Venue: Kamani Auditorium
Date: 17 September 2016

Vir Das, who is based out of UK, has started a trend some years back. He has put India as a potential stand up comedy destination. Consequently we have been seeing popular international comedians like Colin and Brad come and perform in Indian cities.

Following this trend we recently watched Jason Byrne (“The best comedian in the world”) perform at Kamani in Delhi. It was a 90 minutes performance and we assume that he would have used a lot of props during the show. However, because of technical glitches, he couldn’t use a lot of the props and resorted to interactive and impromptu comedy. This was a blessing in disguise. He identified various members of the audience, alone or in groups, or because of their ethnicity, and cracked jokes with and on them.

He has been performing in other Indian cities as well and some of the humour was based on his Indian experiences such as chaotic traffic, a whole clan on a bike and Bollywood of course. To establish his point he also gyrated to some Bollywood numbers.

The audience was initially apprehensive but Byrne soon made them so comfortable that they did not hesitate to perform with him. We did not know how time flew and were a tad disappointed when the show was over.

Given that he could not perform his prior scripted act, 80% of the show was created then and there. Unpretentious and intelligent, we now know why he’s called the best comedian in the world.