The End! FMMC ‘Cansurvive’ ends in ‘Happy Note’ with ‘Laugh Out Loud’ Nite
The End! Fr Muller Medical College (FMMC) Hospital ‘Cansurvive Campaign” ends in Happy Note with ‘Laugh Out Loud’ Comedy Night, where the audience went home in a Happy Mood.
Mangaluru: All’s Well that Ends Well!-That’s right. Quoting Shakespeare’s words, “But with the word the time will bring on summer, When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns, All’s well that ends well; still the fine’s the crown; Whatever the course, the end is the renown “-all I can say is that what a better way to end a campaign aimed for a good cause in a happy mood with laughter- and that’s exactly what the organizers of ‘Cansurvive Campaign’ did by concluding this campaign in a happy mood with laughter by hosting a comedy night “Laugh Out Loud” featuring Comedian Naveen Richard.
This comedy night “Laugh Out Loud” was part of the CanSurvive Campaign, an initiative by the staff and students of Father Muller Medical College Hospital designed to create awareness as well as raise funds for patients with curable cancer. CanSurvive campaign kicked off with the Lavender Ribbon Drive on January 22nd. The lavender ribbons were a sign of support towards creating awareness for curable cancer where people had to wear them from Jan 22nd till February 11 as a part of the campaign. The ribbons were made available across more than 20 associate partner stores in the city, and it was a successful beginning of this campaign.
Following close on its heels after the Lavender Ribbon Drive, a “Bake sale” was organized at City Centre Mall to raise funds for this campaign, which not only had sale of Cup cakes, Brownies and other goodies, but also featured nail painting by Sancha Nazareth, live acoustic guitar performance by Shawn Rego, games and Groundsport Fitness Gym team conducting a health and fitness round, challenging people to perform some cardio and core workout. There was also the sale of handmade jewellery created by FMMC student Dr Roshni Rajan; Polaroid camera pictures booth; a Dance performance by Nicholas pinto, a student of St. Aloysius along with his group crazy antics; songs by “Nightingale of Mangaluru” Jacqueline Fernandes, followed by another of Kudla’s favourite singer Munita Veigas. The event also saw an Enfield Bike Rally.
On 3 February, it was the ‘Gala Dinner’ event at Spindrift, where members of “Sea Seven” band from Mangaluru, and the duo of “Split-fingers” band from Bengaluru performed live with some of the best Western and Bollywood numbers, which made some of the revelers to get on the dance floor. During this Gala, an auction of autographed merchandise from Cricketer Yuvraj Singh along with a painting by renowned artist Darren Mascarenhas was held. The auction merchandise included shirts, caps and autographed real time cricket match balls autographed by Yuvraj Singh, which had been provided by YouWeCan, an NGO headed by Yuvraj Singh. Everyone had a great time at this gala.
On 5 February, ‘Run for a Cause 5K’-a nearly 5km run was organized with an aim to create an awareness about Cancer and also to raise funds for the ‘Cansurvive Campaign’. Being a lazy Sunday while many were still in bed, some snoring, some cuddling with their sweethearts on the bed- but a few hundreds of energetic young and old men and women of Mangaluru and beyond woke to the alarm set, to be in time to join in the Run for a Cause-5K organized by the staff and students of Fr Muller Medical College Hospital as part of the Cansurvive Campaign.The Run was flagged off by Olympian Vandana Rao along with MLA Moideen Bava, Paralympian Sharath Gayakwad, MLA Moideen Bava, Eight times Guinness World Record holder in Marathon-Rakshith Shetty and Four times International Sprint medals winner Ln Panna Prasad. It was indeed a Run for a Good Cause- and every drop of sweat from the participants counted
And the final event of this Campaign, was the ‘House-Full’ Comedy night “Laugh Out Loud” with Naveen Richard held at the FMMC Academy Hall. Prior to the comedy act by Richard, there was a short formal function, where cancer survivors Corrine Rasquinha-Founder of White Doves NGO, and Rev Fr Patrick Rodrigues- Director of Fr Muller Charitable Institutions, where they both shared their experiences and thoughts on Cancer. Dr JP Alva- Dean of FMMC expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the organizers of ‘Cansurvive Campaign’, which was a success due to the tireless efforts put up by the energetic organizing team. Winners of the raffle draw were also announced.
Then came the much awaited moment of the night, to laugh out loud with Comedian Naveen Richard. His voice did not break into funny little sounds, nor did he start the conversation with a silly joke. If you think about it, life can be stressful for a stand-up comedian when everyone he meets expects him to be funny all the time. Throughout the show, he tried to make the audience laugh constantly, and acting goofy all the time- which was enjoyed by all. Introducing himself, growing up in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, like any teenager, he grew up watching Eddie Murphy and Louis CK. They were his first inspirations. Naveen Richard, a law graduate from School of Law, Christ University, theatre artist and stand-up comedian, explains that no comedian does spontaneous comedy. “Everyone prepares his material — a tentative script that he follows through the show.”
Richard was a finalist in the first edition of Comedy Central’s Indian Comedy Festival in 2012. He has performed over a 100 shows all over Chennai, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi and Singapore and encapsulates his own idiosyncrasies and of the people around him through his comedy. He says that his friends compared him to Mr Bean while in school, Jim Carrey when in college, and eventually to Steve Carell (known for the mockumentary sitcom, The Office, which BLF is partly inspired by). When he was a kid, he once called up a cellular network’s customer service centre as a prank. “I said, ‘I want to change my phone. The executive said, ‘Okay, so you want to change your number?’ I said, “No, I want to change the colour of my phone.’ He genuinely tried to help me, and I felt bad for the guy,” Richard recalls, adding, “I was a prank caller with some moral ethics.”
Richard known for the absurd sci-fi themed web series, Star Boyz, and the mockumentary web series, Better Life Foundation (BLF), writing season two of BLF, currently touring the country with his first solo special, “Don’t Make that Face”, used a set of his mixed oldest and newest jokes to enthrall the crowd. Naveen appeared to have a pleasant, open countenance about him. During the show, his scripts were largely based on his own experiences. It was a comedy of caricatures of himself and people around him. “I am my material source. I narrate events that have happened to me,’ he said. He also shared a few jokes, he being unfortunate enough to grow up in a small town-Coimbatore, which he said was quite ‘Boring?”.
Anyways, the comedy act by Naveen Richard was enjoyed by all with the hall reverberating with the sounds of laughter- and what a perfect way to end a long campaign aimed at a good cause, in a happy mood. Kudos to the organizing team of “Cansurvive” namely Dr Wanmancy, Dr Rohit Pinto, George, Lester, Michael and others. A job well is done, folks!
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