Of girls and guffawing gigs

CHENNAI:  Did you know that in Chennai, women must pay GST for their rides at night?” This opening line in Shakti Shanmitha’s stand-up comedy act at the Madras Comedy ‘Gal’atta at Backyard on Sunday drew numerous gasps, applauses, and giggles from the audience. “Girls Safety Tax, also known as GST, is a typical practice in Chennai for the auto drivers to securely drop girls at their destination,” mentioned Shakti while talking about the difficulties she faced while commuting at night. It was this quirky, relatable and intriguing humour that Madras Comedy Circuit, a newly formed comedy club, delivered to the audience.

To add a new perspective to stand-up comedy, the club made it an all-women performance where the stage was lit with stories of being a full-time corporate employee balancing comedy, a daughter, a wife, a daughter-in-law and a mother. Barathi Sukumar, an IT employee and mother-of-two who ventured into stand-up comedy ten months ago, calls herself ‘Mommysoda’, inspired by the iconic Vadivelu character,

‘Bodysoda’. Mommysoda’s daily battle with her kids and her experience of work-from-home during the pandemic was a simple and sweet act that welcomed all kinds of audiences. “As a mother, I want my kids to watch my show and laugh at my jokes. So I would often keep it light and try to avoid adult jokes. It is also important for them to get exposure in this field from a very young age,” shared Barathi. 

Laughs from the north
While most of the performers were from Chennai and performed in Tamil, Natasha Rastogi from Uttar Pradesh became a delight to the Hindi audience and performed in Hindi and English. “To survive in Chennai as a comedian, I converted myself to an English comedian. If there are more Hindi speakers in the show, then I would happily switch to my Hindi. It is relatively difficult to tell jokes in another language, but slowly I am learning to do that and the people here will get an idea through my experiences about what it is like to live in another state,” expressed Natasha, an IT employee. 

Every performer had a strong will in delivering their act. For some, it was the feeling of making the audience happy, for others it was delivering their traumas through comedy. For Prathima Narang, a chartered accountant, it was about being able to express herself without any fear. “As a girl raised in a Sindhi family in Chennai, speaking about a lot of things like sexuality or dating are taboo. As a writer, I felt like I have the power to change that and talk about anything, be it my personal life or my family’s quirkiness,” she said. Her opinions on coronavirus and her own family’s political bias were insightful and amusing. Praveshika Kumar also followed the same path, and expressed stories of bullying and fat-shaming she faced as a child, with poignancy and likeability. 

Madras Comedy Circuit aspires to connect with more budding talents in the future and conduct a show per week. “After the pandemic, live stand-up comedy and open-mics took a back seat. Slowly, the industry is reviving. Our club is just two months old and now has approximately 40 members. We aim to create a community where not only the popular comedians but anyone can perform without any inhibition,” said Guna Shelan, a comedian and member of Madras Comedy Circuit.

Follow Madras Comedy Circuit @madras_comedy_circuit on Instagram for more updates.