who has performed in over 150 shows across Karnataka, says comparing Kannada comedians with their Hindi or English counterparts is futile. “We must focus on catering to the needs of our people,” he reasons.

Sonu says that Kannada is blessed with many dialects and some jokes are very unique to the language. “We mix English words in some jokes like ‘Swalpa side kodi’. If our idea is good and local then we can experiment in our delivery and impress the audience,” she says.

Virtual comedy

During the pandemic, many comedians performed virtually but they admit that they missed the charm of stage performance.

It was nice to perform virtually for people living in the US, UK and Australia. But this cannot beat the high of actual stage performance, says Anup.

However, Sonu says the online medium brings a fine balance to the profession. “It works out cheaper for the audience as well as they need not travel to the venue,’’ she says.

Shreyas says he used the pandemic time to write more comedy sketches and increase his followers.

Fresh material

Shreyas says it’s encouraging to see many female artistes bringing different perspectives in their content. “I am not interested in cliched jokes about a broken relationship. Instead, I make jokes about schools during the pandemic, on being a manager or going on vacation with parents,’’ he says.

Pavan says that Kannada stand-up comedy is in a very good space as around 20-25 groups have come into the limelight. “If we focus on creating good content and not repeating our jokes, we can thrive longer,” he says.

OTT pitch

If Kannada comedy picks up, many of them can take this as a full-time job. But most of them now balance between IT jobs and comedy, says Anup. “I hope that we get approached by OTT giants like Netflix and Amazon,” says Sonu. “This will be a stepping stone for us. There should be no barriers between regional and Hindi content. OTT platforms must not just focus on Chennai, Kerala and Hyderabad-based artistes,’’ she says.

According to Pavan, OTT platforms will show interest in Kannada stand-up comedy only when the Kannada content will have increased viewership.