A laugh to remember

Amidst all the dust and clatter created by various happenings including the inauguration of national train services, incomplete flyovers and unexpected temperature drops, there happened to be a Blackfish performance tucked away in one corner of the city as well. Sadly, it went past almost unnoticed.

Blackfish, our very own improvisational comedy troupe, welcomed a guest performance by Yasser Salehjee, a former member who ventured off to the warmth of Dubai after spending over three years with them. While one of their most recent recruits, Hadi Habib, performed well, absent from the stage was Olsen Almeida who was out of the country and was missed throughout the snotty scenes and goofy characters he seems to enact ever so well.

While the audience comprised a bunch of energetic youths who had endured a rather chilly evening to position themselves in the auditorium, the turnout was surprisingly low. According to Sami Shah, actor and coordinator of Blackfish, low turnout was expected and the wedding season was to be blamed for that: “Summer is always the best time for us as we can easily fill 300 to 350 people in the auditorium then.”

Sami added that they thought “the audience was great and as we always appreciate a higher turnout, getting the right kind of audience is also imperative towards the success of Blackfish’s performance.” Blackfish performs their games from a list of about a 100 they have chosen. They rotate their selections regularly, catering to the audience, the event backdrop and their current mood. Although they tend to repeat a few of the popular ones frequently, as happened in this very performance, the difference in topics and situations (due to audience involvement) makes them anything but boring.

The night opened with the Emotional Orchestra, where each member was assigned an emotion, as yelled out by the crowd, and they had to devise a sound that would aptly describe it. Sami, taking up the role of an orchestra coordinator, would randomly point at a member to illustrate that emotion with the sound. Things turned funnier when the audience was asked to join in, and as Sami acted out Karachi’s traffic police, waving his arms around with audible emotions flying all round, all were left in a thoroughly justified state of hysteria.

Blackfish’s history dates back to 2002 when Saad Haroon founded this group after realising that there exists a massive room for stand-up comedy in the country. Four years since and after witnessing numerous departures and fresh arrivals, Blackfish has still managed to perform regular Sunday shows for public as well as corporate events. They have also been chosen by the British Council to represent Pakistan in an international youth theater festival in ManchesterKarachi’s very first comedy festival to be held this week.

The troupe’s performance depends upon the nature of the audience which is probably why they make huge efforts to get the audience speaking and invite the crowd to hurl game topics at them. Sami Shah, who has recently cut down his involvement with the group due to other commitments, carries out the coordinator’s role competently. Moving about on-stage, he delivers regular shout-outs to the cast, explaining the games and constantly reminding the crowd of Blackfish’s PG nature and strictly no-adult-topic policy (in vain most of the times).

While the temporary void left by Olsen’s absence was unable to be filled, (Olsen was labelled as Blackfish’s best physical performer by Sami), Hadi’s second on-stage stint –– although received well by the crowd –– left him a bit wanting. His constant laughing at Faris’ and Cyrus’ quick-witted creativeness and on-the-spot jokes left his performance hanging as things became stagnant for a moment or two while everyone waited for Hadi’s act to follow. And as Yasser lent the experienced hand, Faris and Cyrus made improvisational comedy look simple.

Although inviting a young actor on-stage for a revamped version of Cluedo (guessing who was killed where and with what) was a mistake on Blackfish’s part, the efforts and improvisation while the game seemed a lost cause cast a wave of laughter amongst the on-lookers.

“In situations like these, we try spinning it as much as we can to make it as interesting as possible,” commented Sami in the aftermath. And “spin it” they did remarkably well, to round up another well-received and pleasing performance.

© Faras Ghani 2007

Published in Images (Dawn) 14th Jan 2007