STAND-UP BAZAAR

Stand-up shows enjoy enormous popularity today. Stand-up comedians enjoy full concert halls, while some streaming platforms post video recordings of their performances and shows, and bars all over the world host weekly comedy club shows. Each of us has heard the word 'stand-up' at least once: at a concert, at home in front of the TV... Even at work, where the performer is your tiresome boss (including those who like lecturing the team to tone it up, if you will).

Either way, the genre of stand-up involves a comedian performing alone in front of an audience ready to listen to problems, thoughts and observations from life. For the uninitiated, everything seems much simpler: one from the gang tells everyday stories wrapped into jokes. By the way, one of the pioneers of stand-up in the US was Mark Twain (yes, the genius who invented Tom Sawyer).

The Azerbaijani audience also enjoys stand-ups. Comedy Bazaar appeared on the market of spoken humour and comedy a while ago and immediately declared its very serious and ambitious intentions. Like any genre, the world of stand-up has its own rules and subtleties. To understand some of them, we need the counsel of the founding father of Comedy Bazaar Teymur KARIMZADE, closely involved in stand-up, that is—one of the captains of the genre.

"What is Comedy Bazaar—a platform, a production, a means of making money?"

"Comedy Bazaar is a platform that I came up with two and a half years ago. Four years ago, it had a predecessor—stand-up Bazaar. The idea came from Russia, from the stand-up Store in Moscow. But it didn't quite fit the oriental themes. But there was a strong link to the bazaar, which was the real deal! Yet, the relation with stand-up was too narrow. That's how a wider format of performances was born, Comedy Bazaar. I think it is very suitable for Azerbaijani viewers. Very oriental and with a colourful name..."

"Any national features in your personal performances and those of your team, Comedy Bazaar?"

"National features? Since I was born in Baku, I know that the people here have always had a special sense of humour, and I grew up in an environment where people liked to joke. So I think there is a unique flavour in Baku. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I do not have the vernacular specific to Baku. After all, I am a Russian-speaking Azerbaijani. And our way of speaking is known for stretching the endings in words, like using "da" and so on. This is something unique to us, to Azerbaijanis. For example, if I fly to another country, I always proudly emphasise that I am from Azerbaijan, from Baku. Recently, I took part in the Raqmet Comedy Festival in Kazakhstan. It was the biggest stand-u festival in the history of the country, with a large number of comedians from different countries. I represented Azerbaijan there. I had my videographer with me who helped to film our diaries in Astana, when we interviewed famous comedians from Russia and Kazakhstan and invited them to perform in Baku. We plan to organise our own stand-up festival in Azerbaijan next spring. We are developing the concept based on the Comedy Bazaar. Apart from our efforts to get the well-known comedians involved in the project, the most important thing for us is that we want to show that the genre of stand-up comedy in Russian is still popular in Azerbaijan after a short break and the famous KVN team Parni iz Baku. So that the people who remember our country by this humour know that it is possible to visit us again with tours, Azerbaijani performances are always welcome, because Azerbaijanis are the most hospitable nation in the world."

"Think of stand-up as a business card?"

"I believe that any stand-up comedian perming on stage and talking to the audience publicly is an ambassador of certain views and opinions. If we promote information publicly, especially outside Azerbaijan, we should first of all emphasise the importance of Azerbaijani values. After all, our history is our pride."

"For an uninitiated person, stand-up comedy is a different format of regular jokes."

"Comedy has changed over the years. There is progress in this field too, it depends on the dynamics of society. It used to be called Single-Actor Theatre. In fact, the legendary Mikhail Zhvanetsky was also a stand-up comedian. Comedy depends on how much we keep up with the times, how close it is to the contemporary audience. Previously, comedians performed once in a certain period of time. Today, thanks to the Internet, anyone can record a video clip and put it on the web. Stand-up is essentially your own personal drama, your own personal pain. What you live through and want to convey to other people. Accordingly, I believe that you can call yourself whatever you want, but stand-up is when you immerse the listener in your personal story."

"A personal story in public is kind of exposure..."

"For many people it works like psychotherapy, by the way. When a person can calmly talk about his or her problems and worries. Remember the belief which urges the one who sees a nightmare in the dream to tell it to running water? It is the same with going out to the public, with whom you share what you care about, and you see that the issues you raise are interesting to someone else too. I know that many therapies, including rehabs for drug addicts, use the same 'open microphone' technique in group sessions. This approach really helps. I was fortunate enough not to have bad addictions, but I suffered from psychological problems. Few people have avoided them... And when I talk about them on stage, when I try to present them with a pinch of humour, I feel peace inside. From the outside it seems very easy to go on stage and perform. But it takes some time to get prepared, which is quite a labour-intensive process. After the performance, I feel really exhausted. But at least I sleep well afterwards!"

"It seems that stand-up shows are tailored for chamber halls..."

"Tell that to Cem Yilmaz, who performs in front of ten thousands! I understand that originally stand-up comedians performed in backstreets, in some small shacks or bars. Originally, this genre was kind of informal: a story told with a pint of beer in hand or some cocktail in front of your fellows. People would sit around and someone would talk about their problems. People started to listen. Gradually, such stories have become popular. So it all started from small companies, because the increasing number of people wanted to listen to this kind of presentation of personal stories. Each of us, any stand-up comic does his first performances in front of a small group of people. For me, it's sort of a New Year performance, when a child is put on a chair and asked to tell a poem for Santa. By the way, it's everyone's first stand-up in their lives."

