{"id":20176321,"date":"2024-07-31T10:26:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/?p=20176321"},"modified":"2024-07-31T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:26:08","slug":"desi-comedy-fest-comes-to-san-jose-improv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/desi-comedy-fest-comes-to-san-jose-improv\/","title":{"rendered":"Desi Comedy Fest Comes to San Jose Improv"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2008, militant Pakistani Islamists killed 175 people in a series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. Feeling helpless, comedian Samson Koletkar got together a group of Indian and Pakistani comedians in the Bay Area in an effort to promote peace and unity through laughter. They performed two events in Hayward and Palo Alto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, after Koletkar teamed up with fellow comedian and co-organizer Abhay Nadkarni, they officially launched the Desi Comedy Fest, which, in the last ten years, has become a mainstay of Bay Area live comedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are the biggest South Asian comedy festival in America,\u201d says Koletkar, who lives in Hayward, \u201cbecause we are the only South Asian comedy festival in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many comedians, Koletkar\u2019s humor is drawn from his upbringing. He was born in Mumbai but raised Jewish (his father is Jewish and his Hindu mother converted to Judaism). Koletkar jokes that he isn\u2019t very religious because he performs stand-up on Fridays and Saturdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His only early comedic influence was Charlie Chaplin, whom he used to watch with his father. It wasn\u2019t until he moved to Sunnyvale in 2000 and started taking stand-up classes a few years later that he heard of the likes of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always had this inkling for cracking jokes and making snarky comments,\u201d Koletkar remembers. \u201cI couldn\u2019t figure out where that skill would come into play because in Mumbai, stand-up as an art form did not exist. What we mostly saw was all mimicry and impressions of famous personalities, which I don\u2019t do. When I came to America and saw stand-up live for the first time, I thought it was awesome. And when I tried it, I liked it. I stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Samson Koletkar at Desi Comedy Fest at Bankhead Theater Livermore. Photo contributed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a nod to his heritage, Koletkar took up Mahatma Moses as a stage and social media name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the two most famous personalities: Mahatma Gandhi and Moses,\u201d Koletkar says. \u201cThe whole world knows Gandhi and almost every second person on the planet has seen The Ten Commandments<\/em>. So the name clicks for people. It\u2019s a catch phrase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his act, Koletkar pokes fun at everything from Indian restaurants and Indian customer service to marriage and his dual cultures. He even riffs on the challenges he faced when he and his wife adopted a child in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We could raise the first white kid in America to win the spelling bee,\u201d he once joked. \u201cOur little contribution to making America great again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When booking for the festival, Koletkar and Nadkarni look for comics from all over the country, preferably ones who put on clean comedy, with no off-color material. They\u2019re predominantly South Asian, but many also represent mixed ethnicities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though we may have similar backgrounds and similar experiences, there\u2019s something unique about everybody,\u201d says Koletkar. \u201cSo we don\u2019t censor anybody. They can come and talk about whatever topic under the sun. But the one thing we tend not to do is bring in too much blue comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Desi Comedy Fest<\/em> co-organizer Abhay Nadkarni. Photo: Contributed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At its peak, the festival played 11 nights in a row, with as many as 50 comics, and appeared at such prestigious live comedy staples as SF Sketchfest and Montreal\u2019s Just for Laughs. They\u2019ve even toured India. Though the festival traditionally runs in August, it occasionally takes place on Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in October or November, or on Indian Republic Day, in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the festival\u2019s tenth anniversary, Koletkar and Nadkarni have rounded up 15 comedians to perform shows in Pleasanton, San Francisco, Mill Valley and San Jose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number one thing we want the audience to do is to have a good time, laugh and connect at a very human level,\u201d Koletkar says. \u201cAt the end of it all, the one thing I\u2019ve learned in the 18 years that I\u2019ve been performing with people from all kinds of backgrounds is that what connects us is humanity. You\u2019re hearing it from the perspectives of a certain group of people, but it\u2019s very global. We all share these experiences. When I\u2019m talking about my first-generation immigrant experience in America, I\u2019ve had people from Europe, South America and Africa come up to me and say, \u2018You know, I can relate to that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desi Comedy Fest<\/em><\/a> hits the South Bay on Aug. 8 with an 8pm show at San Jose Improv, 62 S. 2nd Ave. $30.63, via <\/em>Ticketweb.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2014, Samson Koletkar and Abhay Nadkarni officially launched the Desi Comedy Fest, which has become a mainstay of Bay Area live comedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20176323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[1932],"tags":[584,5292],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n