What is that you ask?

It is a pan India comedy hunt – for the comediennes. The idea is to encourage the comics to come out of the hood and tell the world – it’s the women who boss.

Ms Funny Bones is the virtual “You Go, Girl” from the Team Suno Bey, who want women from across India to participate. They are inviting both experienced and newbie comics to take part in the competition.

The show will be hosted by the Suno Bey team .

Team Suno Bey puts it:

Ms Funny Bones is our way to show we care and support women. We know a female-only comedy line-up will be awesome fun.

More about Ms Funny Bones

The event will have an all-female comic line-up and female jury.

It will be a 5-week competition, where performances will happen on the Saturday evenings on Zoom.

Oct 3 onward, every Saturday, 6 performers will showcase their funny side and say out loud, “audience, audience in the living room or hall, who is the funniest of them all.”

The winner of each week will compete in the finale – on the last Saturday of the event, that is, Oct 31.

The performances will be held in both English and Hindi.

Jury and Selection

Comediennes will be scored on the basis of points given by the Suno Bey team, the audience and a judge.
The jury includes comics with finesse.
(Suno Bey wants to keep it under the wraps for now)
(Hint: Some comics appear in the Sterling Reserve Comedy hosted by Varun Thakur)

What’s in it for the winner?

Cash prizes
10 spots with the Suno Bey team

Suno Bey team is sponsoring prizes on their own, and don’t officially have any sponsors. It is a move to provide a platform to Ms Funny Bones to tickle your funny bones.

Want to attend?

Tickets can be bought from PayTm Insider and BookMyShow.

Want to participate?

If you are keen to show your funny side to the world, register here.

Last day to register is 3 Oct, 2020.

The post Suno Bey on a hunt to find Ms Funny Bones appeared first on Humour Sapiens.

Gaurav Kapoor weaves stories out of things that he sees and experiences and has a funny take on almost all of them – his school, college, office, Royal Enfield, Mumbai flats, Nano – everything under the sun that catches his eyes.

Kapoor credits Zakir Khan for the sudden interest in Hindi stand-up, and admits that he is a fan of Vipul Goyal’s comedy. However he just wants to be like himself, and we are glad!

Here are some quick facts about Gaurav Kapoor:

• Has a journalism degree from Delhi University
• Post Graduate in Fashion Management from National Institute of Fashion Technology
• Worked in the retail sector post qualification
• Won every open mic competition on the Mumbai circuit including Big Mic, Canvas Laugh Club, Chalta Hai and Buzz Off in his early years as a comic
• Opened for Russel Brand on his India Tour
• Recently changed his name from Kapur to Kapoor – neurologically at play here
• Does Saturday ki Rasoi with wife Shreya Sharma

 

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A post shared by Gaurav Kapoor (@gauravkpoor) on Oct 12, 2019 at 12:30am PDT

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Here are a few quick facts about Punit Pania:

• He is the single man behind ‘Chalta Hai Comedy’. Founded in 2015, it is one of the largest independent producers of stand-up events in various cities of India. Every month, over 20 shows are held under this banner with the biggest and wackiest artists of the country.
• Punit organises and hosts all shows of Chalta Hai Comedy across Mumbai, Pune, Surat and Baroda and has also performed in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Vizag and Goa in different comedy formats.
• He has produced over 200 shows over including several sold out concept shows.
• Punit is a master of observational comedy and talks around suburban philosophy mostly.
• He is fluent in 5 languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Sindhi.
• An MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, he had an 11-year long corporate stint before joining comedy.
• His YouTube channel has 7,527,799 video views and 69.1K subscribers.

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• This boy with a fresh and impactful take on things trips over Manik Mahna’s ‘Classmates’ and has watched it multiple times.
• His first joke that got him a laugh was – “I’m Kashmiri, and people think Kashmiris get high. But we don’t get high, we get stoned.”
• The weirdest place he has performed at is a marriage bidaai (a Hindu wedding ceremony, where the bride leaves her parental home). And bombed!
• Before getting into the serious business of comedy, Samay Raina tried his hands at poetry, guitar, chess, rapping, table tennis and 9 to 5 job.
• As a kid, he enjoyed watching ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ and reading Khushwant Singh’s funny books in school, but it was only in his third year of college that he discovered the concept of open mics.

