Laughing Out Loud

Published August 17, 2007

Outrageously hilarious international sensation Vidur Kapur, will be performing live at Gotham Comedy Club. 208 W. 23rd Street bet. 7th and 8th Ave, NYC 212.367.9000 $15 + 2 Drink Min. For details check out http://www.gothamcomedyclub.com .

The show will feature two other top New York comics and will also screen the 3 minute short film on Vidur Kapur, "Laughing Out Loud - A Comic Journey" by Shalini Kantayya one of the finalists on Steven Spielberg's "On The Lot" on FOX. The stand-up comedy show will be followed by a special guest appearance by Shalini Kantayya and an opportunity to meet and greet her and Vidur Kapur.

The film which was partially shot at New York's prestigious Gotham Comedy Club, focused on the journey of Vidur Kapur, a gay South Asian male, and immigrant, tackling the boundaries of traditionalism. It is a moving account of how he overcame personal struggles defining himself in a society pushing conformist thinking and found liberation and acceptance in stand-up comedy.

The film can be watched at http://www.thelot.com/episodes/?ep=6
Also check this out....Vidur has been voted as one of the 10 sexiest men of 2007!!! by desiclub.com:
http://www.desiclub.com/community/culture/culture_article.cfm?id=326

REVIEWS OF "LAUGHING OUT LOUD - A COMIC JOURNEY":
Michael Bay, (Director Armageddon and Transformers) voted the film as his favorite: "In three minutes you told a very succinct story, and you gave me a chill. That's what directors try to do. Really great job. You have the best visual style of anyone tonight."

Also the contestants voted the film as the best film of the night!

Shalini Kantayya's choice of film was daring as she was relying for votes from a mainstream audience across the country. The fact that the movie got her to the next round suggests that either public consciousness is changing and queer culture is increasingly accepted by the mainstream, or that despite any backlash, ardent supporters avidly responded to the depth and meaning of Vidur Kapur's story of pushing for authenticity and self-expression in the face of the pressures to conform within South Asian culture.

Vidur Kapur was selected as one of the top four Asian comics to perform at the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival. Vidur was the subject of a film called Laughing Out Loud: Ôø‡Ôø‡ A Comic Journey shown on Spielberg's On The Lot on FOX television. This controversial film was voted as the favorite film by Michael Bay, director of Transformers and by the other contestants on the show. He's co-starred with Margaret Cho and NBC's Last Comic Standing finalist Michele Balan in MTV LOGO's Outlaugh. Vidur was featured in a Reuters Television piece shown on 500 stations around the world on "Prominent South Asians in the Media" along with internationally known celebrities such as Mira Nair, Director of Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake, and Naveen Andrews of ABC's LOST and Parminder Nagra of "ER".

Vidur has been seen on television including NBC, NPR, MTV Desi and PBS's Asian America. He's toured internationally including, Canada, Mexico, India, the UK, Ireland, and South Africa. Vidur was one of the original "Gurus of Comedy" along with Russell Peters. Vidur is also one of the comedians featured in a documentary on leading comedians in America called "Making Funny", and a feature on HinJew Hysteria! has been televised from Jersey City, to Jaipur, to Johannesburg by AVStv.

Vidur Kapur's stand-up comedy is based on the social commentary of a one-man culture clash. A South Asian raised in a conservative upper middle class family in New Delhi, an overachiever with a degree from The London School of Economics and Ph.D. coursework at the University of Chicago, a misfit in a family focused on arranged marriages and social status, a chic urban trend-crazy gay fashion victim in West Hollywood and Manhattan, a corporate executive escapee from blue chip international firms, an immigrant to the US, and a person horrified at being mistaken for a terrorist in a post 9/11 America.

http://www.vidurkapur.com
Vidur Kapur http://www.sonicbids.com/vidurkapur

Shalini Kantayya, filmmaker, educator, and activist uses film/video as a tool to educate, inspire, and empower audiences. The mission of her production company, 7th Empire Media is to bring a professional voice to the voiceless through media. Shalini received a William D. Fulbright Fellowship to make a documentary film about political street theatre in India, and received the first prize award for best documentary at the Asian American Film Institute Festival.

Shalini has been making films for almost a decade, producing and directing films in Senegal, Mali, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Her latest film, A DROP OF LIFE, won the Judges Choice Award, Best Editing, and Best Production Design at CitiVisions. The short, was screened at New York's Angelika Theatre as part of IFP Market. She has received recognition from Jerome Hill Foundation's Centennial Grant, Panta Rhea Foundation for water advocacy, and Utne Reader's R/Evolutionary Women. Shalini was nominated for the Reebok Human Rights Award, a finalist in the Roy W. Dean From The Heart Grant and received a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies for documentary film. Shalini was recently featured on the network reel for Current TV, and Bioneers Buzz, highlighting women's leadership, Aspire Magazine, and EGO Magazine.

Her recent documentary, Manthan (The Churning) received the first prize award for best documentary at the Asian American Film Institute Festival (New York). She has received recognition from the New York Women in Film and Television, the Third Wave Foundation, and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans. Her films have been screened at international film festivals including the Toronto Inside Out Film Festival, The Ivy Film Festival, The MIX Festival, Vancouver Film Festival, The New Festival, Images and Voices of Hope, Chicago Reeling Film Festival, and Chemould Art Gallery, Bombay.

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