Jagan Krishnan considers ’90s’ kids’ love stories an oxymoron! But that’s also his story, and as he shares with us about the same, he can’t stop laughing, neither can we. After two sold out shows, the stand-up comedian is back with his solo stand-up show Jagane Thandhiram, a musical, stand-up romantic comedy.
The show is a blend of stand-up comedy and romantic comedies, “because it’s basically a love story”. “And it’s not just an ordinary love story. It’s my love story,” says Jagan, adding, “In other words, it’s the ’90s kids’ love stories; and I must tell you that love and ’90s kids don’t go well together!”
The story is all about how Jagan found love in his life, of course with a lot of comedy weaved in. “There is observational humour and a lot of original music, which I have written and composed. In fact, music is predominant in most of my shows. So, yeah, the piece is personal, with a lot of anecdotal bits. And it also contains a lot of nostalgia. As I said, it talks about the ’90s generation — my generation; and then I make a lot of comparisons with Y2k generation, boomers, millennials or whatever the terms are,” Jagan shares.
In Jagane Thandhiram, the comedian also talks about how people are treating relationships now, in both a positive and negative way, as compared to earlier times. “I make references to how I used to treat relationships, and how we as a generation grew up ignorant of most of the things while being completely influenced by pop culture elements; and how I handled all the romances in my life,” he says.
Talking about ‘love’ and his understanding of it, Jagan says, “We had no idea, no clue about what exactly love is. We assumed something to be love when it most definitely was not (laughs)! Most of the love stories of people who grew up in the ’90s are cheesy. Our ideas about romance came from movies, and none of the movies showed how a real romance works. So, we all assumed every girl we meet is going to be our soul mate for life! Crazy, that’s how an entire generation grew up!”
As we listen to him talk about the love of the ’90s, we ask him, amidst all those influences and cheesy
experiences, if that’s how he eventually found love, and Jagan says, “I am not going to reveal that, but hey, this show is my story! Come watch?”
Jagan wrote this set during the lockdown because with everything so bleak and dark, he wanted to divert his mind and keep himself occupied. “I read The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, which gave me a clarity of where I was, and how I became the person I am right now and how much I’ve improved. So, I wanted to write something personal, moving away from things I was doing during that time. After reading this book, everything came together. That’s how this entire show happened.”
Jagan, who is taking his show to London and Birmingham, says he is going to stick to Tamil instead of opting for English for a wider reach. He says, “I had started with English before I switched to doing stand-up only in Tamil, and for now, I am going to keep it that way. And I think relationship humour is something that is kind of universal, isn’t it?”
Tickets at Rs 399 onwards.
September 17, 6 pm.At Music Academy.
Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @rupsjain