Gales of laughter

The audiences were in tears — of joy of course, as UK-based Indian comedian Anil Desai took the stage to entertain one and all. The event, presented by Daniel Hechter, was called LOL! Comedy Nights.

As part of a four-city tour, the stand-up comedian also performed in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. The evening proved to be an European twist to desi comedy as there was a melange of the East and the West.

Popularly known as Rajesh, the Bollywood lounge singer and even Candice, the fluffer girl, Anil was most recently referred to as the Stand Up Chameleon.

He has performed in many places like Slovenia, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney, and is well-known for his impressions of popular personalities.

Name any international star, and he can imitate them with ease. And he proved the same that evening as well.

He started the evening with a bang by retorting, “So it’s a Saturday night!” It was a joke of course as it was a weekday evening. He quickly added, “It’s Saturday night in my head as I know people don’t like to laugh on Mondays.” He warned the spectators, “Get ready to laugh or stare at me till I cry.”

Speaking about Bangalore, he said, “I am coming back after 25 years and you guys have done some serious development.”

A joke about Indians was the fact that they love to “fly in some stand-up comedians and even go to see their show but not laugh”. This had the audiences roaring with laughter.

Another joke on India was: “Everyone in India has a moustache. I have counted 3500 men and 7000 women so far!”

Moving on to the impressions, he was fantastic in impersonating stars like Johnny Depp (his Pirates Of The Caribbean avatar), Bill Cosby, Sean Connery and even television characters like Homer Simpson (from The Simpsons) and Ross (from Friends). “If When Harry Met Sally was made in India, it would be called When Harry’s Parents Met Sally’s Parents,” he gushed. His digs at Nelson Mandela and Tom Cruise were appreciated too when he said, “Remember Tom, when you used to have millions of fans? That was before you started jumping on couches (an obvious reference to incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show).”

Anil proved that he is a “pure comic genius” as described by many critics when he did over 50 impressions in a span of a few minutes. Be it Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro or Afro-American actors like Samuel L Jackson and Eddie Murphy, he was just brilliant. “His impressions were simply fantastic. He was just unbelievable,” said one of the guests as she roared with laughter.