North American Indian Sense of Humor
I had a blast at the Big Laugh show this past week. Papa CJ opened the show. The guy isn’t very funny. In fact, he wasn’t funny at all. I wanted to have a good time and wanted the crowd to get into it. I was even force-laughing just so I could psyche myself into enjoying. You know, sometimes you have to get the engines started. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. Thank God, Papa CJ wasn’t the main comedian for the night. I was surprised that this guy named Sugar Sammy was the main act.
Sugar Sammy, if you haven’t heard about him like I hadn’t until last week, is an Indian from Canada. He’s Punjabi to boot! The guy was good, relevant, and funny. He saved the night from being a disaster. One of the first things you noticed about Sammy was that he was enjoying himself! Papa CJ was sort of just there, you know just around, not really having fun. He was trying a bit too hard. It seemed like he was waiting for the audience to get him riled up. The comedian needs to get the audience engaged and not the other way around! And the audience can tell if the performer is enjoying himself or not! The little matter of the material being good also makes a difference!
I thought Sammy was funny probably because I could relate to the things he was joking about. He made fun of Punjabis and how when we curse, we use half the words and eat the other half. There was stuff on hajmola (it’s used to cure every ailment). He made fun of the Kamasutra (why are the pictures not pictures but drawings?). There were lines about a Punjabi guy making love. He talked about dating a Lebanese woman. His humor was from the perspective of a non-Indian Indian, hands down, no doubts about it. He reminded me of Russell Peters in a way and even more so now that I reflect back on the show.
At the end of the show, I went up to tell him he was great. I had expected to hear Papa CJ and I got treated to a North American Indian doing comedy in India. If you get a chance to catch his show, you should.
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