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Kings and Queens of Comedy III by The Comedy Club, ran on November 2nd and 3rd at the Esplanade and this year saw comedians Ron Josol, Kumar, Shazia Mirza and Vir Das performing their standup routines.
Ron Josol, a Canadian-Filipino, started the show off to rambunctious laughter and applause as his standup routine addressed how it was to be an Asian in the Western world, with specifically Filipino traits that any Asian can easily identify with. Equipped with a lot of personal anecdotes, Josol poked fun at his family, life in Canada, and being Asian.
Kumar came on stage next in a trishaw, to the grand cheers of the mostly local audience, and he didn’t disappoint. From the Amy Cheong saga to the foreigner situation here, Kumar deftly gave witty and humorous commentary on all things local, even political at times. Despite not relying on prepared material – which resulted in Kumar repeating some lines – he managed to make the crowd roar with laughter with his off-the-cuff standup routine. As Kumar explained, “This is my 21 years of experience talking”!
Shazia Mirza then did a routine about being a Muslim Pakistani in the United Kingdom. Full of jokes about the fear of brown skins, her mother wanting her to be married (despite telling her to stay away from men as a young woman), and her biological clock ticking, Mirza’s dry British wit nailed the very essence of being a brown-skinned woman in this century, living in a western land, and trying to balance that with very “Eastern” dogma and parents.
Vir Das from India closed the show with commentary about being an Indian man, and about stereotypes of other races, that made good use of his ability to ape Irish and Russian accents. Das’s segment was also the most risqué, with loads of sexual innuendos that left the audience howling with laughter.
Even Jonathan Atherton, who hosted the event, was witty and funny and managed to do several Asian accents very well as he managed to inject a lot of local jokes, humour, and colloquialisms into his segments between the main acts.
Kings and Queens of Comedy III left everyone with a bellyache from laughing so much; never before have I seen a show that had people in stitches from start to end. It certainly is a show all Singaporeans yearning for some fun and laughter should catch next time around!
