His name is Earl

You must be slightly cockeyed to be able to see the funny side of things — Earl Okin, a musician turned-comedian, leaves you laughing all the time You could tell from the way he was dressed in the afternoon heat that it was Earl Okin's first time in India. He had arrived only a few hours back on the time bus that brought him straight to Bangalore, 2012, giving him no time to change out of his spats, coat and cravat from Savile Row's 50's fall collection. He did, however, forget to carry his cane and grey bowler hat. "I arrived this morning on a second class, air-conditioned train," says Earl, who was in town for Comedia Del Arte. His expressions are neutral and reminiscent of cardboard. Okin gives you no cues and if you get the joke you can share it with him, and celebrate an unusual sense of accomplishment. The man is not a gag writer, and he narrates his trajectory of being an entertainer, a throwback to Vaudeville. "I was first a musician in the 70's, and a part of my act was comedy. After touring with Paul McCartney in 1981, the folk clubs started closing down - it was the end of an era. Comedy clubs started to spring up in place of the folk clubs, so I took the comedy part and continued to perform and gradually got better. Sometimes you can say the same things in different order and people will still laugh. "The other day, someone sent him a recording of one of his first acts. "It was terrible, so amateur," he says, looking appalled. "With comedy, one has to have it in them, at least 70 percent has to be there and the remaining comes with time and practice. I don't have the same concerns as most comedians - I write new stuff, but most people come back to listen to my funny songs, they are there expecting to hear it. "Okin's first love is music. He can do comedy, is good at it and is happy doing it. He says, "To be a good comedian you need to see things sideways. There are English stand-ups whose material is from the new sin England, or they talk in an Indian accent, I don't know why the Indian accent is funny. I talk about generic things like men and women, most countries have those. But today, there is so much awareness and people know what is happening across the globe, so it is difficult to miss the point."Other comedians have funny material, Okin is funny. He says, "One needs to have stage charm, people need to like you and if one is going to be rude and nasty, they need to do it with a twinkle in their eye. Of course, it does help if the material is good." Okin explains that the audience takes 20 seconds to decide if they like an act or not, which makes it imperative to have a strong opening. The demand for an encore depends on the closing act. It is very difficult to make Earl Okin laugh. What's even worse is that sometimes he pretends to laugh. "Charlie Chaplin is the greatest celebrity there ever will be and what he did in his lifetime was timeless comedy. There was also a radio show in the 50's called "The Goon Show". That show did to comedy what the Beatles did to pop music. It is as funny now as when it was written.”