Caught in the 'Conspiracy' to Provoke Laughter

146 cocktails and the hilarious BBC gang got people high on gags
Caught in the 'Conspiracy' to Provoke Laughter

CHENNAI: The only sensible thing that Kim Kardashian has done is to name her child North West’. Funny? Also try this. ‘I feel like Rahul Gandhi when I go on a date, not much experience and always for women empowerment.’

Four acts to laugh at in 90 minutes. The stand-up comedy group, Burma Bazaar Conspiracy (BBC) had four people — Ashwin Kumar from Britain, ‘mallu’ Suraj Sethu, Deepu Dilipan from Chennai and Aamer Peeran from  Saudi Arabia — taking the small stage one after the other at Bay 146, Hotel Savera,  for the first time in the city last week. While there was pertinent cackling from the audience after every joke, like in any romcom on TV, they did not split their sides. No one convulsed with laughter.

Suraj, the first to go on stage, stood loyal to his ‘mallu’ roots, not mincing his words while ridiculing the ‘culture of celebrating death’ here in comparison to the silent and mournful one in Kerala. “I would drag my way out of the hospital in a wheelchair and cross borders if need be. I don’t want to die here!” he said in a serious tone. It worked for the audience. So did his comment on KFC staffs’ badge-heavy attire. “What are those medals for? Are they fighting a war — a war between chicken and humans?” he said, again with a face that would give Clooney a complex. Roars ensued.

What followed was a series of lowbrow jokes and anything that falls within the radius of adult humour. A few cringed, while others said ‘bring it on!’ Each act followed a 10-minute break where bottles were uncorked and starters munched on. The atmosphere always lightened up a little extra with each act. Deepu, the next on stage, burnt his bridges with this one — “Getting stoned can kill me only in Afghanistan.” Ouch. Followed by a few others, which the conservatives  would call blasphemous. The intoxication was a saviour in those times.

Aamer, give it to his uber-liberal outlook, took a dig at his own religion before passing on the mike to Ashwin, who was clearly the most proficient among the lot.

Having performed in Broadway among other stages, his eloquent and innately hilarious demeanour had the audience cackling. Switching between heavy Indian and Britain accent with ease, he showed how certain words can imply something outrageously funny when pronounced differently. That wasn’t it. He knit random words thrown at him by the audience to do a freestyle rap, right there.

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