AHM | I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken | Part II at Schema : more than ethnic

AHM | I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken | Part II

I'm still chuckling over the "Get Down With Your Inner Brown" magical pill that'll turn non-Indo-Canadians, well, brown. So it appears in the live sketch "Magical Potion" from one of the my myriad of sketches showcased in I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken, performed by stellar comedic geniuses behind Bollywood Shenanigans, in collaboration with South Asian Arts

Yesterday's matinee performance of the "Best of" I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken came with many a sketch where I just had to mouth, "Oh no, you didn't!" as they tackled issues such as identity, diaspora, marital abuse, generational clashes, class, and sex. The sketch "What's For Dinner?" dealt with issues of "fitting-in" a "White Canada." While, "Are You Really A Terrorist?" handled with aplomp and humour, I might add, the sensitive issue of racial profiling.

The "Typical Brown Girl" sketches had me smirking with delight, as I recognized her attitude in many a -- well, let's just say, many a girl in Vancouver. You know, the bling-styled, brand-name obsessed, club-hopping, "I'm going to date you because you have a Mercedes" and "I'm going to totally tell you that we're best friends forever, and then I'm going to totally talk smack about you behind your back" (Typical Brown Girl actually spews these bon mots out continously!).

Yes, there were some Bollywood-film teasers with some lively dance routines thrown in for good measure. But I have to say my favorite sketches featured Bollywood Shenanigans' Leena Manro as "Dirty Auntie" and Munish Sharma as a passionate "Dance O'Gram" messanger. One of the those aunties that continously traps in the corner during family functions to let you know outright that you're too fat while giving you unwanted advice about your love life, or lack thereof. This dirty auntie even as a local TV show called "Sex It Up With Auntie," made even more hilarious as she enters the stage all demur and sweet, with severely pulled-back hair, and large glasses that overwhelm her face. All of a sudden, she's "sexing it up" with callers and guests who ask her for sexual advice....with hilarious results.

And then the "Dance O Grams" -- *squee!* My guest, Larry (of the local theatre blog "Do Something Different") and I made jumpy claps whenever the "Dance O'Gram" messenger appeared in a sketch. He would sullenly stomp into a sketch, hand over the dance-o-gram message to a recipient, music would cue on, and then he'd start his groove on, gyrating all kinda of places!

...cannot wait until Bollywood Shenanigans gives us another taste of butter chicken!

MORE: Bollywood Shenanigans | South Asian Arts | Bollywood Shenanigans' Munish Sharma's Blog | I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken @ The Province | I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Chicken @ The Vancouver Courier