Someone recently asked me.. So Sharul, being an indian female..has it been difficult being a stand-up comedian. I looked at her and smiled. " I don't know babe..maybe not as difficult for those in India..i replied." I wouldn't know.
Indian women are profiled to be conservative and coy so when they see an indian female taking centre-stage and talking about things they don't expect her to talk about..they get shocked.
Some people say " Oh, she is getting laughs because of the shock value !" and some people say " Should she talk about that topic..what does she know about it?"...
I really wish sometimes they could just call the female comics just plain - Stand-up comedians. Many times if you watch shows..the emcee would make it a point to say.." The next comedian my friend is a woman...*Cheers*..yes..please put your hands together for Sharul Channa.." and then i go on and talk about having a big nose. Are they wrong at doing that? No. Not at all because there aren't many women in this business compared to the men.
What i cannot stand is those male chauvinist pigs who decide they need to come counsel you after the show..although that stopped happening to me 2 months after i started doing comedy. There are such pigs in the business itself too..like some fellow male comedians think they have to act smart and say shit like .." oh you woman you..why don't you just show your tits on stage and they will laugh..!" To which i usually reply.." Why don't you show yours since your mama fed you like a fucking pig when you were young.." It happens but that's a one off experience again. We have such amazing fellow comedians in the Singapore circuit..its been fantastic.
So the question remains..Is it difficult being an indian woman female comedian. Well- its rare..But we're tough. We have prob gone past the " Oh..if i contort my face this way..men will not find me attractive anymore or my eye-liner has not been drawn well phase and hence i won't get married blah blah blah.."
Female comedians are comedians too. Fullstop. Spelt out.
So - as long as we don't marginalize ourselves nobody can. Yup..we don't bother what others think about the laughs we get. As long as you can stand on stage and make a group laugh - you're funny. There is no gimmick there. We 're not going to get more laughs cos we are women so its not easy..in fact it can work against us..so we have to work harder..but again..we're just Stand-up comedians.
The only way being an INDIAN female stand-up comedian is going to benefit me is if you get me..some amazing chicken tikka after the show or a little bit of Salman khan on a kebab platter. That's about it. Get over it.
love love,
Sharul
