Last Wednesday I went to watch Jit Murad’s stand up comedy, at Noreen's invitation. It was okay I suppose. Well more than okay because he managed to make me laugh. And he did make Kamil who was a bit apprehensive about going, laugh uproariously.
He looked so scrawny. And geeky. And well of course familiar.
He did you know… divulge a bit of info about him. Okay, before we went in, I was studying his pic at the box office with Ian and I commented that I had heard he has mat salleh’s blood in him. “But where is it ? I can’t see any mat salleh. I can see that he is Arabic, though…”
Well they, whoever they are, were right. It just so happens that I too, was right. Apparently, his momma is half Liverpulian and half Malay and his poppa is half Yemeni and half Indian. So there you go.
I had never gone to catch a stand-up comedy show before. But I was game. Although I have never seen Jit as a comic or acting in comedies….Maybe that was more my fault than his. Anyway, I know sometimes that comediannes get heckled or worse involve the audience, so when I found myself sitting in the middle, with empty seats on the front row before me, I knew that Jit can see me clearly. And hoped that he is one of the polite ones that doesn’t deliver put downs to people who paid to see him.
Luckily he didn’t.
Anyway, as I had never ever been to see live comedy, I was rather curious to see who would be my fellow audience. I saw loads of Chinese, both the stylish ones and the selamba badak don’t care ones, I saw a few Indians and quite a lot of mat sallehs. I saw maybe a handful of Malays. And please imagine the hand of a child when I say handful.
Jit was quite political and he joked about the Malays a lot, which sorted the mystery of the almost non-existant Malays in the audience. Malays I tell you are one race who cannot tahan if people talk about them.
Jit to me, although is very rojak like most Malays are, is a Malay nonetheless and who better to know about what Malays are about than one of our own ? Sure he has all these other blood in him, but he was raised, to some extent the Malay way. His parents are Bapak and Mak. The mat salleh maternal grandmother is sometimes Opah and sometimes Gramps. The Opah’s hubby is Tok. He by his admission eats belacan. And he speaks a mixture of Malay, Utara Malay (from the sound of it) and English with his family.
So he did say a few things about the Malays. They were true observations, not fabricated. It made me laugh and it made me think, well… don’t I know it. I have always admired how the Brits can laugh about themselves. About their stiff upper-lip, about their hooliganism, even about their bad teeth ! One of my favourite shows when I was in England is or was called Goodness Gracious Me. The main actors are 4 British Indians who made a joke about being Indian. About the drama, about the need for Indian children to be pharmacists or doctors and a hoarde of other things that are decidedly Indian (according to them, of course).
I love the fact that he laughed at himself, and talked about his family. Especially about his “Ya, You” aunties (plus his mom, of course). And I adore the fact that he is a verocious reader. Make no mistake, I have always found readers, clever. A verocious one superbly so. To talk like he did, one would have to have a bloody good command of the language, any language and definitely your brain has to be whirring fast enough.
I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I am not funny. A definite pre-requisite if you want to do stand up.
So Jit Murad made me laugh. I enjoyed it. He is crude and swears quite a lot and very, very frank.
Granted that I do not agree with some of his materials, but that is his right, everybody has the right to have an opinion, and his thoughts, and everybody has a right to have those too and as he put it, he has the mike.
Would I recommend to pay almost RM 70 to see him ? Only if you have an open mind.
So there you go.
He looked so scrawny. And geeky. And well of course familiar.
He did you know… divulge a bit of info about him. Okay, before we went in, I was studying his pic at the box office with Ian and I commented that I had heard he has mat salleh’s blood in him. “But where is it ? I can’t see any mat salleh. I can see that he is Arabic, though…”
Well they, whoever they are, were right. It just so happens that I too, was right. Apparently, his momma is half Liverpulian and half Malay and his poppa is half Yemeni and half Indian. So there you go.
I had never gone to catch a stand-up comedy show before. But I was game. Although I have never seen Jit as a comic or acting in comedies….Maybe that was more my fault than his. Anyway, I know sometimes that comediannes get heckled or worse involve the audience, so when I found myself sitting in the middle, with empty seats on the front row before me, I knew that Jit can see me clearly. And hoped that he is one of the polite ones that doesn’t deliver put downs to people who paid to see him.
Luckily he didn’t.
Anyway, as I had never ever been to see live comedy, I was rather curious to see who would be my fellow audience. I saw loads of Chinese, both the stylish ones and the selamba badak don’t care ones, I saw a few Indians and quite a lot of mat sallehs. I saw maybe a handful of Malays. And please imagine the hand of a child when I say handful.
Jit was quite political and he joked about the Malays a lot, which sorted the mystery of the almost non-existant Malays in the audience. Malays I tell you are one race who cannot tahan if people talk about them.
Jit to me, although is very rojak like most Malays are, is a Malay nonetheless and who better to know about what Malays are about than one of our own ? Sure he has all these other blood in him, but he was raised, to some extent the Malay way. His parents are Bapak and Mak. The mat salleh maternal grandmother is sometimes Opah and sometimes Gramps. The Opah’s hubby is Tok. He by his admission eats belacan. And he speaks a mixture of Malay, Utara Malay (from the sound of it) and English with his family.
So he did say a few things about the Malays. They were true observations, not fabricated. It made me laugh and it made me think, well… don’t I know it. I have always admired how the Brits can laugh about themselves. About their stiff upper-lip, about their hooliganism, even about their bad teeth ! One of my favourite shows when I was in England is or was called Goodness Gracious Me. The main actors are 4 British Indians who made a joke about being Indian. About the drama, about the need for Indian children to be pharmacists or doctors and a hoarde of other things that are decidedly Indian (according to them, of course).
I love the fact that he laughed at himself, and talked about his family. Especially about his “Ya, You” aunties (plus his mom, of course). And I adore the fact that he is a verocious reader. Make no mistake, I have always found readers, clever. A verocious one superbly so. To talk like he did, one would have to have a bloody good command of the language, any language and definitely your brain has to be whirring fast enough.
I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I am not funny. A definite pre-requisite if you want to do stand up.
So Jit Murad made me laugh. I enjoyed it. He is crude and swears quite a lot and very, very frank.
Granted that I do not agree with some of his materials, but that is his right, everybody has the right to have an opinion, and his thoughts, and everybody has a right to have those too and as he put it, he has the mike.
Would I recommend to pay almost RM 70 to see him ? Only if you have an open mind.
So there you go.
No comments:
Post a Comment