Unlike two of his previous stand-up performances, Small-town Boy, and House of Bachelors, Delhi-based comedian Mohit Morani shifts to dark humour with his upcoming solo stand-up show, Light Dark which takes a grim twist after the initial 30 minutes of light-hearted humour. The artiste, however, assures us that “it’s safe and not that dark so that nobody ends up feeling extremely uncomfortable”. Mohit has spent nearly four months writing the script and has been performing it over the past 25-plus days.
Infusing grief with comedy requires a considerable amount of skill to not sound insensitive while being able to get the message across. In Light Dark, Mohit will be treating sensitive and inevitable concerns such as demise and the consequent grieving process. “I’m going to touch upon death, which is a taboo topic in India because death is the most extreme thing you can joke about in the country,” he says. Hence, respecting the comfort boundaries of his audience, Mohit decided to limit his dark comedy wherein his jokes will be unassailable and not outright offensive.
The comedian will also be covering subjects like the pandemic, lockdown periods and their aftermath in the past two-and-a-half years. His narrative will punctuate dark humour with some of the real incidents of Covid-19 mishaps – from funerals to what he personally felt about losing a loved one to the global malady. “I wanted to write something completely new this time. That’s why I chose these subjects,” he shares. In the one hour-70-minutes long act, Mohit’s fresh content will hit the audience on a personal level who will be catching a novel version of his wit, jokes and artistry.
Last year, in his stand-up performance, Small-town Boy, Mohit infused his narrative with references to parental perspectives toward Delhiites fending off a ‘small-town’ boy’s dream to move to a big city. Likewise, House of Bachelors, Mohit’s first stand-up comedy video from this year, addressed to landlords, is a funny take on brokerage, house-hunting, rent, food, looking for flat-mates through social media and more.
Before stand-up comedy, Mohit dabbled in writing political satire and interior design. Most parts of his preadolescence were spent in his hometown, Meghalaya before he moved to Rajasthan and settled for a while in a small, yet architecturally enriching town situated between Jaipur and Jaisalmer. Eventually, he moved to Delhi after completing school. “I have always wanted to move to bigger cities for growth and experience the power of freedom. As a kid, I was not much of a talker, but I saw myself in showbiz someday. I wanted to become a filmmaker at first, but since that had a learning curve, and I would have had to learn editing and camera techniques for which I was always lazy, I became a comedian instead,” he tells us.
On January 21. At Aaromalé – Café & Creative Community in Film Nagar.
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Twitter: @PaulChokita