The Comedy Store is bringing hardcore stand-up shows to Mumbai... Soon, it will even open a club here. But are we ready to go beyond slapstick?

Picture this being said on a live show: "I'm a Jew, but I'm not a practising Jew. If I were, I'd have picked out the Muslim in this crowd and forcibly occupied his seat." Oops! That's one joke Ian Stone probably won't be allowed to crack when he's performing in the city this week.

The British stand-up artiste and two others, Paul Tonkinson and Sean Meo, arrive in Mumbai on June 4 along with Don Word, founder of The Comedy Store, UK, for three performances and a recce of what the Indian audience wants. Later this year, The Comedy Store will set up shop at Phoenix Mills. But can we laugh at ourselves? True, our television sets are bursting with multiple seasons of Laughter Challenge, the never-ending Comedy Circus, kiddie acts on Chhote Miyan and the recently launched Hans Baliye (couple comic acts), but there still are full-stops to humour as Indians see it.

Word's word

Don Word claims that his team and he are perfectly aware of the boundaries they can't afford to cross while performing in the city. "We'd never deliberately poke fun at anyone," he asserts. Deepak Bedi, CEO, Horseshoe Entertainment, who is helping bring down The Comedy Store seconds that, "We don't want to offend anyone.

Of course, a comic will make fun of anything. It takes an intelligent human being to laugh at himself."

Most of India still sniggers at the problems of excess weight, people who stutter, men with female tendencies (and vice versa), homosexuality and eunuchs. Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, Ogilvy South Asia agrees. He even goes to the extent of saying that Indians don't really have a sense of humour.u00a0

"We're a thin-skinned lot... we can't laugh at ourselves, we're offended easily," he states.