Why stand-up comedy is not so popular in Bangladesh

-

 




I hope in this age of social media everyone knows what stand-up comedy is. But for those who don't have any idea about “Stand-up Comedy”, it's basically an art form where a person stands/sits in front of you and tells jokes to you so that you can laugh and enjoy your time. If you are thinking that it’s an easy job, I am telling you, dude, it’s not an easy job. In fact, it is one of the hardest art form in my opinion cause everything is live and it’s happening in front of you, anything can go wrong. And it’s not easy to make people laugh. At this time, stand-up comedy is very popular around the world. Many countries have a huge market in this field such as the US, India, Canada, Australia and so on...For example, in India stand-up comedy started getting popular in 2009 which wasn’t long ago. Vir Das, who is one of the best stand-up comedian right now in the world, came back from the US and started a show called Weirdass Comedy where he made a platform for newcomers called “Hamateur Night”. It was like a golden opportunity for the amateur. It basically works like this, the first day they give two minutes of time to everyone who wants to perform then they give five minutes to the champion(it’s measured by how many laughs he/she gets) on the next day. Some of the big comedians like Tanmay Bhat, Nishant Tanwar, Rohan Joshi, Ashish Shakya and many more gain popularity from there. Right now India has one of the great stand-up scenes in the whole world. If you want to know more about the history of Indian stand-up comedy then I suggest you to watch a documentary called “I am Offended” by BeingIndia. I will put the link at the bottom. Ok, back to our country, Why is stand-up comedy not so popular in our country? What is the reason? Yes, You can say that there are two or three comedy clubs in Dhaka as well as two or three good stand-up comedians. But you can’t say Stand-up comedy is a popular thing in our country. So, why? It’s not mean that we are not humorous as a people. We had great humorous writers like Syed Mujtaba Ali, Rajshekhar Basu, Shibram Chakraborty and more. So, What actually is the problem? Well, there are lots of reasons in my opinion. Firstly, the infrastructure. As I mentioned before in our country we don’t have lots of clubs and communities. Recently I asked about this problem to Naveed Mahbub who is one of the senior and well-known stand-up comedian from our country. He said that they are trying their best, he founded the Naveed Comedy club ten years ago and they are happy to give slots for the open mic to a newcomer. Comedy clubs play a vital role here. It creates a platform for the newcomers. The Habitat and Canvas Laugh Club are great examples from India. Secondly, We the people. Still, we are so conservative. You can’t do a joke about ‘Sex’, you can’t do a joke about ‘Religion’, in our country people get easily offended. You have to stay away from all kinds of sensitive topics. For a good comedian, it’s very hard to censor all of those good but sensitive jokes. There is always a limitation, which is the big enemy for good comedy. Finally, freedom of speech. We live in a democratic country without freedom of speech. You can’t crack jokes on our government. You can’t make jokes on our prime minister, minister or any of our ruling party politicians. If you dare to do so then they have a Digital Security Act. Comedians need the full freedom of their jokes. You should be allowed to do jokes on anything or anyone. Anything means anything, like religion,sex,politics,government e.t.c. India has great political stand-up comedians like Varun Grover, Kunal Kamra, Sanjay Rajoura, Vir das and many more. They can do jokes on their government or on their prime minister. Though right now Indian democracy is not in a good hand at least they have freedom of speech which we don’t. In conclusion, we don’t have an ideal environment for stand-up comedy.

So, what can we do? If anyone is interested in comedy, if anyone wants to do stand-up comedy so what steps they should follow? Well, a few days ago I had a little chat with Mohit Morani on this topic. Mohit Morani is a renowned stand-up comedian from India. I asked him that for anyone who wants to start comedy in a country like ours which doesn't have so many comedy clubs, what is the best way? Then he told me, “Save some money and purchase a speaker and a microphone, Get in touch with restaurants or cafes and start curating open mics where new comedians will come and try out their material, Don’t wait for anyone else to start the scene”.

