The advent of stand-up comedy in Bangladesh
by Nazmus Saquib and Sheikh Iraj
When was the last time you laughed your heart out? We, indeed, lead hectic lives and go through many difficulties every day. We hardly get the chance to break out in laughter. We have to deal with nagging traffic jams, rising prices, inefficient services and so on. So, where can we get some respite from it all?
Naveeds Comedy Club can give you that all important relief from all the hustle and bustle that you go through each week. It is the first stand-up comedy club in Bangladesh. Since beginning its journey more than five years ago, the comedy club, under the leadership of founder Naveed Mahbub _ winner of the Best Male Comedian title at the 2007 Las Vegas Comedy Festival _ is still churning out laughs as droll as ever.
The beginning
When Naveed Mahbub was in the USA, he noticed that the people there loved having fun, and they had a passion for stand-up comedy shows. Naveed thought that in a country like Bangladesh, where most people have to endure multifaceted problems in their daily lives, why should they not have a comedy venue to relish jokes for a few hours? Moreover, the people back home love to laugh, too, and whenever they get the chance, they will break out in hearty laughter. Hence, the idea of forming a comedy club came to Naveeds mind. On returning home, he started Naveeds Comedy Club in the citys Baridhara area in 2010. The club is now located at a larger venue in Banani.
The Clubs aim
The Club aims at providing a platform for budding comedians to showcase their talent in front of a live audience. It wants to make the audience laugh, provide them with pure entertainment and produce subtle humour through the use of intelligent quips. The performers believe laughter is the best medicine and they are determined to make people laugh so that they can forget their sorrows while being a part of the show itself.
As Naveed puts it: You can expect to laugh till your jaws hurt! You are expected to let go of your inhibitions and just have a good time. The whole idea of the comedy club is to have a good laugh without hurting anybodys feelings.
The target audience
Naveed believes humour should not be confined to any age group. He believes humour is for every member of society, whatever their background. So, their target audience is anyone who loves a good laugh. The comedy club has entertained audience members from infants (of course, accompanied by parents) to 90-year-old great-grandparents, and that goes to show how popular it has become among different age groups. Though university students, young professionals and expatriates come in large numbers for Naveeds comedy shows, the club is also frequented by people from all walks of life.
Popularising the concept
In general, the club caters to any types of performances that make people laugh. In the future, the club hopes to arrange shows on improvisation comedy, skits, sketches and so on. But for the time being, the club is focussing on popularising the concept of stand-up comedy.
Stand-up comedy is a form of entertainment where a comedian performs in front of a live audience. It does not entail just telling jokes, like two men were walking down the street, but is more like an informal, yet humorous conversation _ as in a typical adda _ where the comedian speaks about his or her own experiences, observations and points of view to which the audience relates. It is also a highly interactive experience where the comedian draws the audience into the act. From the audiences perspective, it is as though the comedian is having a one-on-one, casual, humorous conversation with each of them.
Naveed Mahbub believes comedy is something that requires constant improvement, changes and updates. Unlike music, where the audience craves to hear songs that they have heard before, each show requires fresh comic material as the audiences do not want to hear jokes that they have already heard. Hence, the performers at the club are constantly focusing on improving and upgrading their own acts. Naveed also believes that grooming by more experienced performers is not the ideal thing for comedians as they should be allowed to develop and flourish their own unique and natural style, in order to deliver their best.
Stand-up comedy, however, is still a male-dominated sector and Naveed hopes that more female comedians would join them in the coming days for a refreshing change.
Clubs performers
The Club currently has about 10 performers. Young and promising comedians like Yamin Khan, Solaiman Shukhon, Mosharraf Yaafi, Ishtiaque Rajon, Ahmed Ishtiak, Max Mystel and Gulsetyne Ahmed have already carved out a niche for themselves through their innovative acts. And last but not least, the name of Naveed Mahbub must be mentioned here. He has proven his mettle in the past and these writers were impressed by his recent performance at the clubs Dhanmondi venue the other day. His comedy takes on a range of issues, from urban problems to spot fixing by cricketers, were witty and brilliant.
The venues and shows
At present, Naveeds Comedy Club hosts regular shows at its main location on Level-4, 41 Kemal Ataturk Avenue, Banani; once a month at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka in Dhanmondi; and at The Stage Music Caf, Level-2, House 31, Garibey Newaz Avenue, Sector 13, Uttara.
The Banani club hosts regular shows at 8pm every Thursday, and it also has an open mic session the same day at 7pm where anyone can perform comedy. Besides, performances in English are also held on the last Thursday of every month.
The Dhanmondi and Uttara venues host regular shows once a month at 7pm. The schedule is announced by Alliance Francaise and The Stage and posted on the clubs Facebook page.
membership
Although its name has the word club in it, it has no such thing as membership. In fact, anyone can enjoy any show of the club by simply purchasing a ticket at the start of the show.
The minimal amount of money (usually Tk 300) we charge for 90 minutes of pure entertainment helps us to cover only a fraction of our operating costs, while allowing us to pay a token amount to the performers as fees just to establish the fact that their talents and hard work are not to be used for free, Naveed said.
Upcoming Projects
Naveeds Comedy Club intends to spread stand-up comedy throughout the country. First, it plans to establish branch locations across the capital in areas like Bailey Road, Dhaka University campus, Old Dhaka and Mirpur. Its main location at Banani will continue to have weekly shows, while the branches will host monthly shows. It also plans to arrange monthly shows at other major cities like Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna.
The Club also wants to partner up with a venue or entity in the Indian city of Kolkata so as to tap into the vast Bangla-speaking market in West Bengal.
These various locations will not only popularise comedy throughout the country and the region, but will also spread the notion of Bangla stand-up comedy among Bangladeshi expatriates around the world.
The Club also intends to initiate a nationwide talent hunt to discover not only stand-up comics, but also comedy writers, who are a crucial part of the industry as fresh materials are continuously needed.
Finally, the Club is scheduled to tie up with Naveeds popular show on NTV, The Naveed Mahbub Show, so that people can enjoy live stand-up performances by comedians on television. At the same time, the club will be regularly uploading videos of its shows online and make them available on mobile phones services to further reach out to as many people as possible.
The club can be found online at www.NaveedsComedyClub.com and www.Facebook.com/NaveedsComedyClub.
