Thank God for Black Fish! Were they not performing sporadically, I would be stuck going to Cineplex and paying a heft Rs. 250 per person for tickets to a mostly edited one and a half hour version of a two hour movie and paying Rs. 60 for a bucket of stale, cold popcorn and another Rs. 60 for a medium sized cup of Coke. Anyhow, enough lamenting about my depleting nature of my finances and more about the show.

This particular show was their 3rd Anniversary and so we got noisemakers (aptly named and much used by all who got them) and cupcakes. The show, of course, was hilarious as always, with the whole troop being in higher spirits than I remember seeing them last time due to the anniversary. Anyone who has not seen them, simply must go at least once.

The show started off with a short stand-up routine by new Black Fish in training, Danish, who got off to a slow start and told everyone how he was plucked off the streets by Sami Shah to polite smiles waiting for the laughs to begin. Of course, once the guy launched into his routine, it was hilarious, as expected, including my personal favorites, a joke about Lahori women which was predictable but side splittingly funny thanks to the delivery and a bit about the odd names of schools in Karachi (the strangely suggestive "Jolly Jingle School", "Model School for Boys" and "Happy Home school"). Definitely one to watch out for and a possible replacement for Ishma, the only female left in Black Fish, who will sadly be leaving to study Psychology abroad for a year.

Sami Shah, the MC for half the event, was harassed (as he always seems to be) by a chorus of females to his left screaming constantly for a "Shezi", who was eventually called up to the stage by an exasperated Sami midway through the show. The games were clearly inspired by "Whose Line Is It Anyway" this time around, as the Sami Shah admitted, since they were trying out some new ideas for this special show. One of the much loved games in Whose Line, Party Quirks, didn't translate as well as it does on the telly, unfortunately, but was still fun to watch. The whole group was at the top of their game, as always, but the severe lack of air conditioning and overselling of seats meant that people were sitting (and rolling) in the aisles and even standing up to allow the elderly to take their seats.

Oh and of course, there were the mandatory jokes at the expense of Karachi Grammar School and it's attendees, the "Grammarians" and this time even Lyceum was included in the festivities in a hilarious ending segment called "Gunda goes to Karachi Grammar School" where fun was mercilessly poked at the "burgerr" population of said schools, the lack of space on campus at Lyceum and the population segments at KGS.

Oh, and in a smart move, Black Fish decided to start cashing in and introduce some merchandising tactics into the mix and even start up a mailing list to inform more people about their gigs. Uptill now, the Karachi Metroblog has served as a great way to find out about their gigs and miscellaneous other comedy events, but I guess a mailing list is a great way to keep the populace informed. A must see!