Humour in the house

BENGALURU:  Socially and emotionally embarrassing issues, health matters that men often avoid talking about…All of these and more will be brought alive in Gentlemen, a theatrical play comprising a series of comedy sketches. This also marks the comeback of actor-comedian Ashvin Mathew after a hiatus of five years.

Written by dermatologist Dr Anil Abraham, Gentlemen has had many runs over the years. This time around, the play features the usual trio of actor Ajith Hande, Abraham himself and Mathew, while comedian-actor Shraddha Jain (popularly known as Aiyyo Shraddha) joins the crew for the first time. “My character was originally written as a person from Andhra Pradesh. When I tried to do it with a Malayali accent, everyone was keeling over with laughter. So, Anil [Abraham] decided to keep the accent and just rewrote the script with Malayali specific jokes,” shares Mathew.

While Mathew garnered wider recognition for his role as Father Vincent in the Sridevi-starrer English Vinglish, he was a well-regarded comic in the city way before that, having held his first public show in the city in 2005. Mathew got his start in comedy quite accidently, while studying in Sydney, Australia. “I was selling roof insulations part-time and my boss used to DJ on the weekends. This one time he got so  drunk that halfway through the gig, he looked at me and said, ‘Take over Ash’ and then keeled over,” he shares.

“I just made an announcement saying, ‘As part of the show, we’re doing a comedy sketch’ and the audience stared at me for the longest time. I then started to crack progressively racist jokes, which finally got them laughing. That was the first time I ever tried stand-up on stage.”

The comedian-turned-actor has donned many hats over the years, including turning director for Kannada film, 3Devi. However, he objects to the label comedian-turned-actor, saying that he was an actor first, who happened to try his hand at stand-up comedy. Nevertheless, he feels that his comic roots certainly helped him in other ventures. “I always wanted to direct and write. It was only a matter of whether I was ready. I guess comedy remains the common factor among everything I do. As a comedian, you are always absorbing new things, sort of like a sponge. That helps you as a director and a screenwriter,” he shares.