Laughing it off with Dan Nainan

Globally known stand-up comedian is doing a series of shows in Pakistan .

LAHORE:

American born-half-Indian-half Japanese stand-up comedian, Dan Nainan makes for an interesting fusion of cultures. He is in Pakistan for a series of shows and started off his act in Lahore with stories about his own journey and quickly ventured into jokes about his own unique mix. “The only other person I’ve met like me is my sister,” Nainan stated comically.  

He has performed in many different countries but especially likes coming to the sub continent and performing for desis abroad. He fondly remembers performing for a group of 6000 Pakistani doctors in America. The reason his jokes sit well with our people is that they hit home. People can relate to them because the instances he talks about seem familiar.

Nainan is an international sensation but he knows the importance of making sure the audience being able to relate locally. He says, “People can’t laugh at something if they don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nainan has a joke about the name Patel being common in the NFL team, but with a desi audience he changes the sport to cricket.



While comedians from Pakistan are facing issues with self-censorship with topics like politics, religion and sex which are off limits, Nainan is a complete clean comedian to the extent of teetotalism. This helps his popularity amongst the more conventional and conservative. Russell Peters has been a huge inspiration for Dan Nainan who is not a clean comedian such as himself but has captured the audiences of the east.

The east has always essentially looked up to the west, as the effects of      colonisation still linger on. If a comedian from Pakistan points out our own eccentricities it probably won’t be as funny as a half-western half-eastern point of view which partly is the reason for the success of Nainan and Peters.

Nainan has performed for famous personalities like Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Micheal Bloomberg, Steve Wozniak and has a published book titled, How To Become a Full-Time Standup Comedian. At his show he informs the crowd his book is up for sale and then wittily adds, “I’ll email a soft copy of Russell Peters’ book to whoever pays for mine.” Nainan also appeared in The Last Airbender (2010) playing the role of the Fire Nation Warrior.

During his act he touched on some interesting topics. He asked a crowd of about fifty odd people if anyone there was into comedy. Nadir Ali, raised his hand, who later spoke to us about his own experience with standup comedy in Pakistan. “It’s still a niche activity as the disparity between the topics people find humorous is huge”, he said.

“A joke for the masses would be completely different as opposed to one catered to a more intellectually sound audience and it’s up to the comedian to decide what audience he prefers.” The dearth of standup comedy was in itself visible from the people in attendance even though Nainan put on a great show.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th,  2015.

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