Born in Jammu, brought up in Hyderabad, 21-year-old Samay Raina discovered comedy when he moved to Pune to pursue a course in printing engineering. He performed at an open mic there August 2017; came second, and got hooked to comedy forever. Samay then became a regular on the Pune scene and even started getting slots in Mumbai shows. He was chosen to perform at the Pune Comedy Festival where he received an 8-minute slot at 6 pm and addressed the crowd of around 3,000. Then, he went on to win Comicstaan 2.
- 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.