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| Edited By: Sayantan Dalal |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
Make Chai Not War — a stand-up comedy event, promises to have you in splits with performances by acclaimed Indian-American comedians Azhar Usman, Rajiv Satyal and Hari Kondabolu.
Currently touring seven cities in India, the three comedians have been bringing audiences of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds together through laughter. The event is organised by the US Department of State.
The trio will also be conducting a workshop for budding comedians in Mumbai on Jan 17 at the U.S. Consulate Mumbai. “Make Chai, Not War is a showcase of three comedians who talk about religious tolerance, breaking down prejudices, and their experiences as growing up Indian-American in the US. While comedy is not a traditional form of diplomacy, it is one way in which the State Department works to find commonality among all cultures — even through laughter,” says a US Consulate spokesperson.
Azhar Usman, co-founder of the wildly popular Allah Made Me Funny-Official Muslim Comedy Tour, is heavily influenced by anti-establishmentarian rap lyrics, and left-leaning political writings. Hari Kondabolu’s, a young man reaching for the hand-scalding torch of confrontational comics like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, wants to speak truth to power with confrontational and personal material.
He has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the 2007 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Rajiv Satyal is the fun-size Indian comedian from Ohio whose witty, universal, and TV-clean act resonates with Middle America by covering everything from racial issues to soap bottles to his favorite topic — himself. His former engineer and P&G marketer has repeatedly opened for famous comedians like Tim Allen and Russell Peters.
