My humour is observational, says Ash Chandler

Comedy comes naturally to him and his jokes are situational for a reason. Comedian Ash Chandler’s latest public show Ash…and you shall receive next week, is said to be a “roller coaster ride of stand up, music and a host of surprises.”

Chandler asserts that stand up comedy is one of the most difficult things to do. “I still get butterflies in my stomach each time I am to perform, because it’s a new game each time — the audience, the comedy, the reaction… everything is different!” His latest show features The Ash Trays, a group of serious musicians trying to keep a straight face and The Fabulous Ashettes.

“My humour is observational,” defines Chandler, “I tell people that I am not funny, but I think you are. What I do is show them a mirror.” He feels that stand up in India is at a fledgling stage. “I remember when I did one of my first shows in India, a lady came up to me saying, ‘You were really good…but why did you not call a performer,’” he recollects.

Ash has displayed his comic side across five continents. However, India and the US are his chief performance turfs. Ask him how he flavours his comedy in two contrasting nations and he explains, “You can do a three-hour stand up comedy solely on religion in the US; but you cannot do even a three second humour on the same in India.”

Chandler will also be featuring in the upcoming English language film Love Wrinkle Free — which, as Chandler describes it, is a story about a middle-aged Goan guy who is younger than his wife, and as he puts it, “it is a sweet romantic film”. Chandler was also seen in the films My Bollywood Bride, Shikhar, Mixed Doubles and, more recently, Guzaarish. He also did a Tamil film titled Little John.

Perhaps his ability to dabble in such multilingual ventures comes from his multicultural influence — his dad is Punjabi while his mom is Tamil. “Language comes easy to me,” he adds.