Entertainment Engineers from IIT
By Suneetha

They have degrees from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, but have put aside lucrative tech jobs to make their living the ‘funny’ way. Nitin, Vipul, Tushar, Kiran and Sumeet are in a job where they stand up and stand out too. Meet the Entertainment Engineers, who see more than jokes in comedy. Nitin Gupta, the CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) talks to TG

Techgoss (TG): Tell us a bit about yourself.
Nitin Gupta (NG):

ABOUT US

IUPAC Name: Entertainment Engineers
Symbol: EE
Discovered: October 2009.
Constituent Elements: Nitin Gupta, Vipul Goyal and Tushar Upadhyay
Occurrences: Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

WEBSITE: humorbeings.in/index.html

APPEARANCE:
Light brown Crystalline solid at room temperature.
Melt when showered with love or affection or love from the object of affection.                                      
Humor active at room temperature
Found in various states from virgin metal to common ore

PROPERTIES:
Uses: Live exposure of about 30 Minutes, has the same effect as Nitrogen Dioxide (Laughing Gas). A funny feeling!
Exposure to 60 Minutes can reduce your blood pressure by 20%.
Exposure to 90 Minutes releases a Chemical called Jokamine, (Like Dopamine, Gives you the same kick as Dopamine. Great for the heart, creates false sense of well being.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE:
To be watched in a cool and a dry place. Away from direct sunlight. Preferably dark.
One of the most versatile humor active Elements known to mankind. Instantly bonds with any kind of crowd

SIDE EFFECTS:
Frequent exposure can make you laughter resistant or addictive to the type of humor. Depending on your personality type.

TG: Good intro and nice name by the way, how did you zero in to such an apt name?
NG: There are two ways of looking at it. One literal meaning is of course Engineers in Entertainment Domain. The actual reason why we called the company so was because of the inherent nature of Science and Entertainment in general.

TG: Could you please elaborate on that? Because a group of Techies from IIT now doing stand up comedy comes across as a little incongruous. Sort of polar extremes.
NG: It’s funny but we don’t find much of a difference between Science and Entertainment. Curiosity is what led to the explosion in our understanding of Universe. From the discovery of an Atom to the nature of Space Time; from the Evolution of Species to the man made marvels like the airplanes and nuclear energy and Internet. And curiosity is what led to creation even in the entertainment arena.

Curiosity triggers our imagination and creativity as I think of it is nothing but imagination crystallizing in form of music, architecture, understanding of physical laws, elegant mathematical truths or Stand Up comedy or entertainment in General.... So curiosity is like the antenna, and the various art forms are mere different channels of expression. It just a matter of what frequency you are tuned to depending on your personality, natural inclination and opportunities. That’s why I say science and entertainment look different but are similar on a basic level of genesis. To sum up: Science is mad about Reason. Humor is Reason gone Mad.

TG: What’s your aim in forming the Entertainment Engineers?
NG:
1. Because we like entertaining.
2. To Make Stand Up comedy respectable in India.
3. To take English Stand Up comedy to the mainstream.

TG: Do you all work outside the entertainment industry, in a day-job? Tell us more about that
NG: Entertainment Engineers is our full time pass time at the moment. 

TG: How and where and when did the first show click?
NG: The first show happened in MNIT Jaipur during their Techfest Neuron in Oct 2009. 

TG: Where all have you performed?
NG: We have performed at major cultural and technical Campus Festivals across the country. IIT's NIT's IIM's. Alumni Meets, Corporate gigs for Bosch Jaipur, Numark U.K among a Few. Apart from that,  we have had the pleasure of performing at about a Dozen TEDx'es.  

TG: Do you only perform in college campuses?
NG: Not Really! We have done lot of Independent events and some corporate shows as well. Since we started out with campuses, so that percentage seems higher at the moment, however with time we see the numbers balancing.

TG: Have you done any charity / beneficiary shows yet?
NG: All of them have been Charity Shows for the Entertainment Engineers Foundation :). On a serious note, performances at TED Talks are sort of charity performances because TED is a strictly not for profit organization. Apart from that not really :)

TG: Which has been the best show so far in your opinion?
NG: The ones which have happened in the year 2011 have been especially satisfying. NIT Rourkela, NIT Agartala, LNMIIT Jaipur and COT Pantnagar, IIT Kanpur, BITS Goa were very enjoyable Performances.

TG: Nitin, are these shows only team events or solo stand up comedy?
NG: Depending on the geography, economics and the duration of the concert we decide on the number of performers for a concert. Usually it’s a Team Event.

TG: It’s hard to make people laugh... I want to know the Comic’s perspective on that?
NG: I don’t think it’s hard to make people laugh. I think it’s hard to make people laugh on things which are worth thinking about, things which challenge their conditioning and set cultural constructs, which is what we refer to as Emotionality in Comedy. Getting that is the real challenge. Not the laughs.

TG: What’s Funny to you?
NG: The other side of everything. Or the True / Hidden Side of everything. There is so much hypocrisy in human behavior. Nothing amuses you more than the true side which people hide.

TG: What are the challenges you envision in India as a future Stand Up destination? 
NG: India is a really really unique Stand Up Comedy landscape. Its diversity makes life really really difficult and interesting for a Comic. Like food and culture and language you have to customize content based on geography, educational background, median age of the audience, sex ratio in the audience, language preference, religious tolerance, political sensitivity and general exposure. Some of which parameters are very hard to judge, so you make some intuitive choices and we love that challenge.

TG: Your future plans?
NG: There are many actually. The immediate one is to get into Advertising.

So Nitin Gupta, Vipul Goyal, Sumeet Malhotra, Kiran Rathore and Tushar Upadhyay are Engineers who Entertain, no small task that!