COMICS‟ SELECTION OF BITS: THE CREATION OF COMMON

forward instead of being the opposite of a „leader‟, a „follower‟. By saying so, Rock intentionally put the African-Americans in the butt of joke for nothing but a motivational purpose, as well as showing how a comic‟s demography could bring an advantage in the delivery of the bit because Rock was undoubtedly a member of the community he was criticizing. That Chris Rock showed his responsibility as an African-American was expected, however, the show could also saw Rock present himself not only as an African- American, but also an American who needed to give examples to many others by addressing vital issues. On 05:36 he gave his bit on the nation‟s gun control policy, saying that, “If you have a gun, you don‟t need to work out. I ain‟t working out, I ain‟t jogging. You don‟t need no gun control, you know what you need? You need some bullet control. I think all bullets should cost 5,000, because if all bullets cost 5,000 there will be no more innocent bodies”. Using the bit, the writer could argue that Rock‟s decision to put that bit early in his show was meant to draw supports from the heterogeneous audience by using a hot topic of gun control in America. Using „fear method‟ to begin the show in the global village was a deft decision, because by that Rock would have his audience b ehind him in the show‟s opening minutes. Furthermore, he was successful in creating a common enemy in the topic of gun control implying that the value of life had been declining, hence the price of bullets needed to be increased. Above examples taken from the American comics‟ shows were evidence of the writer‟s claims that creating a common opposition could be a effective method to get approval from the audience, and audience approval was always essential because by getting that, sending messages to them would be easier. Having discussed the delivery of American Stand-Up Comedy shows in which both comics, in their efforts to communicate the essence of their bits, called for the we- are-in-this-together method, the writer later shifted to two performances by Indonesian comics, Pandji Pragiwaksono referred to as Pandji later and Samuel D. Putra Sammy. While both comics were undoubted local heavyweights in the field, it remained to be seen whether they applied similar patterns in their bit delivery to make sure their audience left their shows not only feeling entertained but also getting enlightened. Pandji‟s show was the first to be observed. The show‟s label „Mesakke Bangsaku‟ spoke for itself as its loose translation implied a state in which a nation was facing plethora of problems that it was relegated to a pitiful situation. Special things, however, were found by the writer about the comics whose shows were used as the subjects of the thesis. What the writer meant about „special‟ here referred to the way the comics reacted to social issues surrounding them. Instead of just making pointless complaints or, even worse, venting their disappointment in unmannerly ways, they addressed issues clearly and followed it up by verbally pointing their fingers at which parties were responsible for the issues, and more importantly, sometimes done in subtle manners, proposing solutions. The writer opined that the process of addressing problems, finding possible causes, and offering solutions are all modern ways of how issues should be handled. Rather different from what Peters and Rock used as the subjects of their bits, the bits Pandji delivered in his show were more „local‟, instead of „global‟, in terms of the social issues he was addressing. The writer understood this for two reasons. The first is because the majority, if not all, of the audience were Indonesians. While secondly it was because Pandji wanted to limit his bits to as narrow as local settings, considering the many problems threatening his country that it became pitiful. The writer‟s observation later confirmed that Pandji did focus on local issues such as „majority vs. minority‟ and the country‟s system of education. Pandji‟s endeavor to the often-complicated majority vs. minority issues in Indonesia was found on 02.01 when Pandji, a moslem, shared his unique experience of being invited to give a speech in a church in 2009 which he described as „packed by hundreds of Christians‟. The host wanted him to greet the congregation in Islam‟s way and Pandji hesitated for a moment realizing that a church might not be the common place to greet others Islam way. However, he was convinced to do so and the congregation, to his surprise, responded his greeting in Islam way. That brief moment where he was put in one of the nation‟s most sensitive issues, religion, opened his eyes that actually unity was not something impossible. His bit about the majority vs. minority could not have been better as there had been numerous religion-inflicted conflicts in Indonesia, and in surfacing the topic through this bit, Pandji wished that audience would open their horizon to realize that if there was