Sartorial Word : Saad Haroon’s ‘kat-a-kat’ of comedy

On his forthcoming tour of Pakistan, Saad will tickle his fans’ funny bone with a blend of his most popular jokes.

KARACHI:

“In Pakistan, we may not have gas or electricity, but what we have intact is our egos. And then, in I come, trying to snatch that away from my audience with my jokes, asking them to laugh at themselves,” says stand-up comic Saad Haroon. “Pakistani ego has been my biggest hurdle and I can’t say I haven’t riled people with my jokes. Luckily, there are others who can take a joke.”

10 years down the line, Saad’s fans are far more than his detractors. They attend his shows regularly, snickering and rolling in the aisles as he pokes fun at the world, himself and ultimately, his audience — for improvisational comic repartee with the audience is standard fare in a Saad Haroon routine.

He’ll pick people from the audience and grill them in jest. He’s been doing it for a decade now. Saad founded the Blackfish comic troupe and with time, he has perfected his jokes down to a fine art.

“It’s a tough job,” he says. “Other theatrical acts, like plays and musicals, follow a certain script to the tee. In a stand-up comic act, however, the general script may remain the same, but the improvised jokes are different every day. For an entire hour and a half, I have to keep my audience entertained all on my own.”

The struggle, however, hardly shows. Saad jokes on stage in the course of conversation and it all seems entirely natural. “That’s part of the act. I wouldn’t be a good comedian otherwise. I can’t let people see the ugly, exhausting hours of hard work that go behind the script,” he shares. “I literally spend days learning my script prior to a show.”

For the uninformed, a typical Saad Haroon script is peppered with jokes that vary from being witty to utterly silly. He’ll joke about his childhood, near-death experiences, food and culture and if you’re lucky, he may just break into a side-splitting song.

Unlike other comic acts, Saad prefers to stay away from risqué jokes and political satire. “There are far too many political comedies doing the round anyway. Honestly, it’s the easiest thing to sit and make fun of Pakistani politics, but I’d rather work hard to create an original joke than seek respite with a dozen hackneyed ones. Overt and bold jokes, on the other hand, are just not my style.”

This is probably one reason why audiences of all ages are comfortable walking into his show.

“When I started out, I was mainly popular with young people, but now, my audience includes people of all ages. The students still come in, but so do their parents and even their grandparents. I mix up my script, so that it appeals to everybody — young people usually enjoy pop culture references; the older audience likes witticisms.”

New York, New York!

Of course, now that he’s shifted to New York, there’s also an anglicised touch to Saad’s comedy. “There are jokes that I have specially created for the Western audience that also work well in Pakistan,” he says.

The shift to New York, one-and-a-half year ago, was a calculated career move. While he is good at what he does, Saad’s audience remains limited since he only performs in English. “I mulled over expanding my market by delving into Urdu, but English simply comes more easily to me. New York has allowed me to cater to a larger English-speaking audience. In Pakistan, I am one in, perhaps, three stand-up comics. In New York, there’s a lot of competition with comic acts taking place everywhere.”

And how has he fared in the competition? “I’ve had three shows so far and they’ve all been sold out,” he shares. “I’ve marketed myself as a ‘Pakistani comic in New York’ and that immediately makes people inquisitive. They come to my shows out of curiosity, but I like to think that they come to the next show because they find me funny.”

“I also tend to get asked to perform at Muslim and Asian shows that take place. Only recently, I took part at a religious diversity event along with comics from other faiths. In the next month, I’ll be travelling to Australia to take part in an Asian festival.”

For ‘burgers’ across Pakistan

This February, Saad Haroon will be launching out on a ‘Kat-a-kat’ tour across Pakistan (it will be called ‘Tak-a-tak’ when he’ll be in Punjab). Like the ‘kat-a-kat’ dish, it’s going to be a mix of Saad’s old, new and most popular jokes.

Starting in Lahore, the tour will go on to Faisalabad, Islamabad and finally, Karachi. “I do have a regular audience in all the other cities, but this is the first time that I’ll be performing in Faisalabad.”

Does he have to alter his script to suit the tastes of different cities? “Not really. People tend to have similar tastes when it comes to English comedy. It doesn’t matter where you live; if you’re a burger, you’re a burger,” he quips.

But with the limited audience for English comedy, does his job pay well? “It does, sporadically,” he says. “Corporate sponsors for a show are a huge help. The income of a comedian varies from month to month, from hectic busy weeks to days when there is nothing to do.”

We wonder if he has considered the more lucrative option of taking up acting on television. Osman Khalid Butt, for instance, came into the spotlight with his comic online videos and has proceeded to play lead roles on TV dramas. Sanam Saeed, similarly, started off with Blackfish and is now a stage star and one of TV’s most popular ‘sad bahus’. Ages ago, Saad produced The Real News comic show for TV, but hasn’t ventured into the medium ever since.

“I’d certainly like to produce my own TV show again, someday,” he tells us. “I can’t even say that I’d never consider an acting role. You never know. But if I do, I find the ‘sad bahu’ option much more interesting than the romantic hero!”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2014.

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