The Javanese bluntly requests a glass of Marimas. The Batak guy in the corner orders a big glass of Extra Joss and the Papuan next to him seizes the moment by asking for a cup of Ale Ale.

They all look at the Buginese from Makassar, waiting for him to make his order. “Give me a bottle of Krating Daeng,” he says.

The Ambonese appears stunned to see that everyone is staring at him. He can’t think of any drink that can signal his ethnic identity in a non supremacist-chauvinist notion. But then his eyes light up and he finally says “give me Betadine.”

Not understanding what Betadine is – or about Indonesian ethnicities for that matter – will certainly make the joke  fall flat.

The comedian on the stage named Mongol cracked this joke, but his bag of jokes is from his personal experiences. By night, he’s a local stand-up superstar. By day, he’s a warden at Cipinang Penitentiary.

“I swear that this is what I do for a living,” he says. And based on his thorough understanding of the country’s prison system, the specific laws incorporated in his jokes and the previously undisclosed details, it’s safer for us to believe that he’s telling the truth.

Mongol, one of the 12 performers who took up the mic on Aug. 3, is considered a rising star. He is one of three performers to have landed a gig at Hard Rock FM’s newly established stand-up show, which premiered on Aug. 9.

At least six of that night’s performers were accustomed to performing, while the rest were first timers – all tried their best to make people laugh, telling jokes about the country’s current and former presidents, which appeared to be a trend.

Asep Suaji is another rising star. An IT guy by day, Asep can easily induce cramp in his audiences’ bellies with his natural shy-boy persona and Chris John jokes. A die hard stand-up enthusiast, Asep has been a regular performer at the cafe since 2008.

“They say Americans only listen to two things: great speeches by presidents and great stand-ups. With that being said, I don’t think I will ever be a president,” he casually answered when asked about what got him started.

Asep said he was inspired to do a stand up in English. “Simply to send out a message to the world that this type of comedy is alive and thriving in Indonesia,” he said.

Together with Ernest Prakasa, Asep is one of three contestants from Jakarta to have been on Kompas TV’s upcoming Stand-Up Comedy Indonesia reality show, a rough adaptation of NBC’s The Last Comic Standing to be premiered on Sept. 17 with Indro Warkop and Butet Kartaredjasa as two of the three judges.

At least 13 aspiring comedians appeared on the show, hailing from Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Bandung and Yogyakarta on the back of hilarious auditions, which supposedly ran from July 5.

And this is exactly the reason why the stand-up scene in Jakarta didn’t quite reach its hype until about five weeks ago.

“All of this was in fact started by Kompas TV’s audition. After a conversation with Pandji, the show’s host, and Radit, the contestants’ mentor, we decided to chill here at Comedy Cafe during its open mic night,” said Ernest, referring to MC cum rapper Pandji Pragiwaksono and novelist Raditya Dika.

Their first gig on July 13 was jam packed, thanks to Pandji and Radit’s followers on Twitter and Facebook. Their gig a week later was even more packed after videos of their previous gigs had been uploaded to YouTube.

“Now we have a monthly showdown in Bandung and Jakarta. This month’s show will take place at the Rolling Stone café on Aug. 24,” said Ernest.

Comedy Café itself has been around since 1997 in Bangka Kemang, having moved back to Jl. Kemang 1 kav 71-80 from Pasar Festival in February 2010.

“Wednesday’s open mic starts at 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m. during Ramadhan. We have professional comedians on Saturday. What differentiates open mic performers from pros is that pro comedians do this for 20 minutes, while each performer in an open mic will have about seven minutes,” said Ramon P. Tommybens, cafe owner and self-proclaimed stand up comedian.

Ramon’s story dates back to 1990, when he convinced comedians like, Tata Dado, Ade Juwita and de Fretes to let him try a solo comedic performance at his old cafe in Bintaro.

It was said that celebrity host Tukul Arwana was once working for him in his cafe, where he was continuously forced to do 30-minute stand-up that would fail miserably.

Comic stand-ups, apparently, were not most Indonesians’ cup of tea back then, with the majority preferring slapstick.

“Most still do, but all I can say is that it’s all predictable,” said Ramon, adding that the country’s generic entertainment had reached saturation point, and was in urgent need of a fresher type of entertainment.

Pandji seemed to agree, adding that the market for stand-up comedians was rising like never before.

“One guy sitting in the crowd has been asked by a big cigarette company to do gigs on a road show,” he said, adding that the reason why he was performing on that Wednesday evening was to test his jokes on real live audience before delivering them at a professional gig.

“You have to know your crowd, what types of jokes they like, and deliver them flawlessly. This is why practice is a must. Whatever type your crowd is, the pressure will always be there,” he said.

Ernest, the man behind Indonesian stand-ups’ Twitter account @StandUpIndo, believed that the time for slapstick was running out.

“People are getting smarter and they know what’s funny. Who says comic standing will not thrive in Indonesia. All we’ve got to do is tweak it up a bit so it suits Indonesians’ taste for what’s funny but is not slapstick,” he said.

Ernest was confident that stand-up comedy would lead to an interesting outcome in the near future, and confident enough to quit his day job at a record company to ensure it did.

- Photos By JP/Jerry Adiguna

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