Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: December 03, 2018 | 
| 中文
Usman Mazhar
Aspiring creatives and kindred artistic spirits in Islamabad have found each other over the decades, through musical jams in cafes, theatre and film productions, and cultural gatherings. Bringing such diverse creatives together is Kuch Khaas, the Centre for Arts, Culture & Dialogue, which has a history of hosting their own comedy night and releasing comedic videos, remaining a support system for comedy since its inception in the country. They hosted the stand-up comedy show, “Jo Baat Hai,” on 30th November, 2018 at the café Sattar Buksh, Islamabad. “Jo Baat Hai” is an enthusiastic performance of too-true jokes by Usman Mazhar, accompanied by comedic talents, Usama Ahmed, Ramil Aftab and Adnan Aziz. All are multifaceted creatives, simultaneously immersed in acting, film production and writing endeavours.
The show had classic comedy club nostalgia, where a stand-alone performer is sharing social and cultural observations with an audience. Each performer dug into their past experiences and delivered relatable stories from their childhood and formative years. Adnan Aziz, who was managing the show as MC, had sharp jabs about social interactions in Islamabad. His somewhat aggressive jokes targeted Islamabad’s cultural identity crisis, which in his opinion, is largely due to Islamabad’s insistence on juggling confusing cultural influences. Aziz made references to cringe-worthy Bollywood themes, and was a convincing “londay-baaz.”
The show was opened by Ramil Aftab, who introduced himself as a laidback introvert, as he described the day to day life of a young Ramil. His performance of interacting with women landed some “aw shucks” moments and got supportive applause from the audience. The audience definitely warmed up to Aftab’s innocent confessions about constantly troubleshooting in his love life, and appreciated his boyish charm.
Next up was Usama Ahmed, discussing the idiosyncrasies of travelling with a group of friends in Pakistan. His archetypes were well captured and his jokes sharp witted. Travel stories would transition into commentary on wanderlust trends, the pressures of balancing friendships without losing your sanity, concern for obsessive social media negatively effecting meaningful experiences, as well as touching on wedding culture and the ironies of social relationships. Ahmed had a plethora of examples and instances to share with the audience; from public transport stories of “guys who hog the backseat of the tour van” to “passengers neglecting personal space.” The slightly forced political subtext, of some of Ahmed’s stories, could have been foregone, as the details alone got him a few solid laughs.
Having loosened up the audience, Usman Mazhar was introduced as the finale of the show. Mazhar is a storyteller and creates analogies of childhood memories, crossing over into our adult understanding of life and culture. With great impressions of his father and anecdotes from various family-centric experiences of Ramzan, Eid and travel trips, Mazhar created a visual map for his audience to compare to their own. Politely pulling in his audience, through clever sarcastic banter, he managed to make the audience members laugh at themselves. These moments were shared and enjoyable for everyone present. Mazhar has a tact for setting up a premise, and then taking effortless segues, where he will make references to modern day culture, point out our cultural differences across major cities, his personal transformations from boyhood to present day and even the disillusionment of capitalism. His ability to be incredibly engaging with his audience is credit to him using his body language to perform his jokes and respond to audience reactions, garnering laughs from all ages. Mazhar has a few shows lined up in the coming months in other cities, and as much as I would like to share all his jokes here, I would rather advise everyone get their own dose of laughter by attending his next show!
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