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During middle school, her mother’s shop shut as ecommerce flourished; but financial difficulties never baffled the mother-daughter duo. They tightened their belts! While the teenage Punya got on to chocolate making, her mother became a property consultant. Know your comic, Punya Arora a little more:

• She spent her childhood attending lots of classes like piano, art, pottery, chocolate making, candle making, to list a few – Jack of all trades, we must say!
• Punya comes from a single parent background, with her mother being her the sole source of encouragement.
• Before Punya held the mic and conquered the stage, she practiced photography for a good 7 years.
• She loves to shoot underwater and photographs people, portraits, fashion, spaces, food.
• Now that she is a stand-up comic, thanks to her Punjabi nature of talking endlessly, she has gained 27.8K Youtube subscribers and her one video fetched her over 1.7M views.
• Punya’s favourite Indian comics are Sundeep Rao, Daniel Fernandes, Jeeveshu Ahluwalia and Aditi Mittal.
• She continues being a visiting faculty at an institute in Ooty to teach photography and have been for the past 5 years.
• Her favourite one-liner joke is, “A guy walks into a bar….ouch!”

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Here you go. Check out the up and coming Indian stand-up comics:

Samay Raina:

Winner of Comicstaan 2, Samay is known for sudden quirks and punchlines which he delivers with unwavering confidence. He takes his comedy very seriously and plans on creating an impact with his fresh take on things.

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Airplane mode . . #standupcomedy #comicstaan #samayraina #kashmir #curfew #jammukashmir #indiancomedy

A post shared by Samay Raina (@maisamayhoon) on Dec 11, 2019 at 4:55am PST

Sriraam Padmanabhan:

The first ever joke that got him a laugh was, “I am Sriraam. I am a South Indian. I’d tell you my last name but we don’t have all night.” This curly-haired comic uses humour as a coping mechanism to deal with harsh realities of life. Sriraam Padmanabhan started doing stand-up comedy for fun, took a break for a while and got back with a bang. And we are glad!

Pavitra Shetty:

Always full of energy and extremely friendly, Pavitra aka Pavi is brimming with enthusiasm. She decided to give stand-up comedy a chance when her friends tagged her in a random open mic event post. And we are glad she chanced upon it.

Sumaira Shaikh:

A dream that never saw the light of the day; Sumaira Shaikh wanted to study psychology but thanks to her frequent visits to CLC (Canvas Laugh Club) that she zeroed upon comedy gigs. Shaikh has worked behind the scenes with AIB, as a writer on Abish Mathew’s Son of Abish and Sumukhi Suresh’s Behti Naak and web series Pushpavalli. She now be seen regularly performing in Mumbai comedy events.

Sumit Sourav:

Discovered on the television comedy hunt – The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Sumit Sourav started doing live stand-up comedy in Bangalore before moving to make a mark in the Mumbai comedy scene. He also showcased his skills in the second season of Comicstaan 2.

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Here are the 10 times when stand-up comics made 2019 bearable.

1. Surviving at Parle-G, Genius!

Abijit Ganguly on throws some light on millennial couples who sure are living their life in style, but miserably failing at basic things, like cooking.

2. Dog parents are the cutest

Well, not! Aakash Gupta talks about how parents still tend to accept the fault of their kids, Dog Parents never. It is never their doggo at fault, but you.

3. On over-confident Indian bachelors

Nishant Suri knows the exact reason why Indian bachelors are different than bachelors of other countries. It’s their over-confidence that makes them distinct.

4. A woman buying condoms. Wait, what?

Neeti Palta talks about a country that cannot say the word condom, and the way people react to this unusual sight of women buying condoms in India.

5. True happiness lies in small-small things

Rahul Dua tells how we uselessly spend our life looking for sources of happiness, while true happiness lies in the little things.

6. Men and consent rarely go together

Sanjay Rajoura talks in his usual sarcastic tone about Indian men’s lack of understanding regarding the concept of consent.

7. On Information that makes no difference to our lives

Abhishek Upmanyu talks about the two types of information, one that impacts our life, another that is purely ‘gyaan’ and we can live without it.

8. Unique talent of Mallu uncles unveiled

Kenny Sebastian on ‘Everything Mallu’ tells us something unique about Mallu uncles, which we feel fits aptly for almost all uncles.

9. The spells that mums cast

Biswa Kalyan Rath in his stand-up special ‘Sushi’ talks about superpowers that Indian moms have such as finding hidden items or the items that hid themselves so that you cannot find them.

10. The forever overflowing fridges of Indians

Azeem Banattawala shares how refrigerator of an Indian household has everything under the sun, including the tissue papers from Dominos. However, after a week of sincerity, the rules about where to keep what are somewhat relaxed.

