Posted by: LemmeTelU February 12, 2009
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Being a great fan of Carlin and his style of comedy in general, I was really happy to see all valuable insights from some of Sajha's great minds. I felt like pouring some of my thoughts about this very American form of performing art in context of our culture.
Stand up comedy is probably one of the most difficult form of performance art. When I first discovered that people actually go on the stage with nothing but a mike and make the whole audience crying with laughter, I thought that is just amazing.
Virtuoso comedians like George Carlin make the act look very natural and easy. But, in their interviews and books, they tell about how hard they work in their bits and how they hone their material up performing in small clubs and touring all over the country and selecting the bits that worked and finally presenting in front of large audience or in HBO. We generally get to see the recording of the one of those big shows or the HBO telecast. So, all great comedians put years of hard work before they become famous and there a lot of comedians who never make it.
So, the point I am trying to make here is that American culture of night clubs, small performance spaces and love for the live performance provides a great venue for aspiring comedians to try out their luck. We don't have that in Nepal. I think this equally applies to other areas of performing art as well.
I agree with DWI that stand up doesn't have to be a copy. Actually I think it can not be a copy. An artform like stand up which is so dependent on the subtlity of the language, it would be impossible to translate effectivity of the jokes. Though we don't have as rich pool of the material as the western culture (religion, politics, racism, dating, ethinicity) but that's what the good comedians do. If there is talent I think there are enough idiosyncrasies in our society as well.
At last I just want to add, Jai Bundhi is my the most favorite nepali literature ever... Bhairav Aryal was a true genius.. If he had gotten chance to perform, we would have had our Carlin way before U.S. did.
I gotta go.. but keep up the discussion..
Stand up comedy is probably one of the most difficult form of performance art. When I first discovered that people actually go on the stage with nothing but a mike and make the whole audience crying with laughter, I thought that is just amazing.
Virtuoso comedians like George Carlin make the act look very natural and easy. But, in their interviews and books, they tell about how hard they work in their bits and how they hone their material up performing in small clubs and touring all over the country and selecting the bits that worked and finally presenting in front of large audience or in HBO. We generally get to see the recording of the one of those big shows or the HBO telecast. So, all great comedians put years of hard work before they become famous and there a lot of comedians who never make it.
So, the point I am trying to make here is that American culture of night clubs, small performance spaces and love for the live performance provides a great venue for aspiring comedians to try out their luck. We don't have that in Nepal. I think this equally applies to other areas of performing art as well.
I agree with DWI that stand up doesn't have to be a copy. Actually I think it can not be a copy. An artform like stand up which is so dependent on the subtlity of the language, it would be impossible to translate effectivity of the jokes. Though we don't have as rich pool of the material as the western culture (religion, politics, racism, dating, ethinicity) but that's what the good comedians do. If there is talent I think there are enough idiosyncrasies in our society as well.
At last I just want to add, Jai Bundhi is my the most favorite nepali literature ever... Bhairav Aryal was a true genius.. If he had gotten chance to perform, we would have had our Carlin way before U.S. did.
I gotta go.. but keep up the discussion..