Prateek Srivastava Comedian

Prateek Srivastava is a standup comedian. He’s 25. He grew up in Lombard but now he lives in Logan Square.Prateek Srivastava onstage.(Photo courtesy of Prateek Srivastava)

He’s dated both Indians and non-Indians, and when the girl isn’t Indian, the fact that he has come up – often at “weird points”, he says, in the relationship.

Once, he and a girlfriend were talking about movies of their childhood, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom came up.

There’s that scene where an Indian guy eats someone’s heart.

“And so she said, ‘I’m just saying, I don’t think you guys eat hearts but do you think maybe at some point in the past they used to eat hearts?’,” he recounted. “I’m like, no, nobody ate hearts. I mean, most Indians are vegetarian.”

I asked Prateek if it would be easier if he dated an Indian girl or another Asian - or if his parents expect him to end up with an Indian. He doesn't have a preference either way. And, his parents haven’t really put pressure on him to date only Indians. But the women he dates assume they have.

“In one recent relationship this girl was like, 'Is this a temporary thing, or are you going to be able to introduce me to your parents?',” Prateek recalls, adding that he thinks it’s interesting that even across Indian families, he knows that families can be liberal or conversative.

“People just assume we’re homogenous - but we’re not,” he said. - NPR

e North Side could learn a thing or two from the South Side. For starters, given all the stand-up showcases and open-mic nights happening in Lakeview, Logan Square, Wicker Park and elsewhere, there is not a single one happening under the stars. Enter "Bronzeville Comedy" a long-running night of summertime stand-up that happens every other Wednesday at the elegant Blanco Gallery on Martin Luther King Drive. It's hosted and curated by self-described "black hipster" comedian Brian Babylon who rounds up comics from the North, South and West Sides for a stellar night of al fresco jokes.


"What would your super power be?" Cleveland-based comic Ramon Rivas asks the crowd who is spread out in front of him in a fan shape at Blanco's expansive back patio and enjoying wine, beer and snacks. "Invisibility, mind reading, flying," he says affirming our answers, "that all makes sense. I had this one girl say, 'If I could have any superpower I'd wish for the ability to make anybody feel happy.' Women have that power already, it's called a vagina."

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Where is this? I see a "Blanc Gallery" in a google search, but no "Blanco Gallery." I'm assuming this is a typo.
JOHN BRUBAKER1
AT 5:31 PM JULY 22, 2014
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Comedian Prateek Srivastava has dropped his surname for his act and it's not the only thing he's dropping. "I love how White Castle and all these fast food restaurants all try and have that one healthy option and they always try and sell you on it," he says. "So I'm at White Castle and the cashier is like, 'we have this all white-meat chicken slider you should try it.' So I tried it and it was the first time I had free-range and organic diarrhea." Haha, yikes.

As the sun vanishes from the sky our headliner Tim Barnes, a smooth wordsmith who is sharp, polished and confident, kills it with a trio of the most insulting pickup lines ever. "I walked up to a girl and said, 'does your face hurt because it looks like you damaged it when you fell from heaven,'" and "is that a hunchback or are you just hiding your wings," and finally, "you know for someone whose been running through my mind all day you sure haven't lost any weight."


Of course, last week was when the summer dropped temps into the 60s so it was also a fine week to be inside. At "Get Up, Stand Up," which happens every Tuesday at the Public House Theatre in Lakeview, show producers Sherra Lasley and Josh Dunkin have found a unique formula for delivering jokes. Their one hour show is a truncated open mic night book-ended by headliners. It's pretty good.

Super powers were also on the mind of our first headliner, Meaghan Strickland. "I figured out what my super power is this weekend," she says. "It's that I make people at parties realize that they have to go to the bathroom/get another drink." Strickland also weighs in on the ongoing tensions between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. "I ride my bike a lot and people are really angry at bikers," she says. "They're so angry and people who are working so hard to save $2.25." That one doesn't garner a ton of chuckles, but as a thrifty cyclist it makes me smile.

Not everyone trying their hand at this open mic kills it, but A.J. Lubecker does with several sharp one liners. "I'm not the smoothest gentleman," he says, "but I've always known that the easiest way to get a girl's phone number is to get it right off of her dog's tag," and "On Sunday I broke all the bones in my body. I used my lint roller with my steam roller." I also like Taylor Williams and Susan Glynn, both have interesting points of view and I'm going to keep my eye on them.

Saurin Choksi, our closing headliner, is predictably good per usual. "I grew up a gods-loving Hindu boy in Texas," says Choksi. "People would say things like, 'Hey boy, cows are for filleting not praying.' Um, thanks social studies teacher, I can't wait to hear your take on slavery." Says Choksi, "I tried to learn about Christianity but it's pretty tough because most of the Christians I meet don't know anything about it." This is truth in comedy and the crowd's response proves it.

I also hit up Zanies on Monday where a drunk heckler's incoherent comments toward host Kevin Naughton threaten to completely derail the show. Luckily, first comic Anthony Bonazzo wins back the room. "Keep it going for me you guys," says Bonazzo. "I'm going on a Craigslist date after the show tonight. Actually, I'm going to look at her couch, she doesn't know it's a date." Here's another good one although the crowd is slow to appreciate its silly charms: "I don't do any race jokes on stage," he says. "I don't even talk about my 5k times."

The next edition of "Bronzeville Comedy" at Blanco Gallery is July 30. Go sit outside and laugh before Labor Day, when summer comes to its brief end and nine months of winter kicks in. - Chicago Tribune