We sing. We are fluent in tabla. We stick saris to our bodies. We may not doctor, but there is little this 3-man Indian sketch comedy troupe cannot do.
What do Siblings of Doctors do?
Name: Siblings of Doctors
Age: 6 months
Birthday: January 12, 2008
College: Not Columbia
Major: Comedy Pre-Med
Favorite Color: Clinical White
Favorite Book: IT
Favorite Movie: Top Gun
Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Quote: It is what it is
Favorite Jokes: Existentialist
ones involving major thoroughfares and poultry
Ranjit’s least fave activity
Someone who stalked Rasika
Yay Audience!
Our Photo Albums
White Girls Love SOD
Serena May © 2008
Talented Trio Star in ‘Siblings of Doctors’
By MICHEL W. POTTS
Special to India-West
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—The good news is, “Siblings of Doctors Presents Two-Night Stand,” a comedy revue of sketches and songs performed by Rasika Mathur, Danny Pudi, and Ranjit Souri, was a hit with both Americans and Indo-Americans when it played May 29 and 30 at the Second City Studio Theatre here.
The bad news is, as good and as funny as this 40-minute show was, there’s no telling when the trio will team up again and put on more sold out shows like they had last month.
Mathur is best known for her work as a regular cast member of MTV's “Wild 'n' Out.” She has also made appearances on such sitcoms as “My Name is Earl,” “Weeds,” “Carpoolers,” the defunct Pamela Anderson circus “Stacked,” “FreeRide” and The Andy Dick Show.
Pudi, the lanky, rubber-limbed actor and comedian who has been dubbed an "Indian Gumby," can currently be seen on the ABC Family Network's “Greek,” and will be appearing in the soon to be released films “The House Bunny” and “Thunder Geniuses.”
Souri has performed at comedy festivals in Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco, and has co-written and performed numerous comedy shows for the stage with such groups as Stir-Friday Night! and Cupid Players. He is also an essayist whose work is featured in The Best American Essays 2007.
The trio met and first worked together several years ago when they were members of Chicago's premier Asian-American comedy troupe, Stir-Friday Night! “But we all missed the collaboration and the camaraderie we had,” Pudi, who was the one who made the initial phone call that reunited the group, told India-West.
Though he had done television work, “the one thing I really missed was doing good, creative work with other talented artists, especially people who have different talents,” he added.
Since bringing their talents together and writing their own material, the trio played the Chicago Sketch Fest and the San Francisco Sketch Fest earlier this year. But rather than waiting for another comedy sketch fest to be scheduled, they came up with their own show to take on the road.
Mathur shines when she plays Nilam Auntie, a brassy, 50-something Indian women who has never married but happily provides love and marital advice to young brides, and as a thoroughly brainless bimbo delivering her high school Valedictorian speech.
Her “Sari Rap,” which debuted as a video at the recent Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, is “for me is a way to explain how to tie a sari for white people and for Indian people who don’t know how to tie to and who are sort of incompetent about their culture,” Mathur explained.
“The generation of women I’ve grown up with, none of us really know how to tie it. Even our mothers need help from an elder.”
Pudi is riotous in the sketch where he plays an actor who performs a variety of dramatic farts, from the sublime to the ridiculous, as part of his audition for a role. When he has exhausted every flatulent possibility, he expectantly turns to the casting director, played by Mathur. “No,” Mathur says, with a wearied look. “I said, Do you play farce?”
“I’m the one who’s a little bit more of a physical type of comedian,” Pudi said. “So in the pieces that require physical stuff and trying out things, they’ll toss ideas my way and I see what we can do with it.”
In “Comfortably Kazoo,” the trio also does a tribute to “the dark side of Pink Floyd Experience,” with all of them playing the song “Great Gig in the Sky” on kazoos and each doing their on riff on the melody.
But the most inspired piece of the show is Pudi and Souri’s “Who’s the Bowler?” which is based of the comedy classic "Who's on First?" by the team of Abbott and Costello, who first performed the sketch for a national radio audience in March of 1938 when they joined the cast of the Kate Smith Hour radio program. The routine later was featured in the team's 1940 film debut, “One Night in the Tropics.”
In the classic routine, Abbott, who has landed a job as a baseball coach for the New York Yankees, explains to a befuddled Costello that on his team the players out on the field consists of Who's on first, What's on second and I Don't Know is on third.”
The idea of doing an Indian version of the sketch, using cricket instead of baseball, had been germinating in the back of Souri’s mind for many years until he took a writing class in which the teacher directed the students to develop an idea they had been harboring for a while but never put down on paper.
“So it was a good writing assignment, basically,” Souri laughingly told India-West.
Although many today have never heard the original Abbott and Costello classic, “I think a vast majority of people get it once we get into the word play,” Souri said. “I have the feeling that routine kind of transcends even Abbott and Costello. I think there are many people who recognize that scene even if they don’t know who Abbott and Costello were.”
Even though he does a majority of the writing for the show, “the one thing I like about this trio is that we all bring different strengths to the table,” Souri said. “I tend to be the straight man and write quite a bit. But we write all the material collaboratively. We write together via conference call, email and chat, which is not an easy way to write.”
Although no date has been scheduled for the next outing of Siblings of Doctors, future show information will be announced on their www.siblingsofdoctors.com website