one thing hampering Indonesia from fulfilling its true potentials, it was because of the majority group‟s sense of superiority combined with the minority group‟s feeling of being left out. In this case, the threat of disintegration was the common foe that Pandji proposed to his audience to fight together against. An issue as important as the above mentioned faith-based potential conflicts was the country‟s system of education. From 02:35 onward Pandji was discussing the evil side of his country‟s education system which, according to him, did not tolerate individual‟s uniqueness. He went on by criticizing the application of standardized final examinations done at various levels of national education. The unfairness of such test has taken its toll on students‟ low level of self confidence whenever they found out that they did not perform well in a test; despite having unique talents which unfortunately were not given any standardized test to measure one‟s true capacity. By taking those national topics to his personal stage, Pandji demonstrated the writer‟s argument once again that the creation of a „public enemy‟ is vital because it would create the sense of togetherness among the audience. The other Indonesian comic observed by the writer, Sammy, also showed that he cared about his country by comically criticizing its anomalies in his own comical ways. Sticking to his widely-known sarcastic style of speaking, Sammy showed to his audience that sometimes a little sarcasm could help listeners understand his topics better. Sammy even went steps further than his compatriot, Pandji, did, by mentioning names in his bits. What he did was uncommon in Indonesia, where criticisms were normally done in such a manner to avoid anybody losing their face. Sammy‟s maverick approach to his performance was visible during his show labeled „Tanpa Batas‟ Borderless held in Graha Bakti Buana, where he wasted no time and opened his own show with his sarcastic bit about the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, saying that the year of 2014 was a sad year for Indonesian comics because that was the year President Yudhoyono would end his presidency after 10 years. The shocking part, however, was in his punch when he said that not having Yudhoyono as the president any longer would mean all comics lose a subject to be openly bullied. The writer saw this as a very bold move; to open a show by putting the president in the position of the butt of joke. But Sammy did just that, and that was not without purpose. Similar to what Pandji did previously, Sammy picked a topic perfectly suitable to get the crowd behind him. The audience‟s roar that followed after the punch line was self- explanatory, that both the comic and the audience just hopped onto the same wagon, facing familiar foes. His name-calling approach did not stop there as he went on mentioning some other influential names in Indonesia whose reputations were somewhat questionable in public eyes. One of the people whom he mentioned was one Indonesia‟s leading lawyer, Ruhut Sitompul, Batak by ethnicity. Sammy referred to Sitompul as a highly-confident person who was confident not because he was right, rather because he was a Bataknese by ethnicity. This method was exactly the same as what Russell Peters did when the writer explained that Peters was privileged to mock American and Indian people, because he himself was an American-Indian. Besides illuminating his audience with some knowledge about the present situation, Sammy‟s bits also invited his audience to travel back in time to see several „unfinished businesses‟ this country has been having, especially those related to the May 1998 turmoil. By doing that the writer noticed another function of Stand-Up Comedy: as a country‟s history log. So far the writer has been unearthing several functions of Stand-Up Comedy shows, both from American and Indonesian settings. Having done so, the writer could now classify the functions as: 1. A reminder for audience to be more critical when it comes to dealing with media, as seen from Russell Peters‟ bit. It was so because of the strong tendency that media has been a site for conflicting interests. 2. A reminder that it was fine to laugh at ourselves, as the writer learnt from Chris Rock‟s bits. The writer argued this because, more often than not, laughter could serve as an effective entry point to a more serious talk. 3. A prompt for an advanced way of handling problems. This is what the writer observed from Pandji‟s bits, where he clearly explained his points in relations to issues at hands as well as suggesting possible solutions to the issues. 4. A handy guide to anyone that sometimes mentioning names was necessary considering the importance of an issue. The thing the writer deduced from Sammy led to this conclusion. The writer found it a maverick-yet-effective method to be practiced in a society where politeness is given a high regard. However, a call for directness could be the final answer to overcome specific issues.

