Kenny Sebastian performed live at Vapour Brew Pub, Bangalore on 29th November 2015 and we had the good fortune of attending it live.
Make sure you get to the venue early, if you want good seats. (Ideally front row, but comes with a caveat that you get picked on).
The show started around 8.30pm and the evening was hosted by Rupen Paul.
Rupen Paul
Rupen has been performing stand up comedy for a while now and it is evident from the get go.
His jokes are usually about life in Bangalore, things people say in Bangalore, middle class upbringing and the things people do. You cannot not laugh at the jokes. More than the jokes it is his general demeanor on stage that gets you laughing. Having attended 3 different shows with almost the same jokes and still laughing every single time we can safely say he is funny!!
His bit on Indian children and parents “before an exam” is definitely one that every Indian kid resonates with.
The only thing that we could say needed some work was his speed. Some of the delivery is so fast that it gets lost in the laughter.
Bala Kumaran
The next act of the evening was Bala Kumaran from Chennai. Bala started off sedately and
took us through the life of a Software engineer (which he is by profession) and life in Bangalore Vs. life in Chennai. His jokes revolve around the differences in people from Madurai and Chennai and other South Indian generalizations. Bala’s style is different, in that he is quite soft spoken and uses a very story-telling like approach. Some of the jokes in the middle lost steam as the reference was lost in translation or plain long winded. He did recover well with an amazing comparison to a guy in a relationship to the Software installation process (right from starting the exe file to the agreements and everything. Too funny!!).
Kenny Sebastian
With Bala ending on a high note it was time for the headlining act of the night.
Kenny Sebastian started his class on Dating 101 for the Indian Guy. With over 3 years of relationship experience (sic) he had some hilarious pointers on what to do, what not to do, what to think, what not to think and everything in between when dating an Indian girl. Watch the video for the full class.
Being a Mallu (OK! Malayali! Now don’t go around asking for apologies. Not gonna happen!), and from a middle class, navy family, Kenny had some insights on the way Moms and Dads are in every such household.
His ability to connect with the crowd is phenomenal and the way he had every single person hooked on and paying attention is just amazing. So much so that people were actually trying to get picked on. For the (un?)fortunate few who did, we are pretty sure they are going to be talking about it for some time to come.
His signature is to create a song in the end with words from the crowd and situations that are made up. This is where Kenny‘s improv skills are displayed and must say, they are good.
Right from remembering all the words thrown at random from the crowd (we are talking at-least 50-60 people shouting), the sequence, putting them into context and *then* weaving them into a song on the spot, whilst playing the guitar, did we mention, is truly the mark of a true performer.
The Venue
Vapour is a brew pub located on 100ft Road, Indiranagar.
With a stage setup on one side and seating at lower and upper levels, the location is perfect for a small gig. Be it comedy or any other musical show. The acoustics are pretty good and they seem to have a decent light setup as well.
All in all a decent brewery with good food and awesome gigs.
The only thing that we can point out is probably the height of the stage. Sitting on the tables at the lower level it is not very comfortable to keep looking up for an hour long show.
More Clips from #AWENEST
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEtSEPrVKaY[/embedyt]
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulfoqB7cmQ[/embedyt]
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBp-RgPe7M[/embedyt]
