"We live in a world that takes offence", says Andy Zaltzman

Its not always easy to match a comedian to his writing material But Andy Zaltzman isnt just any other comedian In 2007 he created The Bugle with John Oliver a satirical news podcast that found great success globally And it is so hard to not laugh at Zaltzmans topical pun runs mdash from fish and trees to Russia and North Korea mdash that even his sister and podcaster Helen of The Allusionist argues that the family should be tested for Witzelsucht disease a rare neurological condition where one makes too many puns in socially inappropriate situationsAsia by wordWhat is there to say about Asia Chiknow what youre thinking Do you praise it Japan itWeve all got a view on it even animals Even my dog has an opinion on it and Macau Wed be Laos without it Zaltzman babbles in one of his Asian country pun runs on The Bugle before pausing to apologise to cohost Oliver who sighs in the backgroundThe Bugle team at the Udderbelly festival in London from left Helen Zaltzman Nish Kumar Andy Zaltzman and Chris SkinnerSorry John Im not feeling good today Im suffering from some kind of malaise yeah he says Well leave you to figure out the pun in that one hint Truly Asia After Oliver quit in 2016 the podcast was revamped with a rotating set of cohosts from different countries One of them being Anuvab Pal from India who Zaltzman will be performing with today along with Anirban Dasgupta at a Bandra venue I first met him at a fundraising show in 2012 and it was nice to witness his smart way of doing things He was also wellinformed Of course I had a great time all those years with John and at the end I had a choice whether I wanted to end the show or relaunch it So getting to do this with a range of different people from all over the world makes for an interesting perspective Zaltzman tells usPolitically speakingIt was 1999 when Zaltzman started his standup comedy career in Londons tiny clubs with an avid interest in political comedy albeit clarifying that he had no intentions of becoming a politician himself In the early stages my content wasnt that political Eventually after three years I found the confidence to do more Writing for podcasts and comedy for me is now an exercise on generating new ideas he explains adding that the biggest learning has been to trust his own comedian instinct Its different with podcasts because you cannot hear the audience laugh and there are largely two different audiences There are the committed listeners and then youve got people who will give it a try and never return But the good thing is that its a mixed group of people from all over the world so you can build on a followingBut with Zaltzmans seemingly neverending love for the genre we wonder if todays political climate has made it more difficult to host one He remains optimistic Today you have a life beyond TV shows so your content becomes shareable across the globe This makes it effective to raise awareness on political issues We live in a world that takes offence but that hasnt affected me I do not believe that you should deliberately set out to offend people That said you should do what you believe in he repliesLaughs in the cityToday in an effort to crack up Mumbaikars Zaltzman will be talking of IndiaBritain relations and of course cricket mdash being a cricket lover and fine writer himself Theres always the challenge of trying to amuse the Indian audience So Im not going to talk about Indian politics because thats too complicated he says while mentioning the bustling Indian comedy scene having interacted with Varun Grover Tanmay Bhat Gursimran Khamba and Aditi Mittal But Zaltzman would refrain from joining the web show bandwagon The style here is really bold I enjoyed Grovers comedy although most punchlines were in Hindi when I saw him perform There are too many people competing for web shows while there really is quite nothing like standup I would like to talk more about cricket and maybe venture into television at some pointWhen Today 8 pm to 10 pm At The Cuckoo Club Pali Hill Road Bandra West Log on to bookmyshowcom Cost Rs 499 onwardsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates