HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai: Stand up and laugh for a man, or two

It was a laugh riot at Irish House on Thursday as about 100 people assembled for the day’s stand-up comedy events.

Opening the set was Vaibhav Sethia, who had the crowd in splits with jokes ranging from toilet humour to the gastronomical struggles of those following Jainism.

“For me, paneer dishes are out of the question too, because I can’t eat dairy products. My dinner in restaurants, literally, is fennel seeds,” he said, to a hearty round of applause.

Following him were improv artistes Ankit Challa and Avinash Verma, who staged The Ankit and Avinash Show. Inspired by the popular TV show Who’s Line is it Anyway? the duo invited suggestions of words and situations from the audience to base their spot sketches on.

The highlight of their performance was Challa pretending to wallow in a bathtub and Verma saying, “Haathiyon ke bachhon ko aise nehelate hai, deviyon aur sajjano [This is how baby elephants are bathed, ladies and gentlemen].”

“This is the first time we’re performing the two-man show at KGAF and we’re excited to be here,” Verma said.

The highlight of the show, undoubtedly, was comedian Karunesh C Talwar, a noted comedian in the Mumbai stand-up circle. His high-energy performance had the crowd cheering as he riffed on a range of subjects, from the beef ban to pretentious Indian contestants on MasterChef Australia.

“Exotic cuisine ke naam par bhajiya tal ke de dete, yaar [They trick the judges by feeding them bhajiyas and calling it exotic Indian cuisine, man],” Talwar said.

His most-applauded bit was his sketch on Rakesh Roshan’s film, Koi… Mil Gaya. Talwar ridiculed the alien in the film, Jaadu, and compared it to Hollywood sci-fi hits such as Interstellar and Independence Day.

“I’ve attended stand-up gigs internationally, but this is my first one in India. It was lovely,” said Jagruti Desai, 55, a speech therapist from Worli.

“I really enjoyed Karunesh’s gig. I’ve seen him live before and he’s hilarious,” added Sayali Mahadik, a singer from Thane.

READ MORE

HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai: Six touching stories enacted in an hour

HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai: A feast of first-timers