BENGALURU: While the pandemic spelt bad news for most, a bunch of artistes have been working on getting people to let their hair down and enjoy a couple of LOL moments. ‘Standup Shorts,’ an episode featuring comedians, including Aadar Malik, Ramya Ramapriya, and Shreeja Chaturvedi, has just released on Amazon Prime. As all eyes are on the comedians who are given a 15-minute slot to perform and impress the audience, Shankar Chugani, a Bengaluru-based stand-up comic who is onboard, has something different to offer.
Although creating humour around the work-from-home culture and fashionable masks is a sitter, Chugani has deviated from these kind of concepts. “I do not want to create humour around the pandemic or the new normal. This is because I want to share stories inspired from my personal events. Talking about the pandemic will be a cause of concern and I do not want people to remember the fear of the virus. Creating humour minus pandemic jokes makes me comfortable,” says Chugani, who was also part of another show called ‘Comicstaan’.
According to Chugani, the plan for ‘Stand Up Shorts’ was developed, before the pandemic, in 2019, however, the shooting for the episode started only in March 2021. Thanks to the lockdown and travel restrictions, plans got pushed. However, Chugani kept himself busy by doing what he does best - making people laugh. “I had to stay in tune with the stand-up performances. Months without any shows made my mind weak.
As a group, my friends and I gathered at some of the tourist spots in Coonoor and performed short plays. I also got an opportunity to sneak in some humour. Sometimes I called my friends and requested them to listen to my jokes,” says Chugani, who is now doing open mics and live stand-up shows called ‘Better Halves’, with fellow artiste Kjeld Sreshth.
Speaking about the new experiment of performing for 15 minutes for ‘Stand Up Shorts’, Chugani says, “It was an exciting experience to comfortably place humour in a crisp format. I was familiar with the format and I hardly thought about the time span. I was very nervous ahead of its release. My anxiety stemmed from the fact that the lockdown had already delayed a lot of production works,” says Chugani, who feels that lack of a live audience these days is a cause of concern for stand-up shows.