The special evenings are aimed at providing a platform to upcoming talent in the field of comedy, covering all genres, from stand-up to sketch, musical to slap stick.

With around eight amateur stand-up comedians practising their skills on the boisterous crowd, what added to the fun of the evening was Alien Chutney, India’s first comedy rock band who took the stage towards the end of the evening and kept the audience entertained with a new brand of rock music. Among the stand-up comedians, who performed were Arun Ramakrishnan, Rohan Joshi and  Praveen Kumar (who was declared the winner) braving the audience’s cheers and boos in the spirit of the event. The competition was judged by Vir Das, well-known stand-up comedian.

“These performers were shortlisted from a spate of entries and each contestant is only allotted two minutes to show the audience what they are made of. However, the winner of this event will get a longer time slot at the next Ham-ateur night,” says Priyanka Chandrashekar, one of the organisers.

Alien Chutney is the brainchild of well-known stand-up comedian Vir Das, who has teamed up with musician Kaizad Gherda and producer Kabir Singh to create a unique musical genre which has become very popular. Their act combines amusing lyrics and sophisticated music compositions with strong vocals. “Alien Chutney is unadulterated comedy rock which is original. We are not a rip-off band and our repertoire includes elements of swing, jazz and  disco. We also play a combination of blues rock with offbeat lyrics written by me,” avers Vir Das who is also the vocalist of the group.

Alien Chutney played around ten of their own compositions, poking fun at just about any and everything one could think of. The evening ended on a high note, a combination of music laughter and entertainment, all in one package.