Big Banyan Wines and Kingfisher recently held 'Punchline', Bangalore's first stand-up comedy contest, which took place at Alliance Francaise. Conceived by veteran comedian, Ajit Saldanha and entrepreneur Arun Nair, the programme was held with the intent of promoting the art of stand-up comedy, while creating a platform for new and upcoming talent.
"Stand-up comedy exposes a bit more of your soul than other soul-searching experiences, that are done in privacy. It's a very demanding art form because it requires tremendous talent, good memory, great delivery skills and a sprinkle of lunacy to go and do stand up," explains Ajit, who was pleasantly surprised by the quality of most participants.
"It shows that they've taken time and effort to prepare their act. Even the audience was warm and receptive. This is the only way that Indian comedians will come of age — they need this initiation ceremony to get their act together," he adds.
Open to people aged between 18 and 80, the event saw jokes on current themes like women's rights, Mayans and Delhi men, while the usual topics like politics, religion, sexuality, pornography and gay rights were brought up as expected.
A total of 21 participants (only two were women) were given five minutes each at an open-mic session during the preliminaries, from which the top eight were shortlisted. They performed longer sets in the finals and the panel, consisting of Ajit Saldanha, Sundeep Rao and Praveen Kumar, selected the funny Punjabi boy, Kanan Gill as the winner.
Kanan managed to amuse the crowd with his jokes on the pointless things girls obsess over and the futility of Facebook. The young comedian was on cloud nine after the show. "I've never won anything and I've only been doing this for a month, which makes this really awesome!" smiles Kanan. How does he plan out his routines?
"I just keep in mind the topics I want to talk about. I don't rehearse it down to the line," he confesses.
The audience seemed to be fairly entertained throughout, though a few instances of jeering and heckling were seen. This was probably because while some acts were spontaneous and original, others were slightly dull or outright rip-offs from other comedians.
"It's a good platform and it's nice that comedians are getting to express themselves. But some of them made me want to cry, or perhaps, die," notes Shantanu, an audience member. "It's encouraging to see people using this as a chance to make people laugh, by being laughed at," he adds.
"Stand-up comedy exposes a bit more of your soul than other soul-searching experiences, that are done in privacy. It's a very demanding art form because it requires tremendous talent, good memory, great delivery skills and a sprinkle of lunacy to go and do stand up," explains Ajit, who was pleasantly surprised by the quality of most participants.
"It shows that they've taken time and effort to prepare their act. Even the audience was warm and receptive. This is the only way that Indian comedians will come of age — they need this initiation ceremony to get their act together," he adds.
Open to people aged between 18 and 80, the event saw jokes on current themes like women's rights, Mayans and Delhi men, while the usual topics like politics, religion, sexuality, pornography and gay rights were brought up as expected.
A total of 21 participants (only two were women) were given five minutes each at an open-mic session during the preliminaries, from which the top eight were shortlisted. They performed longer sets in the finals and the panel, consisting of Ajit Saldanha, Sundeep Rao and Praveen Kumar, selected the funny Punjabi boy, Kanan Gill as the winner.
Kanan managed to amuse the crowd with his jokes on the pointless things girls obsess over and the futility of Facebook. The young comedian was on cloud nine after the show. "I've never won anything and I've only been doing this for a month, which makes this really awesome!" smiles Kanan. How does he plan out his routines?
"I just keep in mind the topics I want to talk about. I don't rehearse it down to the line," he confesses.
The audience seemed to be fairly entertained throughout, though a few instances of jeering and heckling were seen. This was probably because while some acts were spontaneous and original, others were slightly dull or outright rip-offs from other comedians.
"It's a good platform and it's nice that comedians are getting to express themselves. But some of them made me want to cry, or perhaps, die," notes Shantanu, an audience member. "It's encouraging to see people using this as a chance to make people laugh, by being laughed at," he adds.