This appeared on GQIndia.com in August '11.
If you haven't been keeping up with news from Capitol Hill, get this. Exceptional performance by people of Indian origin in the White House from the Director of Social Innovation to the Intergovernmental Affairs seems to have persuaded Mr. Obama to engage Indian stand-up comics in special White House events. In an upcoming reception, seven Indian comics are scheduled to perform.
OK, I made that up but it can easily happen. There's been an explosion of ethnic comics in the US in the past decade and at the forefront of this trend are South Asian Americans.
When my non-Indian (Filipino and South Korean, to be precise) colleagues started throwing around jokes by Russell Peters and Aziz Ansari and made me the target, unabashedly so, I knew I had to do a deep dive and get ahead in the game. Looking for Filipino and South Korean comedians sounded like too much work so I went the Indian comedian route and voilà, was I in for a treat. Not only did I stumble upon humor that made me laugh so hard my neighbors came knocking, but it was more universal than I'd imagined and gave me plenty of fodder for payback.
I caught up with one such comic in LA. Declared by Russell Peters as one of the only two U.S. based Indian "comics to watch," Rajiv Satyal, of FunnyIndian.com, is the small, bespectacled Indian guy from Ohio whose witty and TV-clean act covers everything from racial (not racist, as he graciously clarifies) issues to soap bottles to his favorite topic - himself. He has repeatedly performed in sold-out shows across the U.S. and from Switzerland to Oman to India. Ethnic humor, he claims, has been evolving at a rapid pace, but South Asians in this country are not running out of material. He confirms that every Indian comedian worth his salt isn’t restricted to doing ethnic humor – quite a few are humorists who happen to be ethnic.
Indians in the US have long been on the receiving end of jokes but the tide seems to have turned now. You can spot them being comfortably on the giving end of jokes as well. From Aziz Ansari to Arj Barker and several in between, the comedy space is quickly getting filled with some zest.
They’re funny, a tad irreverent, their accents are impeccable and their observations about events in general and ethnic groups in particular qualify them as equal opportunity comics. Rajiv says a lot of South Asians are not only funny, they’re also broadly appealing - brown fits snugly between black and white and they appear to seamlessly bridge the gap between the Caucasian majority and the colored minorities.
For all those who want to be funny in real life, he points out that not many women care to be around a joker perpetually. But try to get out of your comfort zone and put an entertaining spin to your observations and opinions and you might just get women flocking to you.
Here is a link to the article on GQIndia.com
http://www.gqindia.com/content/last-laugh
If you haven't been keeping up with news from Capitol Hill, get this. Exceptional performance by people of Indian origin in the White House from the Director of Social Innovation to the Intergovernmental Affairs seems to have persuaded Mr. Obama to engage Indian stand-up comics in special White House events. In an upcoming reception, seven Indian comics are scheduled to perform.
OK, I made that up but it can easily happen. There's been an explosion of ethnic comics in the US in the past decade and at the forefront of this trend are South Asian Americans.
When my non-Indian (Filipino and South Korean, to be precise) colleagues started throwing around jokes by Russell Peters and Aziz Ansari and made me the target, unabashedly so, I knew I had to do a deep dive and get ahead in the game. Looking for Filipino and South Korean comedians sounded like too much work so I went the Indian comedian route and voilà, was I in for a treat. Not only did I stumble upon humor that made me laugh so hard my neighbors came knocking, but it was more universal than I'd imagined and gave me plenty of fodder for payback.
I caught up with one such comic in LA. Declared by Russell Peters as one of the only two U.S. based Indian "comics to watch," Rajiv Satyal, of FunnyIndian.com, is the small, bespectacled Indian guy from Ohio whose witty and TV-clean act covers everything from racial (not racist, as he graciously clarifies) issues to soap bottles to his favorite topic - himself. He has repeatedly performed in sold-out shows across the U.S. and from Switzerland to Oman to India. Ethnic humor, he claims, has been evolving at a rapid pace, but South Asians in this country are not running out of material. He confirms that every Indian comedian worth his salt isn’t restricted to doing ethnic humor – quite a few are humorists who happen to be ethnic.
Indians in the US have long been on the receiving end of jokes but the tide seems to have turned now. You can spot them being comfortably on the giving end of jokes as well. From Aziz Ansari to Arj Barker and several in between, the comedy space is quickly getting filled with some zest.
They’re funny, a tad irreverent, their accents are impeccable and their observations about events in general and ethnic groups in particular qualify them as equal opportunity comics. Rajiv says a lot of South Asians are not only funny, they’re also broadly appealing - brown fits snugly between black and white and they appear to seamlessly bridge the gap between the Caucasian majority and the colored minorities.
For all those who want to be funny in real life, he points out that not many women care to be around a joker perpetually. But try to get out of your comfort zone and put an entertaining spin to your observations and opinions and you might just get women flocking to you.
Here is a link to the article on GQIndia.com
http://www.gqindia.com/content/last-laugh
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