"When did you do your first serious stand-up performance?"

"It happened back in 2013 in Chicago. In one of the American bars, where I was talking about being an Azerbaijani. As you can see, we went back to the beginning of our conversation. I was embarrassed that people did not know anything about Azerbaijan, and this situation made it easy to invent some stories about our non-existent traditions. People, listening to such stories, believed them. It hurt me. And I started telling funny stories about where and how I came from, about Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis. "

"Do people not laugh at all?"

"Of course! Not regularly, but it happens. You go on stage being sure that you're going to blow up the hall with your great joke. You believe that it's a very funny story, but... Frankly,  I haven't performed in absolute silence for about five years. But I had such moments. There is no need for non-stop performances in Azerbaijan like in Russia, where the comedians have frequent public appearances—almost three times a day at different venues. This helps them harness their skills and test the material. Even the most sought-after comedian on the stand-up market has had failed performances. But the difference is that with a heavy workload he can write a ten-page sketch for forty minutes and check it for several days. We don't have such an opportunity. That's why our preparation workload is more intense, while the selection of stories is more scrupulous. But we are trying hard to increase the number of appearances."

"Which hall is easier to perform - small or big one?"

"Well, it's easier to perform for a big audience! Because if the joke's funny, it's funny to everyone. And you get the expected reaction. There is even a special format for seating the audience, when people should sit close to each other. And if one of them, for example, starts applauding, it is picked up by the others through the hall. The same applies to laughter, when the audience reflexively starts laughing when someone just starts doing it. But when, say, there are ten people in the audience, it's a big problem. Single laughter is not a good indicator in this situation. An optimal hall for a stand-up performance means a hundred or two hundred people. That's why we don't perform for audiences less than one hundred and fifty seats. This clear indicates what people likes and enjoys."

"Comedy Bazaar has quite a different team in terms of personalities. Is it by chance?"

"Each audience has different demands. As they say, for every product there is a merchant. We do not set any limits. We previously had a period when various people would take the floor, some better, some worse. We selected the best and worked with them. We welcome anyone who has a desire to try himself or herself in this field! Those who perform in our team do that not because they have any specific properties, but because they have shown themselves as good authors in the first place, have seriously prepared and been funny in their performances."

"Do you write your sketches yourselves?"

"Yes. There are writers, of course. In the stand-up language, it's called ghostwriting. But I frown on that. Because when another person gets inside your drama, it's like letting someone into your bedroom. As if a stranger violated your privacy. I don't mind when someone might suggest rearranging the words, getting my own joke funnier with his phrase. That's fine. That's what teamwork is all about. But if someone else writes the joke for you, it's like trying on someone else's T-shirt. You can't make someone laugh at someone else's joke. It's wrong! If you don't have anything to say, it's better to skip the event. It's better not to perform at all!"

"What about the popularity, being in demand?"

"Then one should work hard! Like, for example, unloading a car with sacks and earning money in return. Stand-up is the same. You write a joke - the audience accepts it - you earn money. You got no sketch? Come back next time prepared. It's important to understand that this is a full-fledged job, where people are doing serious business. They produce personal content. Any activity for which you get money turns from a hobby into a profession. Comedy Bazaar has high requirements: you have to write monologues all the time, produce quality material every fortnight. For example, we have five parties in this time slot, and people have to prepare an hour's worth of material for a month. It's hard, I don't deny it, but there's no other way. We are actively preparing for a big concert for five hundred people, it's slated for December. Because we want to be able to give a major touring concert on the stage of the Nizami cinema once a season."

"Is it normal to repeat your jokes? Or do they have to be new ones for every concert?"

"If the event takes place at a venue where there was a stand-up a couple of days ago, it is categorically forbidden to repeat jokes. You can, for example, say that "I have a wife", then tell the audience a joke, and then comes a bloc about your wifie. Two months later, you need to extend the bloc, taking just three or four jokes from it just to refresh the memory, for a short summary. And then you need to present new material. I don't like this approach, by the way. If you perform in front of the audience you know and your joke is good, I don't mind listening to it several times. As my good friend Rasul Gahramanov, a Russian stand-up comedian, says: "I am not friends with unsuccessful comedians. Not because I'm arrogant! If a comedian isn't funny, it means he doesn't work on himself. That means he's lazy. And I'm not friends with lazy people!" I like that. I think the same. If you can't write a new joke as a stand-up comedian, you're either in the wrong business or you're just lazy. Both don't fit our format!"

"What's the source of your jokes?"

"Life. My imagination. You can't just think of inventing a joke. It doesn't work that way. There are several genres of comedy. Take, for example, observational comedy, where you try to make up funny stories based on what you notice, or observe around you. So, recently I was recalling embarrassing stories from my own life where I was the anti-hero. It was very funny because I had the right situations to tell. They will be included in future sketches."

"How can we revive stand-up in Azerbaijan?"

"It has never left Azerbaijan. It's like a grandpa who wanted to take a short nap, but it took up until lunchtime. Now we have to wake him up. Give him his pills. Organise for him a course of mesotherapy, so that he refreshed himself. With new strength and emotions, our grandpa can now tell and share some funny stories. The key principle of comedy is to convey to people a certain story with a certain meaning and invaluable experience."