February 12, 2015 – The Metrognome

Noted comedian Jerry Seinfeld comes to Mumbai for the first time in March 2015, tickets will be sold tomorrow onward.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

It’s a great time to be a comedy enthusiast in Mumbai. Entertainment icon Jerry Seinfeld is making his maiden trip to Mumbai in March 2015 with two shows at the NSCI, Worli.

Incidentally, the same venue was where the infamous AIB Roast took place in December last year.

Seinfeld is a name almost synonymous with comedy. Over the last few decades, it is a name that has reached unsurpassed heights of global popularity. And this March, fans in India will have a long-awaited opportunity to experience his work live.

The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning comedian will perform two live shows next month on March 14 and 15 at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium, NSCI. These shows mark Jerry Seinfeld’s first ever performances in Asia. Seinfeld said “I have always been fascinated by India and its culture. I have great respect for its people and their way of life. It is a great honour for me to be invited to come there and make fun of it in person.”

He joins the line-up of the already underway Stage42 festival, which showcases some of India and the world’s most celebrated artists and experiences in comedy, music, theatre and food. “For many of us, our introduction to comedy was Seinfeld. He’s a comedian whose influence is impossible to understate, and it’s a matter of immense pride that we will be bringing this global icon to India for the first time,” says Arjun Ravi, Co-Founder , NH7.in

The festival will take place in seven cities – Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune – between February and March 2015. The comedy lineup of the festival includes the Russell Peters Almost Famous World Tour, a tour by critically-acclaimed comic Bill Burr, and Pretentious Nights featuring the guys behind the popular YouTube series Pretentious Movie Reviews.

Tickets to the Jerry Seinfeld shows go on sale at noon on February 13, and are priced at Rs 7,500. Tickets will be available for sale on Insider.in.

Apart from the multiple award winning TV show Seinfeld, Seinfeld has also starred in, written and produced movies (Comedian, Bee Movie), directed and produced a Broadway hit (Colin Quinn Long Story Short), and even wrote a best-selling book (Seinlanguage) and a children’s book (Halloween). His latest project is the critically-acclaimed web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, seen exclusively on Crackle and comediandsincarsgettingcoffee.com, which has garnered more than 10 million views, and which the New York Times describes as “impressively complex and artful” and Variety calls “a game changer.” He lives in New York City with his wife and three children. He remains active as a stand-up comedy performer, touring the country extensively.

Sula Fest 2015: A roundup

Nashik rocked – like it annually does – as it hosted the Sula Fest, its wine, food and music jamboree.

by Salil Jayakar | @Salilicious on Twitter

All roads from Mumbai led to Nashik over the weekend where Sula Vineyards was hosting Sula Fest – its annual wine, food and music jamboree. Naturally, the mood among the revelers was quite high what with all the free flowing wine.

But among the usual wine and cheese tasting tours, the music and the food, here’s our pick of the unusual and interesting…

Everyone’s favourite ad man Prahlad Kakkar (seated at extreme left in pic) caught us quite by surprise as he deftly took orders and dished out plates of vegetarian and chicken biryani at the food court! The ad man popped up a stall for his office cook who has been making meals for him for the past 40 years. “My cook makes the best biryani. Till some years ago, we had an open house in my office every Saturday where we’d feed 15 to 20 people,” he said.

We were thrilled to see winemaker Hardys at Sula this year who came on board as wine partner. As we sampled their reds and whites with Thai prawns curry and veg ravioli, we got chatting with Mumbai girl Najeshda Deshpande, Sula’s import manager. Born and raised in Vile Parle, Najeshda’s (means ‘Hope’ in Russian) love affair with wine began on a holiday in Australia. “I was done with number crunching and didn’t quite know what to do next. I made friends with wine-making surfers and here I am today,” she told us. You go girl!

Celebrity chef Saransh Goila (in pic on right) who’s quite the regular now at all such dos kept us quite entertained over the two-days we hung out with him. The reality TV star is all set to release his first book, a travelogue with recipes from his travels. The 70,000-words tome should be an exciting read, we hope. “My favourite author Ruskin Bond kindly consented to write a few words for me in the book. I’m thrilled!” said Saransh.

By far the biggest draw on Day 1 at Sula Fest was the American indie rock band Young the Giant with the ‘desi’ connect. Lead singer Sameer Gadhia, half-Gujarati and half-Bengali, was studying Human Biology at Stanford before he dived headlong into the music scene. With performances at the Video Music Awards a few years ago and a Top 50 appearance on the Billboard 200 albums chart, this desi boy had the girls swooning.

Chief winemaker Ajoy Shaw took us on a tour of the Sula cellars and we came away quite impressed with their sustainability efforts. The cellar has skylights to let in natural light and also has two entire roofs with solar panels that provide almost 15 per cent of their electricity requirements. With rainwater harvesting, composting, spot application at vineyards and encouraging natural predators, Sula’s green efforts are quite commendable. “Our aim is to reduce our water consumption by 5 per cent every year and do our bit to conserve natural resources,” he said.