Try standup comedy, Shekhar Suman exhorts women

When it comes to judging a comedy show, Shekhar Suman has been there and done that! But the actor rues that Indian women are still shying from stand-up comedy.

"I think women have some great comic talent but they would not consider doing that. I feel somewhere they consider themselves unfeminine to be on stage. They feel that it is essentially a male dominated field. More females and more ladies should come," Shekhar told IANS.

In last few years, the actor-cum-host has judged laughter-based shows like "Comedy Circus", "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge" and "The Great Indian Comedy Show". The 52-year-old is yet again seen in the judge's seat for Life OK's new rib-tickling show "Laugh India Laugh".

He admits stand-up comedian Bharti is an exception, but sometimes her comic sense gets repetitive.

Explaining his point of view, he said: "Bharti, the way she looks, she evokes laughter. You don't have to be in that stereotypical mould to make people laugh. After a point, it gets repetitive. How many times you will say that 'I am fat' and 'I am like an elephant'? How many times can you hear that? Eventually, everything gets boring."

A well-written script is the key behind the success of a comedy show, feels Shekhar and stresses upon the fact that "there has to be fresh content. Content is the king. The script should be content driven."

Making people laugh is a tougher job and requires innovative ideas.

"Comedy is very challenging. In singing, you like a song and you can here it over and over again. In humour, you want to hear something new, so you have to get fresher content as compared to what you have done before. Everybody can dance, everybody can sing but it is very, very difficult to make someone laugh," he said.

Asked what according to him makes an entertainer a complete package, he replied in tongue-in-cheek manner saying, "Jack of all trades and master of some."