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Whose laugh is it anyway?

The only goal of the humour clubs is to bring smiles on the faces of the people

HUMOUR ACT A laughter show in progress at a club

A pleasant faced convenor welcomes the gathering, announces the program highlights, tells us that we are there to spend an evening of mirth - full of jokes, skits and other humour-oriented subjects.He keeps his word. Two hours spent in the premises does leave us chuckling. If we have not brought our kids with us for whatever reason, we go home to tell them of the evening's laughs to laugh again. The elders in the family join in the laughter, but are curious to know more about this capacity to laugh that they found in themselves. The next meeting sees the entire household enjoying the jokes full-heartedly. The humour was healthy, fit for all age groups. Every member of the family participates, takes home an award or two and comes yet again for the next meet with other interested friends. These laughter - filled occasions become a habit. How can one resist a good laugh? Be it Visakha Humour Club or the Creative Comedy Club, the scene remains the same. The goal of these clubs is to provide pure, clean entertainment and bring out the (sense of) humour in all of us. When Ravi Kondala Rao, the actor-writer thought up this idea of show -casing the humour-potency existing within all of us on a regular basis, the idea quickly took the form of The Visakha Humor Club, involving a supportive team consisting of efficient committed persons like Khandavilli Sivarama Krishana, Nanduri Prabhakar and others. The venue became the simple Prema Samajam hall that soon got filled to capacity with high thinking people. The club said `come, enjoy!' and people did. Scene shifts to Creative Comedy Club, originally started as a collaborative effort from `Hasam Patrika', a magazine promoting humor and music, Ha for haasyam and sam for sangeetham. Meda Mastan Reddy and Talabhaktula Lakshmi Prasad two enthusiasts, wished to spread Hasam's activities through a club of the same name.The wish, when expressed to the editor Raja, was instantaneously converted into a format, and several Hasam Clubs sprung all over the state, on Ugadi day of the year 2004 simultaneously. The clubs had a mix of music, jokes, parody songs skits etc as entertainment. The venue at Visakhapatnam was District Central library at first. The club met every third Sunday of the month. There was no clash with Visakha Humor Club's meets of the second Sunday of the month. People could attend all the events. After a run of 78 issues Hasam magazine closed down. The clubs didn't. They continued to revive people's spirit and zest for living with the essential ingredient of humour intact. The club at Visakha was renamed Creative Comedy Club. Venue shifted to Prema Samajam for a while. The Hasam management stayed in the race with an extended activity called Hasam Publications, publishing relevant books on their pet subjects with support extended by their well-wisher founder Vara Prasada Reddy of Santha Biotecs. CCC' s venue changed constantly due to expanded participation from audience, as well as dignitaries of Vizag who attended these meets. The dedication of Mastan Reddy and Lakshmi Prasad was only too apparent when they shifted venue to the air-conditioned hall of Visakha Public Library in order to provide more comfort. Again they faced a problem in accommodating the increased audience, went to Jana Sikshana Samsthan. Involvement from VUDA chiefs gave CCC club a breather when Gurajada Kalakshetram was offered as venue .the occasional drizzle was tolerated and when the downpour became inconvenient they shuffled into the VUDA children's theatre. Rain or shine, the clubs continue to entertain, give cash awards to winner participants, and lure young and old alike. Their only goal is to bring smiles on the faces of the people of Vizag. They say, "Whose laugh is it anyway"?

SUGUNA

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