Stand-up comedian Jeeveshu Ahluwalia gets chatty with Shana Maria Verghis about bad women drivers and overenthusiastic environmentalists
After having spent the previous day, a Sunday, at a party in honour of a 22-year-old with autism, Jeeveshu Ahluwalia got home in the wee hours of the morning. Sleep passed him by, so he wrote stand-up comedy material for a few hours. Then spent the rest of the time structuring it.
So when we called, he woke groggy from sleep, saying, “I went to bed at 9 am,” in a very grim voice.
He’s kind of used to this because he worked at a call centre, till he resigned his post as director to become a full time comedian. “I wanted to do something else for about six years. But each time I would check myself — ‘Oh no, what will people thinkIJ’ Or ‘What will my bank balance look likeIJ’”
Finally he gave up all plans of planning at all, and went headfirst into stand-up comedy, doing around 20 shows for free. Ahluwalia, who is one of the acts at Cooper’s Grill and Bar on May 15 reminisced, “I took 16 years to make a place for myself when I had the previous job. And then I did I threw it up. I haven’t been getting much in terms of money, and I don’t know how long this will be sustainable, but I’ve had a much larger variety of experiences within six weeks as a stand up comedian.”
A friend of a friend had asked him to attend the autistic youngster’s birthday party. It wasn’t for a show, but Ahluwalia was interested in what special needs kids do.
He shared, “Akansha (whose birthday it was), was so clean and direct. She showed me her blackberry and said, ‘See it, but don’t touch it.’ I liked her directness. She couldn’t understand jokes. Instead we had a conversation. I told her how I usually am with my mother, which usually appears in my material, and she could identify with that. Maybe I’ll do something with this later for my show.”
The interaction with Akansha is been one of the more unconventional aspects of being a stand up. He was also invited to Karnal to preside at a farming and agricultural products convention. So did he make a lot of jokes about tools and vermicompostIJ “The audience was used to scripted material and slapstick humour. So I was met with dead silence. But the organiser’s kids were educated in Boston and could identify with what I had to say. They invited me to one of those huge, palatial houses, which has a fleet of cars. And that was where the stand-up actually occurred.”
He explained, “I usually do comedy based on observations. So I have to pay attention to what’s going on, and then I get ideas. Whether its about your mother nagging you over what you want to eat, or playing with words like ‘Sirf ek baar tumhara khoon karoonga! Ek baar...IJ’”
Cooper’s is apparently going to make comedy a monthly fixture, so they’ve got three guys this time, who between them will be talking about latest trends, having a Bengali president and plenty more.
Jeeveshu lately joined a woman’s car rally. “They’re not only hot. But they drive badly,” quipped Ahluwalia about the fairer and according to him sucks-behind-the-wheel-sex.
He added, “They’ll poison me for saying this, and throw me out at the U-turn! Yes, I’m an MC Pig-out.” He’s got several yarns concerning a woman he sat beside during he rally. Her name was Anjali Kumar Raheja. “We were supposed to go left at a T-point and she stood at a chauraha and insisted it was a T-point...” and the narrative goes on to include bikers and store owners being asked for directions. On another occasion, stated Jeeveshu, “I was with an environmentalist beside a sugarcane field. She was particular I didn’t pollute the water by throwing stuff in. My thought was, ‘a man is peeing into it!’” If you want to hear more from the bloke in person, catch your seat at the show.
(Sunday was World laughter Day)