Funny Desi, Atul Khatri Brings the House Down

Rajender Singh of Star Promotion with Atul Khatri

Rajender Singh of Star Promotion with Atul Khatri Photos: Dr. Nik Nikam

By Vanshika Vipin Varma

STAFFORD: “Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain”, quoted the legendary comedian Charlie Chaplin. This holds so true, and laughing is, and will always be, the best form of therapy. The icing on the cake is when you get to end a hustling week with a comedy act. That’s exactly what Houstonians encountered last weekend as Rajender Singh of Star Promotion in association with Karya Property Management & Amiralli Dodhiya presented the show, ‘Atul Khatri Live Stand Up Comedy’ on Friday, August 17 at the Stafford Civic Centre.

Stand up comedy shows have lately been in vogue in Houston and people fondly await an opportunity to be a part of one. What better could it be than to unwind a laborious week with one such act. An hour or two of laughter riot was a perfect end to a week and keeping in mind the Friday schedules the show was rightly timed at 9 pm.
The show was elegantly anchored by RJ Guddi Shah, who welcomed the spectators and thanked all sponsors. As she rolled out the red carpet for the star of the show, the audience cheered with a round of applause for Atul Khatri, who has been on a one month comical USA and Canada tour.

Atul Khatri-IN02Designating his comedy as his mid-life crisis, Atul narrated how he started comedy. A businessman turned stand up comedian, Atul Khatri set about his career as a Chief Executive Officer of his family run computer business. At the age of 43, Atul decided to have an alternate career. Whilst still being engaged in his business, at first, he tried his hands on comedy by posting jokes on Facebook. He was amongst the three finalists at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival held in Delhi in 2012. However, he rose to fame after winning the ‘CEO’s Got Talent’ award by FremantleMedia in 2014 and became India’s one of the most loved stand up comedian, proving that ‘funny’ has no age. He proclaims himself as ‘Horny Sindhi’. Atul performs at The Comedy Store, The Canvas Laugh Factory and East India Company besides staging at shows across the world. A well known YouTube personality, Atul was rated among the top Indian comedians by CNN-IBN and was the only Indian to perform in the Hong Kong International Comedy Festival.

He is 50 years old and is notoriously named as India’s Oldest English Stand up Comic amongst the comedy circuit. The crowds eagerly awaited the fun show to commence. Atul, in his witty style, claimed that his show will be vulgar, and so it was but hilarious all throughout. Being the only oldie amongst the young standup comedians of today, he jokingly said that they generally get confused if they should call him Dude or Dad. In his usual style, Atul mocked some from the audiences who enjoyed sportingly.

From left: Amiralli Dodhiya, Atul Khatri, Rajender Singh, and Swapnil Agarwal. Photos: Dr. Nik Nikam

From left: Amiralli Dodhiya, Atul Khatri, Rajender Singh, and Swapnil Agarwal. 

Being a Sindhi, he made fun of it and said he always makes sure that he orders soup 1 by 2 even if he is alone. That way he gets more soup. He also humorously added that he is always amazed with how much luggage Indians carry when they travel. They travel with more than they should. If the plane crashes in an island then they can survive forever. He also cracked jokes on Indian government and current political situations.

To ensure he could connect well with the audience, he shared relatable jokes on many of his real life experiences with his family and his two daughters and also on modern day parenting. His act had the audience in splits and the roar could be heard all along. He amusingly added that anytime anyone travels to UK from India, people tell them “Bring back the Kohinoor Diamond”.  His fans had a belly laugh throughout the show. His jokes were a mix of English and Hindi to ensure the audiences relate easily.

Atul concluded the show by inviting the organizer Rajender Singh of Star Promotion, Swapnil Agarwal of Karya Property Management & Amiralli Dodhiya on stage.

Live Sound was provided by Darshak Thacker from Krishna Sounds Productions.

Upcoming show includes AR Rahman Live in Concert on Saturday, September 15 at the Smart Financial Center in Sugar Land.

To buy your tickets and for further information call Rajender Singh at 281-222-4500 or visit starpromotioninc.com