Pic: Narayan Pissurlenkar
Everybody likes to have a good laugh. After a long tiring day at work, there's nothing quite like crashing in front of the television to watch a light-hearted sitcom or going online to watch a comedy show. But in recent years, Goans have had a lot of chances to witness plenty of comedy shows live on stage. In fact the best of stand up comedians in the country have been making their way to Goan shores to give Goans plenty to laugh about.
With the aim of keeping this humour fest going strong in the state, Anoop Allen and Clarence Henriques as part of their new events venture Jack of Events (JoE) are all set to launch Comedy Shack.“Getting into events was something that had always been on my mind. I wanted to look into different forms of entertainment which were not much explored in Goa and stand up comedy was right up there,” says Henriques, who got together with Allen and founded JoE in 2007. “On an average most of us would enjoy watching a stand up comedian performing at the end of your week. It can be a real stress buster. And while stand up shows do happen here, it is still at a lower frequency as compared to cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune,” states Henriques. Thus the duo decided to start Comedy Shack which will be formally launched on September 10, with their first show featuring popular stand up comedian Sorabh Pant.
“The plan with Comedy Shack is to create a platform where we can showcase some of the best talent in the country and also find new talent. There is a lot of unknown talent out there and all they need is an avenue to showcase it,” says Allen. Putting up local Goan talent is also on the cards. “I know a few people who would make great stand up comedians. I used to be a lecturer at an engineering college before this and have seen some students performing at an open mic and itwas really enjoyable. I think we all have that one friend who makes us laugh like like crazy with their sense of humour. We just need to motivate them to pen down their material and experiment on stage,” believes Henriques. “I think an act by Goans about our cultures and traditions and the scenes happening here will be a killer.”
But despite the growing popularity, the duo admit that the market here is still apprehensive about investing in this form of art. However, with regards to the issue of people taking offense to some of the jokes cracked on stage, something that quite a few stand up comedians have had to deal with, Henriques believes that this won't be much of a problem here in Goa. “We are a liberal society and know how to chill out and enjoy an evening,” he says, adding that in general people need to realise what is wrong and take criticism with an open mind in order to progress ahead. “We need to learn to just take things in a lighter vein. Freedom of speech can't be blocked.”
