Avoiding jail with my first comedy show in Sri Lanka
On stage in my first home
I did my first stand up comedy show in Sri Lanka and believe me when I say, I was super nervous.
Yes I had the usual worries - gosh I hope they like my jokes, I hope they’re not quiet laughers, I hope I don’t forget any lines, I hope the mic doesn’t cut out, I hope the openers show up, fingers crossed all round.
But there was an added factor - a fear of jail time. Let me explain.
Sri Lanka is an amazing country with the kindest, most generous people you’ll meet. However, the political situation in the country has been turbulent for as long as I remember. From well before I was born, all the way back to…. Queen Anula of Anuradhapura I reckon, if not further back.
Queen Anula was the first female monarch in Sri Lankan history and the first documented female head of state in Asia. She rose to power over 2000 years ago and is best known for poisoning her way through five husbands during her five year reign.
I digress. The result of this political turbulence is that freedom of speech - something I take for granted when I step on stage in Australia - is not a reliable factor in Sri Lanka.
I know this because I followed the case of Natasha Edirisooriya, a stand up comedian in Colombo, very closely last year. Natasha performed a set as part of a school’s comedy show in April 2023. Some of that set included comments about the Buddha and Buddhism. The evening was recorded and clips were shared online.
I’ll point out here that Natasha is not a seasoned professional with a Netflix special that enjoys stepping into controversial areas to cling on to their relevance. She’s a person with a day job who was about a year into performing stand up comedy.
That didn’t stop Buddhist monks and other influential figures in Sri Lanka for calling for her arrest under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act. This specific section reads by the way:
No person shall propagate war or advocate national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.
Imagine a joke being capable of doing all that. Imagine.
On 28 May 2023 she was arrested while trying to depart to Singapore. She was held for 39 days. She was released on bail after public backlash to her arrest and the involvement of overseas embassies. She awaits her trial.
Whatever you think of Natasha’s jokes - you can’t go to jail for a joke in Australia. If you could, the prisons would be full. It would cost the state far too much money to keep all us idiots behind bars. The guards would beg us to stop testing our material on them. It would be total chaos.
It also raises the wider question - why is this the main focus of a country coping with increasingly brutal austerity policies after the economy went into meltdown? Why do we hold comedians to a standards that politicians get to weasel out of? Jon Stewart has a great musing on this.
Adding to all this, Sri Lanka passed the Online Safety Act on 24 January 2024. It grants wide powers of arrest for the publishing of “prohibited content” online - this ranges from false statements about incidents in Sri Lanka to statements with an express intention of “hurting” religious feelings.
In this legal minefield - I prepared for my first stand up comedy show in Colombo. My family was extremely worried for me and warned me against performing. But I’ve been doing this for some time now - you have to be wary of context in every performance. Your set in a pub is going to be different from a large theatre, a televised set, a country club, a late night show, an early show, the list goes on. I went through all my usual material stripping out anything related to sex, politics and religion. That didn’t leave me with much (ha!) but I was excited to see where it led.
The venue was Ask for Fern - a speakeasy bar in the heart of Colombo that converted their dance floor to audience seating for the show. My openers were Divakar David - who switches his comedy effortlessly between Tamil, Sinhalese and English (the three official languages of the country) and Taniya Lewwanduwage - whose comedy questioning the common arguments put forward to find a partner is going to help many worldwide. I was in awe (and stitches) watching them and can’t wait to see where their careers take them.
The show wasn’t exactly the same and I wasn’t my usual relaxed self. But I had a lot of fun doing it - I’d rather do a censored show in Colombo than no show at all. It was a really special evening, especially meeting the audience after the show. I’ve never lived in Sri Lanka so I only know family in the country - now I feel like I know so many people. I can’t wait to come back and do a proper run.
As a cherry on top, lawyer Sonali Wanigabaduge was in the crowd and she had me on her national television show for a very serious chat about comedy.
Once again, I was hyper aware of not saying anything to get arrested. Especially as I had a flight back to Australia four hours after it aired.
I watched the show with my aunt and uncle, my family was proud - and relieved, that I have a better filter than my younger days. It was super exciting to be on national television. In Sri Lanka I am not the “woman of colour” that I am in Australia. I am simply - a woman. It was thrilling to be invited to speak about more than diversity, a true novelty for me.
So here I am back home in Melbourne - jail free! I hope you’re all well, I’m now preparing to kick off my stand up comedy tour with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival! I’m beyond excited.
Big hugs
Sashi
You're amazing. Keep going! And please, stay safe.
Great read