FAISALABAD: Faisalabad is known for its jesters, punsters and comedians and it has produced many comedians and witty stage actors who have got fame at the national level.

One of the rising stars in the field of juggatbazi, the Punjabi word for art of telling spontaneous jokes and repartees, is Munna Faisalabadi.

An illiterate person, Munna (real name Waris Ali) is gaining popularity among the people of Faisalabad, courtesy his spontaneous wit and uninhibited natural style when he tells jokes.

During his childhood and teenage, he was punished many times by his father who wanted his son to refrain from his hobby of telling jokes but he failed to stop Munna from following his passion. Munna is now liked by the people for his funny repartees.

Munna rose to fame sometime back when he joined a road show telecast by a local news channel, City 41, hosted by another popular name of Faisalabad for his dubbing comedy movies and film clips.

However, Munna alleged that the TV programme stopped featuring him when he asked for Rs25,000 fixed salary. He says that despite participation in a number of programmes, he was never paid even meagre amount and the host got him only a couple of dresses and payment for stitching.

Talking to Dawn, Munna says he used to run a paratha shop at Jhal Khanuana, which he had to close due to some incident in his family. His entire family has shifted to Rahim Yar Khan from Faisalabad but he did not leave Faisalabad ‘to continue his hobby of telling jokes’ as Faisalabad has a potential to promote his talent. However, Munna feels that the artistes are being ignored in the city for the reasons best known to the people at the helm.

During a candid interview, Munna told a lot of jokes, some of them portraying the stark reality of life in the garb of wit.

He says Faisalabad has produced countless talented comedy stage actors like Naseem Vicky, Qaiser Piya, Sajjan Abbas and Afzal Jamal who are bringing smiles to the faces of countless people. However, nothing has been done for years to promote performing arts activities in Faisalabad.

Munna has a plan for hosting roadshows now to be aired on YouTube for regular earning. He says one of his friends--Jameel-- would help him manage the YouTube channel as, being illiterate, he himself does not know anything about information technology.

Munna says he likes to make and tell spontaneous jokes rather than following a script. He earns praise from the public but, despite his popularity, he is facing financial hardships as theatres are closed due to the Covid-19 and his entry to the TV channel of Faisalabad is banned.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2020