Meet Rohit Swain and Hriday Ranjan, two stand-up comedians from Hyderabad, ardent fans of Sachin Tendulkar, who not only remember how much the ‘Little Master’ got in each match, but also know in how many balls he scored them. They idolise him, but that doesn’t stop them from making fun of their idol in their comedy show, Silly Point — which is touted to be India’s first cricket based comedy show.
As part of an eight-city tour, the duo performed in Chennai yesterday, and DC spoke to them on how they tickle the funny bones of audience of their shows. “Hirday and I have been doing stand-up comedy shows for about three years now, and being crazy cricket fans, we thought we should do something on cricket, which will be by the fans and for the fans. Last year we performed at Hyderabad and Bengaluru. This year we are taking it around all the big cities,” Rohit begins.
Elaborating the structure of the show, he adds, “Every Indian has a gully cricket story or a Sachin story; so,we start with talking about how we grew up in the 90s watching cricket, audience behaviour in stadiums, and we then proceed to our sketches about Sachin, Dravid and other great players. We end it with songs which are parodies of hit numbers.”
Hirday, on the other hand, says, “We also involve the audience a bit in the show. We invite them to volunteer for a game of sorts. So, the show will be a mixture of interactive sessions, impromptu comedy, and sketches.”
The duo find namma ooru’s crowd more jubilant and knowledgeable.
“One thing that got us more excited to perform in Chennai is the absence of CSK. We got to know how the fans feel watching Dhoni playing for Pune now,” Hirday laughs.
After Chennai, the duo is next heading to Vizag and Kochi as part of their tour.
