REVIEW: Word naked has different connotations in Indian stand-up comedian’s world.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Going to watch the Indian comedian Papa CJ perform Thursday last week at the nightclub Carolines on Broadway was not the worst thing to do, unless you discounted the bone-chilling cold that’s still lingering in the area with sub-zero temperatures. Only the determined with fortitude walked a few blocks without 6-8 layers of solid winter gear.
On a day when the stock market tumbled (vacation-oriented stocks like Expedia.com were doing great though), negative interest rates were a distinct possibility (and I don’t mean the glances some women gave to the pavement after looking at my paunch), Donald Trump was again going ballistic, threatening to build an awesome wall which poor Mexicans would be forced to pay for at the risk of getting their bottom spanked otherwise, and love was very visible with young couples holding hands, kissing, laughing and taking pictures at Times Square around some gigantic, reflective metallic heart-shaped structures reminding all of the upcoming Valentine’s Day obligations, onerous or not as it may be, there seemed to be ample rich material to exploit for guaranteed riffs, for any comedian.
Papa CJ’s (somehow it’s awkward to call him only Papa; and only CJ seemed somehow to berate him, like calling all music spinners DJ, as an acronym for ‘Comedy Joker’) show was called ‘Naked’. Now, the word naked itself in New York parlance has many connotations: for some it means also the pricey juice brand Naked and for some others the guitar toting muscular Naked Cowboy who roams around strumming on Times Square, garbed in only a hat, boots, and brief. Nobody really thinks they are naked taking a shower, if you get my drift.
Papa CJ is at times an odd mixture of how Indians react to, view and scorn the developed world, including the second generation desi diaspora. Papa CJ is entitled to it, being an elitist. He attended a top boarding school in India, The Lawrence School, Sanawar, and later Oxford University for an MBA. He has lived and experienced life in the UK, brings that flavor, replete with accent, to his comedy, as well as anecdotes from his life in boarding school, the subject-matter and setting for many a Bollywood film, and equally accepted with laughter, admiration and consternation in the West too, as tales of boarding schools have given to some classic films, including ‘Dead Poets Society’ and ‘The Emperor’s Club’. He’s on sure footing with those tales when bringing his show to New York. Any multicultural, cosmopolitan crowd can relate to and understand his take on life, on those subjects.
It’s harder for Papa CJ to bring his middle-class ‘Indianness’ in India to a western audience, though. (Though, anybody in India will let you know that any family who can afford to send their son to Lawrence Sanawar is not exactly ‘middle-class’). It’s another matter that the crowd in New York was more overwhelmingly desi, but there was a sprinkling of non-Brown faces too. That helps.
However, Papa CJ is an intelligent stand-up comedian. He doesn’t go for quick laughs from the onset, but delves into his show philosophically, even giving a brief lecture on the modus operandi of stand-ups, how they draw their audience in through practiced routines. He also makes it ample clear that he’s not easily heckled, but can give it back as tough as he gets it. It’s almost a challenge to the audience to take him on. Michael Richards aka Kramer of ‘Seinfeld’ fame might have a few tips for Papa CJ though, especially on how not to engage too much with the audience.
Papa CJ is an expert raconteur, builds up expectation. He giving abundant peeks into his early life, making public what most people would be reticent to do: his love life, heart breaks, marriage. He recites a love poem he wrote to his beloved, bringing it out from a chest he brings to stage; plays some old Hindi songs on CDs, talks of mix tapes which were the rage amongst teenagers of his generation. Explains ‘jugaad’ which is now well documented in India – growing up in a middle-class family where dexterous parents knew how to stretch a few household commodities. In Papa CJ’s own words, ‘how shampoo never seemed to end or ketchup became tomato soup.’
But as he courses through his performance, Papa CJ starts taking off his clothes, starting with his jacket and then his shoes and socks. Aha! Naked is really simple enough to understand now: Papa CJ is not only talking his way through a show, he is taking his clothes off as well!
But as more and more viewers who watch ‘Naked’ will realize, the word naked has quite a different meaning for Papa CJ. He will make you feel a bit different about nakedness once you are done watching it, as he periodically takes off his clothes. One thing I can tell you without revealing the whole plot: Papa CJ can surely humble and shame the Naked Cowboy on Times Square, make him feel overdressed.
In some ways, Papa CJ takes on subjects that the world has battled for eons. The evolving world of romance, mating, and marriage, the aftermath, is one that is widely used by popular stand-ups to connect with their audience, especially since the world over it’s the young crowd who mostly go for stand-up shows.
Aziz Ansari’s book ‘Modern Romance’ took off from a text message he waited to get from a girl after he goes on a date with her and sleeps with her. But a second date?! That’s where Ansari’s troubles started, his vexations grew. And he wrote a book on it, expounding on how the older generation used to woo, date and get married – especially where they met, and how the current Tinder generation treat love as a game, resplendent with emojis and text messages.
Papa CJ, whose show ‘Naked’ dates further back than Ansari’s book, also periodically takes up the subject of how one generation woos, compared to the other. He mocks the rapper Eminem for the vulgarities in lyrics, for the profanity-laced, genitalia-adorned words. The old-world charm and romance of love letters, nurtured through tenderness and caring, as if seeing a beautiful girl on a mist-laden evening in the hills of Shimla and falling in love instantaneously and then wooing her for years, is never far away from Papa CJ’s dreamy world. It’s classic Bollywood 2.0. Shahrukh Khan, please take note.
Although it would be unfair to give away Papa CJ’s show, as the USP of it is how it slowly evolves like a well-played out drama on stage, one thing is for sure. Papa CJ’s prime humor is from found materials, from his own life. Right up to the time he ends the show. It’s a show which is a definite watch, a mix of humor and fine introspection. Despite some of the raunchiness which is apparent – and a trademark of all comedy shows nowadays – it’s also a heart-warming, emotional roller-coaster, for the man on stage and the audience watching him.
(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar)