World Laughter Day: Battling a strained laugh during dire times

With paid shows and contractual gigs being cancelled, city and world tours on hold, a few comedians disclose the struggles faced by them during the lockdown and woes of going digital.

All we need is a dose of comedy and a dash of humour to stay sane in such tough times. To keep up the spirit and cheer the masses, several comedians have taken the digital route to entertain the audience amid the lockdown.

Comedian Harsh Gujral feels that the issue with online shows is that it has compelled them to decrease the fee.

And as May 3 marks the occasion of World Laughter Day, and comedians continue to perform for a virtual audience, they also reveal that online gigs are not as easy as they sound. With paid shows and contractual gigs being cancelled, city and world tours on hold, some disclose the financial struggles faced by them during the lockdown as live performances were the major source of income, others grieve about being approached by big brands to do online shows for free, or with a considerable cut in the fees.

A city-based stand-up comedian shares her plight of unpaid digital shows. She explains, “How many shows will we do for free? A lot of big corporates have contacted me to take over their Instagram account and do a live show. But when I ask for the payment, they simply refuse stating that they aren’t making enough money. I did a couple of them for free but how are we strugglers expected to make money?”

Comedian and writer Aditi Mittal reveals that she was asked to perform online without a fee, in the pretext of “cheering up people”. “So while you build your brand and I cheer up people, what do I get?” she asks.

On the other hand, stand-up comedian Harsh Gujral feels that the issue with online shows is that it has compelled them to decrease the fee amount. He says, “Some corporate and IT companies are ready to pay but the fees has been reduced to maybe like 60%. We try our best to crack a deal. For example, if our charges are ₹10, and their budget is ₹4, so we do it for ₹6 now.”

For comedian Amit Tandon, the timing was really off as he had a world tour planned before the lockdown was announced but that didn’t stop him from entertaining his fans. Making the best use of technology, he recently came up with the idea of an online ticketed show to tackle the situation.Tandon says, “Abh roti toh khaani hai na, kahi aur se toh aayegi nahi. The reason why I started doing shows online was because I can’t sit idle at home for a year. Then secondly, I started getting corporate show inquiries through Zoom and that’s when I realised we need to understand the online medium better and maybe there are people who are ready to watch you and hear you through this medium.”

Talking about the number of viewers and ticket charges, he says, “We are trying with small numbers, these are not same numbers in terms of money or audience but it’s a start. It will take us 6-12 months to understand the medium and then do shows on a larger scale. So right now, it’s very much experimental. Usually the tickets for my live shows range between ₹ 1500-2000 but now for online ones it’s ₹ 250 and audience is limited to 40-50 people, so that I’m in control of the show. It feels like we are back to the times when we started comedy.”

Truly a blessing in disguise is another comedian and Good Samaritan, Nishant Tanwar who has supported his fellow members and hustling comics by a heartwarming initiative to survive the lockdown. As a payback gesture to the field of comedy, he put out a post on his social media accounts stating that he would transfer funds online to those comedians struggling in the tough times. In a conversation, he says, “All my tours and shows got cancelled, and in the same way, I thought what about my fellow comedians who survive on monthly gigs or by just organising shows on monthly basis? Some of them are fortunate enough but most of them have moved to other cities and are purely dependent on monthly incoming coming from comedy.”

Talking about the funds, he also adds, “Call it a coincidence but I had been saving to buy a house in Mumbai so I had funds to be able to do this. Otherwise don’t know how would I have done it. The response was overwhelming. The comedians are upcoming, new and are dependent, so I transferred ₹ 10,000 each.”

He also recalls the days when he started his career in comedy and adds, “There were rough patches when I started back in 2012, so practically it feels like I’m helping myself in 2012. The only way to get through this pandemic is by kindness and compassion.”

Interact with author/sanchita_kalra.