3 minute read
Raajeev’s Corner
Comedians at War Round 3: Roast Battle
Raajeev’s Corner by Raajeev Aggerwhil
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We are off to a new year again. A new year is the time for making new resolutions that we can break after a couple of months and feel guilty for the next six months. One of my resolutions for the new year is to be able to do a stand-up duo set with my wife at a comedy club. As I have mentioned before, I got my wife into comedy. As a bania, it was a strategic decision. Instead of paying a marriage therapist, I thought we could let the audience pay us to listen to our problems. But such business plans come with challenges.
In 2022, we were asked by our Indian friends to do a comedy set at their 25th wedding anniversary. Our pride didn’t allow us to say no, so we agreed. It was actually a great success. Later we analyzed the main reason why it worked so well. Since we had such a traumatic experience performing together at an open mike five years ago, we decided to prepare for our sets individually and decided to improvise on the fly. The lack of preparation and being able to riff on the fly using our existing jokes worked very well at the wedding anniversary event.
A couple of months after that, we were asked by another friend to perform at her son’s wedding at the ladies sangeet. Since the wedding was going to take place in Los Angeles and she gave us a three-month advance notice, we couldn’t find any excuse not to do a duo. So, we set some ground rules and got to work.
At the event, my wife started out making fun of us; how we are not exactly the model couple the newly wedded bride and groom should look up to. We did offer some money savings tips if they ever ran into any marital conflicts. Rather than paying for marriage counseling, they were welcome to utilize our outsource couple in India to fight on their behalf with an additional 30 percent discount for the next five years. That was our wedding gift to them!
Then we gave a little bit about our background and how we had been doing comedy individually for several years. I confessed that when some people approached us to do an act together, I didn’t think it was a good idea. “If I get a divorce, I’ll lose half my jokes.” However, my wife insisted, “But I have so many good jokes about you.”
I told the audience many people think Indian men are arrogant because we walk in front of our wives. They don’t understand that we come from an agricultural society. When we protect our wives from bull crap, we literally mean it. At that point, my wife said, “Oh, thank you for laying your jacket down.” I replied, “I didn’t. I laid your jacket down.” We got good laughter, mostly from men this time.
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