The Theatrics group at the Boston Chapter of the Network of South Asian Professionals (NetSAP-Boston) staged "Netsap Comedy Mela" at the Comedy Connection in Faneuil Hall in Boston on May 17. It was a successful event with just over 100 people in attendance (a great draw on a weekday nite)! The theatrics group, "Team Masti Boston", practiced for 2 months this spring to stage this event, and their hard work paid off!

The show was directed by Usha Govindarajulu, Theatrics Chair, NetSAP-Boston and produced by Vijay Daryanani, Treasurer and Sports Director, NetSAP-Boston. The cast included: Prashanth Cherukuri, Pallavi Gupta, Sarbani Hazra, Raghu Kotrike, John Meehan, Ravi Shahani, and Corey Manning. The crew included: Rekha Chikka, Neesha Tandon, and Raghu Kotrike. Everyone including the director, cast, and crew put in a concerted effort to bring about this fortuitous event.

Corey Manning, a local area comedian, who had gotten a flavor of South Asian comedy earlier this year by performing in Rahul Siddharth's show, hosted the Comedy Mela. The host lead the show and kept the audience going in between skits and standup acts, by juicing up the show with his own standup comedy routines, especially an entertaining headliner with another standup comedian. There were six comedy skits, written by the director, which were spaced between standup pieces.

All acts were well received by the audience who laughed watching skits making fun of online dating, American Express, and airport security. Standup pieces were performed by newcomers to comedy, Masala Mami (Sarbani Hazra) and Roger and Pat (Prashanth Cherukuri and Ravi Shahani). Masala Mami paved a new path for desi female comedians and Roger and Pat gave an extended standup piece from the desi male perspective.

After last year's success of "Bend It Like Auntie", which Usha wrote and produced, she was very pleased by the success of the "Comedy Mela". Her experiment from a play with comedy into a show with comedy skits was a dream come true. She remarked, "All my life, I thought about writing comedy, but I never thought I would have a real opportunity to make this happen and the chance to write some material and stage it was exciting. The addition of standup pieces by the cast made it a solid show. I'm very proud of the cast and crew for their commitment and performance."

NetSAP-Boston was pleased by the success of the event. Vijay noted, "First a resoundingly successful play and now a wonderfully entertaining comedy mela...who could imagine that NetSAP Boston has come so far in such a short time..."  Tushneem Dharmagadda, NetSAP Advisor and Web Director, stated "NetSAP Theatrics continued on the success of "Bend it Like Auntie" with a successful "Comedy Mela" this year. The event gave an opportunity to fellow South Asian Professionals to show their talent in standup comedy. We plan to make theatric events an annual feature to promote theater in the community and encourage interested people to join us in this endeavor."

Comedy Mela was sponsored by Kabob & Curry of Providence, Kashmir Foods & Spices and TiE-Boston.

Keep an eye out on their website, www.netsapboston.org, as NetSAP-Boston continues in its effort to support the South Asian theatrics community.

About NetSAP-Boston:
Founded in 1995, the Network of South Asian Professionals of Boston (NetSAP-Boston) is a professional, 501c(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the professional, political, cultural and civic needs of the South Asian community in the Greater Boston area. We seek to unite South Asian professionals, nurture leadership, and build partnerships in the New England area through professional programs, networking events, and community service efforts. NetSAP-Boston is part of NetIP-NA, The Network of Indian Professionals, North America. For more information on events, membership and other initiatives, visit www.netsapboston.org. To learn more about NetIP North America and other chapters in other cities, visit www.netip.org.

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