Since AIB’s fallout, India’s comedy scene is seeing many new names taking over the limelight and emerging as promising artists. Most are recognized from the comedy show ‘Comicstaan’ that gets aired on Amazon Prime Video. Now, with the major player taking a fall, the stage is set for the players who are competing to establish their primacy in the world of stand-up comedy.
And these players are sure a delight to watch! Here’s a roundup of 8 rising comedians to watch out for!
1. Prashasti Singh: From being a 10th boards topper in Amethi, pursuing engineering, then MBA, and having a successful corporate run, to becoming a comedian is absolutely an unconventional way to fame. She starred in the first season of Comicstaan.
2. Kumar Varun: Married and has an MBA – that’s the information you will gather from his Youtube videos. His first ever stand-up video got 2.6 million views in mere three months. If you have been a fan of AIB’s Honest Engineering Campus Placements videos, you would probably recognize him as Failure. However, in real life, this engineer scored 9.06 CGPA, passed the CAT with a 99.3 percentile and completed his MBA from Faculty of Management Studies in Delhi. He came across his partner in Random Chikibum – Rahul Subramanian during his corporate stint at Mahindra. Together, they went on to win the Comedy Hunt organised by OML in 2015. Kumar Varun has starred in Amazon Prime’s Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare and appeared in TLC’s Queens vs Kings.
3. Aakash Gupta: As an active performer of the theatre club of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Aakash Gupta honed his stage skills, and as per him improv comedy liberated him as a performer after which he decided to sign up for different kinds of comedy opportunities. After performing at open mic gigs for 2 years, he felt confident enough to upload two videos on YouTube in 2017, which are nothing less than a hilarious ride. Gupta is currently writing a solo one-hour show and planning to go for a multi-city tour in August.
4. Supriya Joshi: Most of us know her as Supaar Woman on social media. She was very recently seen on Comicstaan’s second season. Insider described her as, “caped crusader battling the pointlessness of life, one meme at a time.” She even made it to the Verve magazine’s (Em)Power List for getting back at fat-shaming trolls, gracefully.
5. Rahul Dua: Attaining the second spot in Comicstaan 1, Rahul Dua is beginning to get into the genre of political satire. He believes we are way behind in terms of stand-up comedy in comparison to international standards and wants to hone his skills before diversifying.
6. Nishant Suri: He describes himself as an ‘introvert comic’ and this introverted funny man won Comicstaan 1. Being an engineer turned investment banker turned wedding photographer, he decided to explore yet another field of comedy. He is loved for much relatable, self-depreciating humour. Suri along with Rahul Dua do live shows together and plans to go on tour in November this year.
7. Raunaq Rajani: His comic sense developed as a shield to cover his low self-esteem, or so he says. He had dreams of becoming a real estate agent, but eventually, comedy turned out to be a viable option for him. He came to light as a Comicstaan contestant. Rajani wants to create his one-hour show to tour across the country.
8. Anubhav Singh Bassi: Former Supreme Court lawyer is a hilarious storyteller. His video Cheating was no less than a fun masterpiece. His ‘Bas Kar Bassi’ is a 50-minute show on his lifestyle choices and career, that he performs in multiple cities, including Bhopal, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Surat, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kolkata and Mumbai.