4 minutes
HE is really itching to get back on stage. As one of the busiest comedians on the scene, Keren Bala Devan has not only been performing at several life shows but also organised several One Mic Stand events in which amateur and professional comedians get a chance to go on stage and give an impromptu show.
So how does a busy person cope when they have to stay home during a pandemic?
“Personally for me, it has been great. I am generally quite an introvert, also. What I have been telling people is that it has made me happy that there is a federal mandate to stay home. It has been great, just staying at home and growing sideways.
“Professionally it has been hard, because we all depend on live shows. Since we can’t do shows in front of an audience, we have just been doing whatever we can online.”
That sentiment is understandable considering that when it comes to the jokes he writes, Keren needs to “go out and experience life”.
“It has affected me a little bit. Initially, I was writing about the virus, and about staying at home and stuff. I don’t want to do things like that.
“Writing has been a bit slow. I always tell other comedians to go out and experience the world. Only then can you come up with proper jokes.”
However, he believes that this current situation has forced people to be more creative when it comes to creating content.
“Let’s take this chance to do something different. We can’t do stand up, so let’s do something different as long as it is funny.”
Keren and his friends were among the first to put content up online during the MCO, livestreaming under the name The Daily Mamak Qurantine Session, with 56 episodes in all.
“We stopped because we wanted to come up with something else, it was more an experiment than anything else. It was funny and it taught us how to do this type of stuff online.”
Since they have learnt how to produce online content, Keren and his peers now want to come up with content he describes as “more professional.”
Keren is also a part of the popular Angry Indian comedy group, made up of Andrew Netto, Kavin Jay, Prakash Daniel and Thenesh Skip.
There was an Angry Indians reunion online, in which clips from 2016 were available for viewing. The group has been around since 2014 and they have amassed their own following, made up of various races.
The name of this group of comedians was derived from their style of comedy, which had an angry tone but was still hilarious.
“For us to use that name was good, because it was attention grabbing. It is funny because you would expect Indians to be angry, and we played with that.
“We never shied away from the fact that we were angry, we were going to tell you why we are angry. That really worked for us, and we never got any negative feedback from our portrayal.”
Since each one of them is busy with their own careers, they only get together as a group on occasion.
The Angry Indians group was supposed to tour this year, but they can’t plan anything until authorities give the green light.
Keren said during his stay at home, he did not get caught up in baking and making fancy Dalgona coffee like most other people.
“I refused to learn any new skills at this time. A virus forced me to learn new things? No, no, no! If I wanted to learn new things, I would do it on my own.
“The only thing I did different was that I was cooking more at home. I did not do much cooking before, because I would have to go for meetings and only return home after 1pm. So there was no chance for me to cook at home.”
Keren said that as soon as more comedy shows were put online and more new comedians entered the scene, everyone in the business needed to up their game and remain relevant.
He adds that as a comedian, is it important to laugh at yourself.
“You need to check on that ego as well. If you can’t see the flaws in yourself, how can you go on stage and make jokes about the flaws in the world. For me, you have to look inward first before looking outward.”
