KARACHI, Dec 21: Pakistani audiences are not unfamiliar with stand-up comedy. However, in Pakistan it has not assumed the status of an art form that it has in such countries as the United States and the United Kingdom. While comedy in our part of the world is readily associated with skits and plays, a stand-up act is considered a part of it.It was refreshing to see a great many young and a few old comedy lovers turn up to witness US-based Ayesha Rokadia and her friends present a humorous show at the T2F on Tuesday evening. The subject of their act was Stories of humiliation .

First up was Sami Shah. His story was about how he was expelled from school when he was in Grade 8 on the charges of “dealing in pornography”. He talked about the 1980s and '90s when technology had not achieved wonders like downloading things from the internet, which was why he resorted to drawing things on a sheaf of papers that were not appreciated in school. As could be guessed, his narration led to the point where he was accidentally caught during a bag-check routine causing him embarrassment. The stint was well-received and particularly had the younger lot in stitches.

This was followed by Ishma Alvi (Sami's wife) who spoke on women-related issues with complete abandon, but to a great extent drew a blank. Her act was devoid of witty one-liners and punches, which never let it gain the requisite momentum.

Then Saad Haroon appeared and told the tale of his religious paternal side of the family who one day made him visit a mosque to break the fast, while he was not fasting. He began by coming up with a clever observation that things had come to a certain point in our society that your parents didn't warn or stop you from meeting strangers but instead said, “Don't go outside where strangers live.” His performance was peppered with anecdotal flair, aided by funny facial expressions.

The penultimate act was presented by Omar who recounted the tale involving him and his friends who, while studying in the US a year before 9/11, tried to make good use of Thanksgiving Holiday (that they were experiencing for the first time) on university campus. His narration sounded more real and personal as he likened the friends' quest for food to a Russian novel, and the eventual messing up of things (the terrible use of microwave and the smoke filling the dorm etc). It was a nice performance primarily because it did not sound like a made-up joke.

Finally Ayesha Rokadia in a pleasingly irreverent style gave a rather quickish account of her teenage life when she left for Connecticut from Karachi to study and her first date leading to the eventual first kiss. She built up the story pretty well climaxing it to the point that when she was about to achieve her goal, she let out a huge burp, spoiling all the earlier efforts.