Sunday was a total laugh riot for the people of Coimbatore, set up in a cosy ambience at V’s cafe sat two comical characters that looked nothing less than a Laurel and Hardy combo who left no stone unturned to rib tickle every single funny bone of their audience.
The event Tailor Comedy, Season 2 brought in and managed by The Tailorbirds was a breakthrough entertainment concept for the city. Harsh Lalka the owner of The Tailorbirds said “my event company aims at bringing new age concepts of entertainment in Coimbatore and our aim is to not earn money but to elevate the status of the city’s way of having a good time and what gets better than stand up comedy”.
The two stand up comedians, shunky Chugani and Aamer Peeran were a surprise to the audience, unlike most comedians coming from the North they were from our State Tamil Nadu, and one of them was born and brought in Conoor and lived his prime years in Coimbatore.
Why did you want to do a stand-up comedy in Coimbatore?
Shunky: I have an extremely close connection with Coimbatore, I was born and brought up in Conoor and I made many visits to Coimbatore, infact I studied in Hindustan College of Arts and Science, I was a dance instructor at Step Up Academy and later shifted to Bangalore for work, so coming to Coimbatore was like coming back to where I ever started from.
Aamer: I am actually from Saudi, my mother is a Pakistani and my father is from Tamil Nadu, so I lived a lot my years in Chennai, and somehow we had a strong feeling that Coimbatore would respond well to stand up comedy because Chennai did too, and who doesn’t want to laugh.
So do you understand Tamil?
Shunky: I can understand but I can’t speak much.
Aamer: Well most of my jokes are on the fact on how I can’t understand Tamil and when I try interpreting it I go completely wrong and when I speak I get bashed for saying the wrong thing (chuckles).
How is it to be a stand up comedian in India?
Shunky: It’s not very easy I would say, but for now I feel most of the metro cities have accepted personal jokes on their community, upbringing, tastes and likes. Even Though we still have a long way to go, we have made it to more than 35- 40 regular shows a month apart from event and corporate shows.
Aamer: Well I come from Saudi Arabia, where cracking a communal joke is blasphemous, so to me India is very tolerant and sportive. Though I was once attacked in Bangalore about a year back for cracking a communal joke.
So how did you realize you wanted to take up such an unconventional profession?
Shunky: I never aimed at becoming a stand up comedian. I started my career as a dance instructor, it brought out the best in me but I wanted to do more. Hence I shifted to Bangalore where I joined a theatre club called “Jagriti” and from there was no looking back.
Aamer: I don’t know how I even started with being a stand up comedian, I had a lot to say about myself, my background, the diverse combinations I was living and when I would narrate to people they would find it funny .....So why not just make them laugh.
They say comedy is born out of someone else’s tragedy who is your victim?
Collectively answered - Well we are our own victim. People enjoy comedy when they can relate to the person, so on stage we are the live proof of the incident we narrate, so rather than victimizing an x person, we share our instances, our tragedies, our views and that makes it a show.
So we would say our comedy is based on our own tragedy.