{"id":5304,"date":"2024-06-20T08:53:42","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T08:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/khabarok.com\/entertainment\/pride-month-hyderabads-queer-comedians-take-centre-stage\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T08:53:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T08:53:42","slug":"pride-month-hyderabads-queer-comedians-take-centre-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khabarok.com\/?p=5304","title":{"rendered":"Pride month: Hyderabad\u2019s queer comedians take centre stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Apoorva<\/picture><\/div>\n

\nApoorva during a session
\n| Photo Credit: Special arrangement\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hyderabad\u2019s cultural landscape is opening up to be inclusive of diverse storytelling. City-based Queer Women Collective (QWC) has been instrumental in setting the stage for queer artistes to share stories and talk about various topics, with a touch of humour. <\/p>\n

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\"Meherin<\/div>\n

\nMeherin at an event
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\nSpecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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QWC took off in May 2020 with an online event. \u201cQueer women and non-binary folks went through a lot of pressure as people moved back to their hometowns during COVID. Going back to the family was not a great experience for everybody,\u201d recalls QWC founder Apoorva Gupta, who found very few spaces for queer women to sit and talk.<\/p>\n

Storytelling in focus <\/h4>\n
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\"Audience<\/div>\n

\nAudience during a session
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\nspecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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The virtual meet-ups led to physical stand-up events and open mics. A little fun and jokes around their experiences lightened their hearts and made them feel a little safe. Stand-up sessions held at cafes and the two editions of Queer Indie Film & Lit Fest picked up pace over the year. \u201cStand-up comedy is also storytelling; making one feel connected, related, and still laugh about it,\u201d says Apoorva, who narrates her coming-out, dating experiences, and more on stage. <\/p>\n

With a touch of humour <\/h4>\n

It has been a year since Meherin, a therapist with Pause for Perspective, a mental health organisation performed as a comedian at their centre during Pride month. In a room of queer folks and allies, Meherin\u2019s set also included their experiences as a therapist. \u201cI\u2019m a queer Muslim and a non-binary person; this perspective is effective in looking at oppression with a touch of humour,\u201d they says. <\/p>\n

Fun to experiment <\/h4>\n
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\"K<\/div>\n

\nK Vaishali
\n| Photo Credit:
\nspecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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K Vaishali, a technical writer , transforms into a stand-up artiste in the evenings, \u201cI enjoy performing for the queer community,\u201d says Vaishali who identifies as cis and lesbian. <\/p>\n

Being a writer \u2014 her book Homeless: Growing up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India <\/i>won the recent Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar \u2014 helps her look at life with a different lens; this perspective as well as her experience as a gamer inform her stand-up material. She might not be a serious comedian, but she goes outside her comfort zone to have fun and experiment. <\/p>\n

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\"Apoorva<\/div>\n

\nApoorva Gupta
\n| Photo Credit:
\nspecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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Vaishali doesn\u2019t need any filters when performing for the queer community; she can speak on whatever she thinks. \u201cI don\u2019t have to explain because the audience includes mostly queer or allies who understand the queer subculture. I can be as unhinged and unfiltered as everyone understands .\u201d An example was the way she imagined the Sherlock Holmes series as a lesbian love story and made jokes about how everyone knows a lesbian who looks like the Sherlock Holmes character from the series and how most people even have an ex who behaves like the Sherlock character. \u201cMany people, I think, related to that because I got a lot of laughs, but I could never translate this joke to a straight audience.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\"During<\/div>\n

\nDuring a session
\n| Photo Credit:
\nspecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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With over ten performances to date, Meherin marks the shaping of queer comedy scene in the city also as a creative response to homophobia within the stand-up community. \u201cIt\u2019s sad, but it\u2019s twice as hard for me or any queer artiste to go out and deal with homophobia from within the stand-up comedy circuit and from the audience. It\u2019s not like I can\u2019t make a whole crowd laugh.\u201d However, the artiste underlines the importance of not performing only about queer identity. \u201cI\u2019m a queer person who has opinions about the world, like everybody else. These curated spaces for queer artists are also affirming that our lives in the world are as equals.\u201d <\/p>\n

To improve performance<\/h4>\n
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\"Meherin\"<\/div>\n

\nMeherin
\n| Photo Credit:
\nspecial arrangement\n<\/p>\n

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From checking videos of other standup comics to reading, these artistes review their acts periodically to improve. \u201cEven if I am queer and crack queer jokes, people would not find it funny unless it was written and delivered perfectly,\u201d says Apoorva, who takes feedback from friends and siblings. <\/p>\n

Do the artistes face challenges? \u201cMy biggest challenge is personal, as I am a neuro-diverse person with dyslexia and dysgraphia,\u201d says Vaishali, who has to drown out the noise around her to focus. (Her trick is to start with a question, \u201cHow many of them are friends with their ex?\u2019 to make the audience pay attention.) Her neuro-diverse condition adds another layer of challenge to deliver jokes with the same kind of energy. <\/p>\n

While queer stand-up shows are held at Trailing Ivy cafe, WeWork in Kondapur and Cafe Rasasvada (shut now), the team can put up an act depending on the budget. \u201c Before we decide a venue we speak to staff to ensure they are aware of LGBTQIA+ terms, don\u2019t misgender and have an affirming stance. This ensures that our audience also can come the way they are,\u201d says Apoorva as she is about to finalise an LGBTQ+ friendly venue in the city to hold monthly open-mic and stand-up events, from July. Meherin hopes, \u201cPeople have to be as affirming as they are with everybody else.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apoorva during a session | Photo Credit: Special arrangement Hyderabad\u2019s cultural landscape is opening up to be inclusive of diverse storytelling. City-based Queer Women Collective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[5226,10318,6664,6041,5164,10317,3643],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-centre","tag-comedians","tag-hyderabads","tag-month","tag-pride","tag-queer","tag-stage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t