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He has performed at Canvas Laugh Club and Comics yeh bindaas hai, and can be often seen in open mics and corporate events. He also loves to pen down his thoughts in his blog: www.mytwonhalfcents.com. Humour Sapiens got into a tête-à-tête with Pratik Jain. Know more about this Delhi comic here.

1. How did you develop interest in stand-up comedy?

Few years ago, I started writing my blog (www.mytwonhalfcents.com). It is largely my (humorous) take on life, which received a good response. Also, I used to be master of ceremony (MC) in my official events and few people used to laugh at my jokes (now at times I think they did it on purpose to create a delusion). Then someone suggested that I should try auditioning at Canvas Laugh Club for Open Mics and gradually my interest developed further.

2. What was your first stage experience like?

I was quite nervous on my first open mic, though I had been on stage earlier (in official gatherings). There were a couple of my office colleagues in the audience and I couldn’t complete my set in allotted 4 minutes and the buzzer went off! I was hugely embarrassed and avoided eye contact with my colleagues for next few days.

3. How has the journey been so far? Were there any challenges that you had to face? And key achievements?

Well, it’s been almost a year now and the journey has seen its own highs and lows. Initially open mics were tough. Sometimes I would need to stop for using a cuss word on a ‘clean comedy’ event and sometimes I would forget the punches. Gradually, things started improving though and I started preparing more. Other challenge was that my genre of comedy is more observational and corporate style, whereas many times audiences were college going kids or youngsters. I had to therefore learn a bit of ‘elephant & ant’ jokes and also things people of that age could relate to.

Over last few months, I have started getting some recognition. The first show in September 2019 (with couple of others) was a ‘sold out’ and that gave me a lot of confidence and I also got a ‘certificate of awesomeness’ in an Open Mic. Now, I am getting called for some corporate gigs and that’s the space I really like.

I feel that bringing smiles to people’s faces is Godly and should qualify as a ‘religion’. Everytime I am able to do this, it feels like an achievement.

4. Any experience with annoying audience member?

Every time when the audience doesn’t laugh, I find them super annoying. I tell them that my jokes are good but it needs ‘intelligence’ to understand

I remember one time while doing a joke on ‘Commander Abhinandan’ (who was held captive in Pakistan) about him being a ‘Jain’ where an audience member shouted ‘he is from south India’. At first, I ignored him but he again repeated himself after a minute. It was difficult telling him to shut up…you see there is great power in alcohol.

5. Any bombing moment you’d like to share?

Lots of them actually. I have had cases where there has not been a single laugh in my 5 minutes on stage and people staring at me as if I am an alien. I have had instances where I have forgotten the set on stage and also where I got off in 2 minutes. Each time when I bomb, I say to myself…’apna time aayega’!

For sure, Pratik! Humour Sapiens wishes you good luck on this funny journey!

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Humour Sapiens got into a tête-à-tête with Appurv Gupta aka Gupta Ji. Know more about him.

1. How did you develop interest in stand-up comedy? What was your first stage experience like?

Basically, I’m an engineer, when I was in my engineering college, I realized that engineering is not my cup of tea, so I started doing something else. One day, someone told me about Toastmasters International, a non-profit public speaking organization. I got curious about what it is. Since I had a fear of public speaking, I started pursuing toastmasters International and eventually, I realized that I’m a funny guy in the circuit. People around me started coming up to me and telling me that I’m funny. Eventually things got smooth and I realized I can do standup.

My first stage experience of doing a stand-up was very good. Overall during Toastmasters when I went on stage for the first time it was a disaster, a nightmare that I had. My mind was blank, my hands were shivering. It was very tough at the beginning, but the stand-up experience was good because I performed comedy after at least 3 years of being in Toastmasters.

2. How has the journey been so far? Were there any challenges that you had to face?

The journey was very good. I started doing standup in 2012, it has been over 7 and a half years. There were many challenges initially. Not many people knew about what stand-up was. So, I had to brief them about it, I had to teach them. Over a period of time, these challenges changed. Now people have seen stand-up so much that you have to be unique and different for the audience to come and see your show and people to invite you for their events. Every time you get to see a new challenge, but that’s a part of the game, a part of the life you’ve chosen. So, I’m kind of happy about everything.

