Alexperience - A Successful Experiment

Towards the end of #Alexperience yesterday (Singapore, Carnival Cinemas; 21/Jan/23), Alexander Babu won me over completely.

Not because he was energy-personified for over three hours having a 1000+ audience spellbound.

Not because he touched up on subjects dear to one’s heart – music, Ilaiyaraaja.

Not because he was making fun of ‘Ji!’ and complimenting him in a back-handed way!

Not because his humour was clean and did not make you squirm in your seats.

But because he used the second line of the great Kaniyan Poonkundranar’s Purananooru #192.

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We all have heard and even used it (without realizing its full potent):

யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்

Well, it is perhaps the most cliched Tamil expression (or a line from a verse) after வாய்மையே வெல்லும், கற்றது கை மண் அளவு, வீழ்வேன் என்று நினைத்தாயோ… you get the drift.

You see, Mr Poonkundranar wrote this poem more than 2.5 eons ago. But it kind of became famous after it was inscribed in UN HQ in NY. More famous after Kalam spoke about it in a conference in Europe and of course entered pan-India (!) mainstream after Modi referred to in his speech during 74^th UNGA.

What does it mean?
Simbly and Humbly:

Every place is ours. Everyone is our kith and kin.

(Maybe Putin took this to his heart and forgot that it takes Zelenskyy also to tango! 😊)

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Using this as the starting premise, Alex in his new show #Alexperience (after the wildly successful Alex In Wonderland – subtitled in 10 languages on Amazon Prime – Dei!), dived headlong into his USP: Music.

Instead of ploughing through many songs, he chose to stick to one song (whutt?) and map from there.

The song was தேர் கொண்டு சென்றவன் from the movie எனக்குள் ஒருவன்.

He got into it proper & finally went west to God’s own land & picked up a song from ஙஞணநமன Malayalam: Vaalittezhuthiya Neela Kadakannil from the movie Onnanu Nammal with the same tune/raga.  😊 That பீலி வீஷி ஆடும் மாஆஆமயிஇஇலோ briga was hilarious!

Discussed it threadbare too and finally allowed us to go – reluctantly – for both parties!

Here is the YouTube of the song... (read it like Blue Sattai Maaran 🤣)

The show had everything that you can expect from Alex.

• Music – his voice is a marvel - pitch-perfect even after three hours of standing and walking, jiving and doing some Mohanlal moves (actually those don’t count!).
• Instruments – Slew of percussion instruments including the beauty -Parai: பறை, harmonium and what not.
• His knowledge and faultless execution: singing and playing of the instruments were above par for even ‘paarsaarathyswamisabhamaamas’ like me 😊
• Clean humour – Except for the short 30 seconds when he had to kinda explain/unexplain Vairamuthu’s touch-and-go line in the first stanza of the Tamil song, the humour was clean as a whistle. Of course, being from Tamil Nadu, you have the liberty to pull Modi’s legs and have no elbow room even to talk about Stalin, which is a bit… பிழைப்பு நடத்தணும் இல்லையாப்பா! (Interestingly, some of those jokes about Modi did not elicit as much a response as he would perhaps have got in Chennai or Madurai, I felt!)

He did touch upon a few elephants in the room - #MeToo (start from your home!), #WomenEmpowerment (we will get there; but don’t take away our benefits 😊)…

Yeah, he could have gone easy on the ragging of Malayalam language in itself. After the initial laughs, poor Gayatri and Gowri – perhaps the only two Mallus in the crowd felt like the punching bags. That cute rejoinder by someone in the crowd, ‘Alex! Your Dubai programme is cancelled!’ kind of summarized it!

Some of the flows were predictable – Vairamuthu and #MeToo, the picturization of great Ilaiyaraja songs being screwed up badly, Malayalam language/movies and their making… But then, I am perhaps an old 90’s kid! 😉

And whenever he played the Tabla & Dholak, the words were drowned out. Can correct it by Monday, I suppose?

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Coming back…

So, what was the second line of Mr KP that Alex used to end the programme?

தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர் தர வாரா!

(Good and Bad don’t happen due to others – it is all yours!)

This has been my go-to axiom for long and has helped me to approach life in a much better manner. It is all in your hands and as Alex said, ‘Experienssss is a choice!’ (No, Nithy was not spared; neither was Ravi Ashwin who made it to the programme – அவராலே மட்டும்தான் தூஸ்ரா போட முடியுமா?!) and it is the ‘pattern’ one must seek to follow!

Thanks for that, Alex. 🙏

It was my first live stand-up comedy show. I thoroughly enjoyed it with good company and popcorn, of course!

I believe Monday’s show is sold out. I am sure you will get it on OTT at some stage. Have fun!

#Alexperience 3.5/5 #sriGINthoughts #standup_comedy