Why Marathi adult stand-up comedy could work

When Ashutosh Dabke, an artist from Girgaum, a suburb in south Mumbai dominated by conservative and orthodox Maharashtrians, decided to launch an adult stand-up comedy show in late April, no one was sure whether he would have any takers. Two months later, Dabke, 45, has succeeded in making them acknowledge his show "Wet Wicket" as the first adult stand-up comedy in Marathi.

Though adult comedy shows are not a novelty in Mumbai, there was widespread scepticism about Dabke’s "sex comedy". At Rs 200 for a two-and-a-half-hour show, he has already staged 15 shows in the last two months. The number is not high compared to other shows but it is unprecedented for a Marathi adult stand-up comedy.

"Majority of the Marathi audience is normally emotional. They ensure that they are politically, socially and morally correct in public life. But there is another class which does not feel awkward laughing at adult jokes. My show is for them."

"My initial job is to attract the people to the theatre," says Dabke. "People are hesitant in watching an adult comedy show, but when they realise there is nothing vulgar and below the belt, they enjoy it."

Dabke justifies his selection of comedy type. "Everybody is naughty to some extent. The phrase 'naughty at forty' has been derived from there. I wanted to provide a pure form of naughty entertainment which is not vulgar."

Describing the women in his neighbourhood, he knowingly points to their lack of dressing sense. "My neighbour goes to buy vegetables in the market. She stands in front of the vendor, leans towards him and asks for the rate of tomatoes. Tell me, where will the poor vendor will look at? He is bound to sell the tomatoes at the price she asks for," he says imitating the women in typical risqué fashion.

The idea of adult comedy clicked when Dabke was writing a few capsules for sister Aparna Shahane’s Internet channel "Web Talkies". He used to write content which would take 20 minutes to read out, whereas, the need was for a mere five minutes. "I realised at that point that I could use the remaining content in a separate show," Dabke says.

Dabke believes being middle-aged is working in his favour. "The women respond loudly to my adult comments because they know whatever I am saying is based on personal experience. In fact, women enjoy the show more than men. Till date not a single woman has complained against the show’s content," Dabke says.