Deepu Dileepan and Sundeep Bhardwaj met at an open mic in Luxembourg three years ago, where the former was performing. Dileepan admits fearing that Bhardwaj would “steal my jokes”, but instead, they ended up collaborating. Their show, Brown Guys, Grey Skies, comes to Chennai this week as part of their India tour, and while they have vast differences, they bring their shared experience of seeing Europe “from an outside perspective”.
Even in the name, “Grey Skies”, there is a reference to varying cultural perspectives on rain. “People get excited over rain in India,” says Bhardwaj, “But in Europe, it’s the other way around.” Having lived in Luxembourg as people of Indian origin, both of them have some hot takes on mixed love, religion, small talk, politics and, of course, the weather.
No format for funny
The show starts with individual stand-up acts by them, followed by a conversational, interactive segment that incorporates live questions from the audience. Their international audience demographic so far hasn’t necessarily been the diaspora — they say a fair number of the people who attend are native Europeans. So the duo often find themselves doing more than simply providing jokes. Dileepan talks about an incident where an audience member asked them to explain the typical Indian head-nod. But who says educating can’t be humorous? “We told them that Indians can’t make up their minds, so instead, say yes to both,” he recalls.
With their first show in India slated for tonight at Gurgaon, they are looking forward to different perspectives and reactions to their usual sets. Bhardwaj says, “We don’t pander to an audience. We present what we feel, and hope people will laugh.” For Dileepan, the Chennai show is a homecoming of sorts — he was a former member of city-based EvamStandUp Tamasha. While they aren’t taking their repertoire to Bhardwaj’s home town, Vishakhapatnam, they will be performing at Noida, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune as well.
The show, which debuted in Luxembourg in April 2018, has also made its way to 12 countries around Europe, covering cities like Amsterdam, Madrid and Vienna. The duo also performed a sold-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world, in the same year.
Dileepan explains that local comics open shows for them, and perform in the local language. “In fact, we started going on tour through those networks,” he says. The two comics are exploring the option of performing in both French and English next.
Catch Deepu Dileepan and Sundeep Bhardwaj with their show, Brown Guys, Grey Skies, at Backyard, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar. On July 4, from 7.30 pm to 9 pm. Tickets at ₹250 on instamojo.com/@backyard. 7358458117