JOIN USA large crowd of Bangaloreans gathered at The Lalit Ashok recently to watch a stand-up comedy act by Cyrus Broacha.
Host Danish Sait warmed up the audience with his short set, which included jokes on alcohol checks, the City’s auto drivers and even the subject of incest.
Local comedian Praveen Kumar was next, entertaining one and all present with his Rajnikanth jokes, mockery of Indian stereotypes, insults on reality shows and digs at audience members. He laughed at his own belly, saying, “When my wife was pregnant, we looked like twins” and even poked fun at the municipal authorities — “Bangalore’s a lovely city; only it has more speed-breakers than Kannadigas.”
Finally, it was time for the man everyone had been waiting for, who emerged in his news presenter outfit, complete with the white wig. “The news, as read by Arnab Sardesai,” began Cyrus, following which he mocked the Prime Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav and several others in his typical articulate ‘The Week That Wasn’t’ way. He even joked about Anil Kapoor working in a Hollywood film with Tom Cruise, reportedly called ‘Tom and Hairy’.
After this segment, he removed the wig and began his set with Parsi jokes. “We have six Parsis in the audience. That’s about half the community,” he said.
Keeping the show, which was conceptualised by Harshin Shah, interactive, he walked around the crowd, picking out people to read Hindi confessions from sheets given by him in the name of ‘therapy’. Some resisted while others indulged him with witty comebacks.
Having proven that speaking in Hindi is a struggle for most, he moved on to the topic of relationships, prying on private lives for the sake of entertainment.
Yet another segment was an audio-visual presentation showing clippings of interviews he has done with people like Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Bill Clinton and Lalu Prasad Yadav. By the end of the night, it looked like there were many with jaws hurting thanks to the overdose of laughter.
“I’m just glad I didn’t get picked on!” laughed Naveen, an audience member, adding that he was pleasantly surprised that Cyrus was as funny live as he is on television. “It was a very refreshing evening with relatable humour. Plus, it’s always nice to have witty jokes on current affairs,” he added.
Jyoti, another attendee, said, “I had a great time being here. The opening act was
hilarious and I loved Cyrus’s energy and anecdotes with famous people. The subjects that he joked about were very easy to follow.”