3. What was the reaction of your family when they got to know about your encounter with stand-up comedy?

My family knew that I’m doing something different other than B.Tech. So, I got the job in my last year, and after I got the offer letter, I told my family that I wanted to do stand-up for some time. They said okay and asked me for a deadline. I told them, give me 2 years, if I’m able to succeed then it’s fine, otherwise I’ll do MBA and do a job in an MNC or some Bank. But luckily, those two years I was able to succeed, and the rest is in front of you all

4. Do you write your own scripts?

Yes, I do write my own scripts. It’s been 7 years that I’m writing on my own. I think the reason why I started doing standup is that I like making people laugh and doing creative stuff. Hopefully, I will continue writing for myself in future too.

5. How much time did it take for you to develop the content for your video ‘Hotel Wala Experience‘?

The Hotel bit took me around 4 to 5 months to create it wholly, but yes, I’ve been performing this bit for almost 2 years. It took me 2 years to create that kind of performance with all the body language and voice modulation. As far as the content is concerned, I was able to build it around 3 to 5 months.

6. Unlike conventional art forms, comedy as a career is relatively new. How do you see the future of stand-up comedy and open mic culture?

I think comedy is going well. Every second day you’ll see a new video, every next person in engineering college wants to become a standup comedian. It’s a new career choice but yes, the future is kind of good as far as all the OTT platforms are coming and they want to acquire comedy content. They want standup specials on their platform. The future is bright, open mic culture is the beginning of any standup scene. If in your city, there’s no standup happening then definitely open-mic culture is the thing you should look for, but I think yes, right now if you’re talented and can do justice to your artform, then you’ll be able to survive in this field for sure.

7. Any take on regional comedy?

Yes, I believe regional comedy is the next big thing because India is a diverse country, so people want to be as comfortable in their language. If you’re a regional comedian I say that you should focus on doing regional stand-up. You’ll see a tremendous growth in your career as compared to Hindi or English is what I feel.

8. Any experience with annoying audience member? How do you deal with hecklers?

They buy a ticket and attend our show, so I try being a performer and talk to them. I try to handle their issue since they talk to me, I love to talk back. In most cases, I’m able to make sure they have a good time. I haven’t seen any audience in my show who’s irritating or annoying me, so I’m kind of happy. That’s the part of the game though, you have to handle them politely. You have to make sure that they are with you.

9. Any bombing moment you’d like to share?

The bombing moments are as many as your website can be filled with numbers of pages. Many times, I’ve bombed on stage. The more you try and become better, the more experiments you do on stage and you get bombed. There are many bombing moments, like in 2012, I got bombed and thrown out of stage in College and corporate show, they told me to just shut my mouth. It’s just part of my job.

10. Suggestion for upcoming comics?

The only 3 suggestions I have for upcoming comedians are

A) Be original

B) Be hard working

C) Be Persistent

These are the only 3 things for any creative art form or life, to be honest. You’ll see a massive change in your growth and eventually in your life.

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The post Tête-à-Tête with Appurv Gupta aka Gupta Ji appeared first on Humour Sapiens.

1. How did you develop interest in stand-up comedy? What was your first stage experience like?

When I was 20 years old, I started watching Stand-up Comedy, so much that I wasn’t watching anything else at one point. I looked up Indian stand-up comics and that’s how it all started. My first time was addictive. Before I went to the venue, I told my colleagues the jokes I was going to perform and no one laughed. Then I went to the venue, puked in the restroom just before going up on stage and it didn’t go as bad. I had people laughing at one point. I kept returning to the stage.

2. How has the journey been so far? Were there any challenges that you had to face?

It’s been good. There have been ups and downs. There’s so much more to achieve and a lot of do that it feels like we’ve just started, and by we I mean, me and my comedic genius. There have been challenges, in mostly understanding what’s funny. That’s such a huge challenge! It’s paramount.

3. What was the reaction of your family when they got to know about your encounter with stand-up comedy?

I didn’t tell them that I was serious about it until I finished 2 years. Initially the conversations involved it being a hobby. But over time they gave up.

4. Any take on regional comedy?

It’s incredible to perform in a regional language and it’s only going to get bigger.

5. Any experience with annoying audience member?

Too many to pen down. But I’ve mostly the memory of either making them laugh eventually or shutting them up if they said something or yelled at the top of my voice at them in a restroom in my mind.

6. Any bombing moment you’d like to share?

Again, so many. My first time performing outdoors where no one was paying attention. The wind blew and the back drop fell on stage almost crushing me and I had everyone’s attention for 3 seconds and then they went back to ignoring me. Oh! Such memories are precious.

7. Who is your favourite comic?

There are many. George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Patrice O Neal, Bill Burr.

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