F. THE SIGNIFICANT SMALL THINGS: STAGE ACCESSORIES THAT MATTER

Ever since its birth in America, Stand-Up Comedy has been adapted to various different countries. From existing comparative studies done between American Stand-Up Comedy and similar activities in countries such as Japan, Sweden, and England, the writer found out how this entertainment has developed in massive scales. The same thing could be said about its development in Indonesia, marked by extensive growth in the number of people trying their luck in the world of Stand-Up Comedy and emergence of Stand-Up Comedy performance, both on stage and on screen. The writer had a positive view on its development as it could be a sign of more open way of communication. It came as no surprise to the writer that local comics tried to imitate several aspects of Stand-Up Comedy they have learnt through constant exposure to such entertainment. However, the writer also understood that due to various factors, imitation could not be done as is; consequently what happened was adaptation of the American style to the local style. That being said, the second research question, „How do Indonesian comics adapt originally-American style Stand-Up Comedy shows to their performan ces?‟ would soon get its answer as the writer turned his attention to the delivery of the performance, in contrast to the discussion of the content, which has been done to answer the first research question. Finding the answer for the second research question required the writer to utilize tools from Semiotics branch, which was defined as „the study of sign‟. Going from that starting point, the writer then discussed elements other the content in the four performances to get what ideas were being represented by properties likely to be taken for granted such as stage properties and performers‟ outfit. Stage properties, referring to decorations put to add colors to a show, the writer believed, were of significance in the way they created specific atmosphere of a show. This is where Semiotics tools came handy as interpretation of properties could be sharper applying that into the discussion. While it was common that during Stand-Up Comedy shows the decorations were kept to a minimum, the presence of minimalistic properties would not hurt, either. Observing the properties used in Pandji‟s show, for instance, in which an artificial tree was put in the middle of the stage. That was not a usual artificial tree, actually, because the presence of leaves has been replaced by pieces of paper instead. The writer argued that, to suit the show‟s label of „Mesakke Bangsaku‟, those pieces of paper hanging on the tree were anything related to the country‟s problems, one piece of paper could either contain a list of problems or even hopes for a better future. Sammy, in his „Tanpa Batas‟ show, chose to go plain, there was nothing placed on the stage. To the writer, however, having nothing on the stage did not mean it suggested nothing. Rather, Sammy wanted to get rid of any properties in order to live up to the label of the show. He wanted to roam across the stage without having to worry of being blocked by any object, just like he wanted to have nothing to block his view to the audience and vice versa. The second thing the wri ter paid attention to was the performers‟ outfit. And this time, both went for simplicity by just wearing simple shirts to go along with their jeans. Again, the writer believed what they were wearing meant something else. The simplicity they chose to be in was a sign that they wanted to create an informal atmosphere, in which communication, albeit one-way most of the time, could be fluid. Having discussed the selection of stage properties and performers‟ outfit, the writer concluded that the discussion of Stand-Up Comedy was more adventurous than what he had thought before as it could cover at least two major elements: content what was delivered by performers in forms of their bits and delivery anything outside the content – stage properties, lighting system, outfit to name the least.

CHAPTER V THE ACADEMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF STAND-UP COMEDY

Besides offering a new perspective of looking at social issues, Stand-Up Comedy, the writer found, could also be beneficial when it was introduced to academic sphere. The writer, stimulated by his curiosity, then decided to attempt to find a mutual connection between Stand-Up Comedy and public speaking. The writer began with a hypothesis that comics, to be able to communicate their ideas, had to equip themselves with adequate public speaking skills, which cover a myriad of technicalities: eye contact and facial expressions, body language posture and gestures, mastery of voice tones and pitches, and also movements on the stage, only to name a few. In brief, they must master the necessary techniques before getting on to a stage. However, the road to mastering those skills was long and difficult to travel, that was why the writer spotted most students viewed activities which involved public speaking as an uphill battle rather than something they could do with enjoyment. Given that rationale, the writer thought that using Stand-Up Comedy shows as templates through which students could find a more enjoyable and less intimidating method of learning how to communicate with a large crowd. As a result, through this thesis, the writer argued that the skills of public speaking could indeed be enhanced by sufficient exposure to Stand-Up Comedy shows. The writer, however, conceded that argument would have been much more reliable had the results been based on an action research done in a Public Speaking class, but the class was not offered by the time of this thesis writing, making the writer execute a Plan B to find the justification of his hypothesis. That said, the writer held interviews with a three comics; two local comics Salatiga level and one national comic Indonesia level. There were two interview sessions held to get deep information about how Stand- Up Comedy brought assistance to students‟ public speaking skills: the first one was done with the pair of local comics Widi and Fandi while the second one was a one-on-one interview with Samuel D. Putra whose bits were also used as this thesis‟ points of scrutiny. The questions the writer asked covered the significance of Stand-Up Comedy both in raising social awareness and contributing public speaking skills through the „experiential learning‟ earned by those comics. However, since the focus of this chapter is on the academic side of Stand-Up Comedy, the writer gave more highlights to the interview done with Widi and Fandi because, given their current status as a teacher and a student, the writer‟s questions were designed to find more about Stand-Up Comedy‟s more academic side. Below are the questions, answers, and the writer‟s interpretation: A. What inspired subjects to get involved in Stand-Up Comedy activities in Salatiga? Widi: His involvement was triggered by his desire to form a Stand-Up Comedy community in Salatiga, not only for the sake of sharing jokes to their audience, but more than that, he wanted to be involved in a community where members could share knowledge on Stand-Up Comedy. He aimed to have a place where ideas are shared.