P.S:- It’s all my personal views so please don’t quote anything from it. PEACE.


"I am offended"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

আমাদের সমাজব্যবস্হা বা মডার্ন নেক্রপলিস

-
Image
'Decay of Society' by Michael DeBonis আমাদের দেশের সমাজব্যবস্হা খুবই অদ্ভুত ধরনের। জানি এটি নতুন কোনো কথা না তারপরও বললাম। সবচেয়ে অবাক লাগে এটা ভেবে যে এখানে মানুষ নিজেদের বর্তমান পরিস্থিতিতেই খুশি থাকে বেশি। বিশেষকরে এদেশের মধ্যবিত্ত শ্রেণি। আমার তো মনে হয় এদেশের বেশিরভাগ মধ্যবিত্ত এটাই জানে না যে তারা মধ্যবিত্ত। এই শ্রেণি খুবই জটিল ভাবে সুপিরিয়রিটি কমপ্লেক্স আর ইনফেরিওরিটি কমপ্লেক্স এর মাঝামাঝি অবস্থান করছে। তারা সমাজের উচ্চবিত্ত শ্রেণিকে ভয়ানক ভাবে অনুকরণ করে ঠিকই, তবে ওদের মতো হওয়ার যে খিদে,আকাঙ্ক্ষা বা স্বপ্ন, এসব মধ্যবিত্ত শ্রেণিকে ভীত করে তোলে। আর নিজেদের চেয়ে নিচু অবস্থান এ যারা রয়েছে অর্থাৎ নিম্নবিত্ত শ্রেণির সাথে এরা অদ্ভুত ভাবে আচরন করে। তাদের জন্য পূর্নসমবেদনার তো কোন অভাব নেই( এদেশের বর্তমান বেশিরভাগ মধ্যবিত্তই কিন্তু এই নিম্নবিত্ত শ্রেণি থেকেই প্রমোশন পাওয়া, নিজেদের অতীতের কথা চিন্তা করেই হয়তো নিম্নবিত্তদের প্রতি সমবেদনা একটু বেশিই) আবার তাদের সামনে নিজেদের 'বড়লোক' দের কাছ থেকে অনুকরণ করা জীবন যাপন 'শো অফ' করতে বড়ই ভালোবাসে। নিজেদের কম্পফোর্ট জোনের
Read more

The Crow Society

-
Image
  A long time ago, a baby crow was born in a crow family. Daddy Crow and Mama Crow both were very happy. The crow cub looked like all other crows, but his temperament was a bit different. Full of curiosity, he always used to ask questions to his parents about a lot of things. His parents were also very upset by this nature. And that's how he gradually grew up in a crow society. He grew up watching society with curious eyes. He gradually became acquainted with the rules of society. And at one point he had started his studies. In the crow society, education is given the most importance, that’s why crows are the most intelligent among the birds. He also continued his studies according to the rules of society. But he was not very good at education. He was lagging behind his classmates. Due to this, his parents were so upset. They put more pressure on him in his studies, because if he is not able to get a good result in his exams, he will not be able to get recognition in crow society.
Read more

My submission for The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition 2021

-
Image
  It was my submission for the recent commonwealth essay competition. My subject was: It’s been 30 years since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, what does the world look like.  Here is my essay: Today is 3rd June 2052. It’s been almost 30 years since the Covid-19 pandemic ended. A lot of people around the world get vaccinated at the end of 2022. And then the pandemic comes under control. But before that, we had a great loss. Millions of people died around the world. Almost half of the world population got the covid-19 positive. Millions of people losses their job, their family, their home. In fact, today also the world economy suffers from this pandemic. Now it’s not mandatory for wearing a mask.  But those who were very small in that pandemic time, still wear a mask when they go out. I think it’s their childhood habit. People don’t have to do social distancing anymore. But people get confused when they see a crowd. They start to keep their distance from one another by own. The story o
Read more