Daily Times

For the late 80s generation, Ahmad Ali Butt was primarily a rapper who evolved as a musician and so within a span of a few months became the halo of Entity Paradigm.

The generation after that know him to be an actor, a comedian and a kick ass host/anchor. I would say Ahmad Ali Butt is an artist – who can sing, dance, act, rap, host and make us laugh uncontrollably.

“I am acting while I’m hosting, so acting is there all the time. The only time I’m not acting is when I’m with my family,” he clears.

Be it a grand lavish affair of a film award ceremony in Dubai or a corporate affair like PAS awards, Ahmad has the audience entertained, hooked and engaged with his perfect comic timing and conversational skills.

“It was Frieha Altaf who encouraged me to do corporate hosting, as I had no plans of being a host full time. I started off with a few corporate events and later got to host Lux. Because of my theatre background it came natural to me to stand in front of a live audience and make them laugh so I really enjoy hosting as it brings me back to my theatre days,” Ahmad tells me.

Amongst comedians, Ahmad has always been inspired by his father. “My father was a funny man with a great sense of humour. I always used to see him with his friends and how he took control of the room and made everyone laugh. I guess I get my humour from him, plus I have Masha Allah three brothers who are all very funny so I should thank them also. While growing I was exposed to Nana Saab, Rangila and Munawar Zarif. The show ’50 50′ became my base later. This show was a huge influence on me. Moin Akhtar, Ismail Tara, Robin Williams, Jerry Lewis and other were people who defined comedy for me. When I started doing school plays I always use to mimic teachers and other actors so comedy comes natural to me I guess,” he explains.

It’s common knowledge the amount of delays award shows experience in their commencement, all to a point where our heels start bothering us and the men are famished. Everything might seem mundane and we’re checking our watches time and again. But then something wonderful happens. The countdown is completed and in walks Ahmad with all his swag. In a matter of five minutes, he has us enthralled.

“It’s always hard to be funny as what may sound funny to you will always be at someone else’s expense so they might take it the wrong way. One thing that I do is I always ask the person I’m about to target whether or not they are OK with being made fun of and most of the time they are all fine with it. I even had people walk up to me complaining over me pinpointing them out and making fun of them,” Ahmad says.

But for those aforementioned of us, who knew Ahmad primarily as a singer, why would such a successful band like EP, which was a sensation back in the day, call it quits? Just like that?

“Well, the music industry has been going through some hard times and it came to a point where it wasn’t feasible for us to continue music as our profession. With a lack of concerts and no music infrastructure available in Pakistan, it is actually very hard for musicians to survive in today’s market. For the time being, I like to work more towards the film side and focus on acting,” Ahmad clarifies.

But one wonders, if Ahmad was so much at the top of his game when it came to music, which was back in 2003, why would he totally distance himself from it? “I did make the theme song for ‘Jawani Phir Nahi Ani’ and will be making more music for movies but to go back to music as a full time thing doesn’t seem likely as yet,” he says.

I take the comedy king down memory lane. I ask him about the very first award ceremony which he did and how he felt being on stage to crack people up. “Well, before Lux, I already did two years of corporate hosting for various multinational companies but this was for television and all the industry was going to be there so one had got to be nervous, but I was given free hand to do whatever I want which was great help,” he replies in utter wit.