The webpage screamed of the event being the biggest congregation of Malaysian stand-up comedy acts. It promised a night to remember as most of the national biggest bigwigs of the business were to share the same stage. They even brought in a Singapore artiste to add to the razzmatazz of the night.
We were suckered in to part with our hard-earned moolah with their pledge of a stomach aching, rolling-on-the-floor type and eye-tearing kind of laughter. With the lure of ease of booking online, within a jiffy before the level headed neocortex could knock sense into our action, the transition was finalised.
Even though getting to the venue was alright, parking arrangements were not really a breeze. The auxiliary officers did an excellent job though, to avert haphazard parking by patrons. The importance of this was appreciated later when the dissatisfied audience found it easy to take their vehicles out. (That is for later.) Malaysians are notoriously creative at parking their cars in the most precarious and mind-boggling way. Parking tickets do not mean anything as the local council have no punitive powers.
Keeping to their Malaysian way of doing things, nothing happened at the time the show was to begin. People kept loitering in, out and around. The sponsors were busy promoting their merchandise and house pouring beer. No announcements. No tension in the air.
A good half an hour later, the compère descended, literally, on a trapeze-like contraption from the ceiling of the stage. He was actually a guest comedian cum Masters of Ceremony. There were no apologies on the delay still.
He went on a rant about the weather, about Kuala Lumpur and his hotel. His stage persona was one that celebrated cross-dressing. The local rules, however, forbad male performers to appear effeminate. He made it a point to highlight his sexuality.
From then on, it was downhill. Working on the same jokes, YouTube and social media must be a bane to their artistic work. We felt we had heard the punch line so many times before.
Next sauntered in a prima donna who is known for her raunchy lines. Her jokes were not just filled with sexual innuendos but were overtly pornographic. With no qualms, she utters profanity and describes private parts without batting her mascara filled false eyelashes.
It was followed with more artistes; an American Pinoy with racial jokes, a Caucasian with lame rambling for laughs and an ‘Aunt Agony’ type of call-in show with a panel of 'experts'.
Maybe it catered for a different crowd as the roar of waves of laughter were heard throughout the show. Or was it canned laughter? I am sure laughter must have been accentuated with the help of acoustics. The musical extravaganza that they promised was nowhere to be seen. After one long hour of performance, there was a break.
Don’t know what happened afterwards as we joined the chorus of unhappy audiences who took a long walk to their parked cars to call it a day.
Comedy is actually serious business. Look at all the doyens who stay eternally in my minds. Many comedians on the silver screen started of standup acts. Much of their humour came from human behaviours, with political or social messages or even laughing at our own follies. Many comedians are actually intellectuals well versed with the goings of the world. One can also create a comedy of errors through language.
Talking dirty and infusing four-lettered profanities does not constitute comic. And I do not when uttering vulgarity induced laughter. It is lazy creativity at best.
