Ready for a cheesy night?

City-based comic group Cheese Monkey Mafia scripts a laugh riot.

If stand-up comedy is what tickles your funny bone, then head to Gurgaon this weekend, where Delhi-based comedy group Cheese Monkey Mafia is going to present a six-part comic act.

HT Image

The group was started by Raghav Mandava, a former journalist, in 2010, as a way of promoting stand-up comedy in the city. A unique facet of the group is the ‘open night’ organised every alternate weekend where upcoming comic talent is given a chance to make people laugh with their acts. Over a period of four to five months, consistent performers in the open nights are selected by Mandava to perform at one of his shows. That’s where he found his stand-up comedians who will be performing this weekend. “I had always enjoyed watching comedy and started the Cheese Monkey Mafia as a way to search for comic talent in the city,” says Mandava.

The comedians in the group try to give a hilarious twist to serious subjects, with funny examples from their personal experiences as well. While Abhijit Ganguly, a member of the group, is inspired by stingy people in the Capital for his act, Sayak Basu, another member, tackles a serious subject like drugs and alcohol in a funny way. Basu jokes about there being more alcohol shops than schools and hospitals in Gurgaon. Other members of the comic group include Neeti Palta, who enacts her experience of being a woman in a male-dominated profession of comedians, and Sameer Maira, Kavya Trehan and Shantanu Pandit, who entertain the audience with their music between the acts.

Mandava closes the show with an act of his own, in which he pokes fun at the ironies of life. He jokes about humans making a device to measure the earthquake but still unable to find a cure to the common cold and about people spending money on luxury cars only to drive them on roads with potholes.