Month: January 2014

Writing Stand Up Comedy on the Art World

| Jenny Bhatt

I’m writing a stand up comedy gig about the art world. Very gleefully, since I’m getting this one chance to make fun of the insane art world and it’s workings as I have known it for the past 18 years. Am enjoying it very much too, since I’ll be voicing a lot of stuff that other artists want to say but can’t or won’t. I think I’ll end up stepping on toes and offending some people with the truth, but what the hell! Artsy toes are fragile and crunchy, like dried leaves…always fun to jump on!

I’m writing it the way I’ve written my previous gigs, though I think that this audience is probably the most appropriate I’ve had so far. On the commercial stand up comedy circuit in India, the humor is often immature, crass and labored as most comics are in their twenties and are still finding themselves, let alone their sense of humor! It’s a very young scene and they seem to have found a formula for what kind of jokes ‘work’, whatever that means. They’re very good at spinning money out of it though. For the audiences, its all too new and they will pay for bad comedy until somebody shows them better. Or they will continue to watch and pay for bad comedy as they do for the stuff on tv.

I figured my humor has more of a niche audience and so I may as well perform only at spaces where I get that kind of an audience rather than dumb it down.

Either ways, I’m happy to be doing this on a sunday evening. Better than getting out on a cold windy day when friends are too busy with work too. Always happy to be overworked than underworked and stressed because of it!!!