Ohio, Jan 1 (TruthDive):
A trio of Indian origin comedians – Rajiv Satyal, Hari Kondabolu and Azhar Osman will be on an US sponsored Indian tour in an effort to strengthen ties and spread religious harmony. The state department officially announced the trip.
Victoria Nuland, a State Department official said, “We are, indeed, sending an Indian-American comedy group,” adding, “I believe the full tour costs about $100,000. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi is supporting them with a grant of $88,000.”
The tour named “Make Chai, Not War” will be on from January 4th to 17th and will perform in seven Indian cities: Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Patna, Kolkata, Durgapur and Mumbai. Nuland cited it as “part of our regular global cultural exchange program that we do around the world,” explaining, “The reason we decided to support this tour is because among the things that they are known for is their talk about religious tolerance, about the importance of breaking down prejudices, and about the positive experiences they had growing up as Indian-Americans in the United States.”
“In addition to doing shows, they’ll also be holding audience discussions on these issues of religious tolerance and doing workshops and having some interviews with the press,” added Nuland.
Rajiv Satyal, who is best known as “The Funny Indian” said, “I’m pretty much going to do my act. But the tone changes, if I do a lot of Indian jokes with an Indian audience, it’s a ‘you guys know what I’m talking about’ thing, whereas, if I’m in Alabama, it’s more explanatory.”
“It’s cool to be able to go to India because that’s where a lot of religious strife has been happening,” he said. “We’re not even really religious on stage. We might do some religious jokes, but it’s more just bringing people together,” he added.
Usman, who is a Muslim is known for his religious swipes. “I never make religion the butt of my jokes,” he said, adding, “I target stupidity, human foibles and fundamentalism.”
source: http://www.truthdive.com / posted by Mohan Ramraj / January 12th, 2012