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Cracking up Pune's stand-up comedy scene
The standup culture in Pune has seen a change in language, venue and participants in the past few years. Comedians from across genres tell us about the current scene in Pune, what needs to change and why Pune has more potential
From being a city that gave us the great Pu La Deshpande in the 1940s, who would have the audiences in splits, to a being a city that offers various age groups different genres of stand up comedy to choose from, Pune has come a long way in the stand up comedy culture department.
Comedy culture in Pune
This November, the city will be hosting close to 10 stand up comedy shows at various venues and events. We speak to the artistes on the stand up comedy scene in Pune, what needs to change and why Pune has more potential. Aadar Malik, a standup comedian and musician believes that like everywhere in India, Pune’s comedy culture is growing. Malik says, “Pune has always been an incredible place for performing comedy and music.” He has performed solo shows in the city along with being a part of events such as NH7 Weekender and the likes.
Standup comedian and writer Sorabh Pant, who performed a show in the city, last month, credits Pune for being one of the top four cities for stand up comedy, in the country. “Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai and Gurgaon are the best cities to perform in India. The vibe is a necessary element and Pune has it just right. The people here live by the work hard, party hard culture, which fits stand up artistes perfectly. Also, the heavy presence of the college crowd is an added bonus,” says Pant, who looks forward to future shows in the city.
Bollywood comedian Navin Prabhakar, who will be visiting Pune on November 15 for a show believes that it is the youth of the city that keeps the scene alive. Prabhakar says, “Surprisingly, Pune is a vibrant hub for comedy culture and no other city is as popular as Pune for stand-up. It is a great place for the big shots in the industry. Apart from entertainment comedy, Pune is also famous for corporate comedy culture.”
Punya Arora, whose style of comedy is observational and light-hearted, feels the comedy culture in India itself is one that’s evolving and picking up. Punya says, “It’s gathered a lot of momentum over the past few years and Pune is no different with some really nice venues and an eager and curious audience.”
However, Omkar Rege, stand-up comedian from Pune has a completely different take on the subject. According to him the comedy culture in Pune is seen in two separate watertight compartments. One, a more cosmopolitan English-vernacular Hindi, and the other, a regional Marathi space.
Rege says, “These two spaces have a stark contrast in terms of where the Pune scene stands. The local scene started to take shape after a few of us started coaxing restaurants/cafes/bars into hosting open mics back in 2015-16. That is still the case with local comics in Pune. With minimal exposure and barely an audience coming to watch the show the city, the comedy scene has turned into a stagnant pond with no lateral growth unless comics move or can continuously commute to Mumbai.Even organising an open mic has become the comic’s responsibility and the ones who realise the need for stage time now play the dual role of performer and programmer. In this space, there’s a hegemony of the more established comics - especially those starring in viral YouTube videos.”
He adds that in the Marathi space, however, the scene began with Bharatiya digital party - a content creator that was interested in Marathi standup. Rege adds, “With their existing following, we got a head start and the audience loved the content and the past year has been great in terms of exposure as well as a sense of growth.”
Acceptance of genres
Pune because of its mix of communities and cosmopolitan crowd has a fair and open minded audience when it comes to accepting comedy genres. Comedians and writers agree that the city has definitely been more accepting when it comes to newcomers and fresh material. Pant adds, “The audience is definitely open to new ideas. However, I don’t do beyond what I do (laughs). I remember doing a show with songs and another one where I just spoke to the crowd for an hour. Both of these were received really well here. The crowd is enthusiastic and has a sense of humour.” Having said that he adds that the city could experiment a little with genres like improv.
Prabhakar adds that the comedy scene in Pune is segregated in groups, which is primarily, age, language, corporate and mythology. He says, “They are more specific to the current trends and happenings in Pune. People in Pune love the combination of comedy with their basic roots of life, what they deal with in their day to day life in offices, college the works.”
As far as genres are concerned, Rege feels the comedy scene is still too young. “I don’t think the comics have explored all genres of comedy yet. There’s a long way to go for us to grow as a community of people who like to make/laugh at jokes. Dark humour, political humour, meta comedy - something like Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette - there’s a long way for us as a people to understand those nuances. But we’ll get there eventually.”
Punya thinks the audiences are definitely curious about all genres of comedy and are slowly opening up to it as well. “In terms of where we are with comedy (again I say in India) it’s still a fairly new art form and while we are heading in the right direction I still think it’s going to take a while before all our audiences are open to all genres of comedy.”
What needs to change?
From the need to have exclusive comedy clubs and venues to diversity in terms of socio-economics and genders, comedians feel Pune still has the potential to improve and become better.
Pant shares, “We need more and more people to come out and see open mics. This way, they can encourage newcomers and young comedians can test their jokes. You have to support the local comedy scene to allow the section to flourish. Also, I think we need to have more exclusive comedy venues in the city. Pune has the scope for a regular comedy venue.”
Just having more shows will also help the scene. Malik adds, “There are still the pop venues for comedy. It's about time for Pune to a theatre dedicated to comedy.”
Rege adds, “There needs to be more diversity in voices. Diversity not just in terms of the socio-economics but also gender. Honest voices will break the status quo. It is our responsibility to share the space we have with these voices. Diversity will make the industry stronger. It is still a very urban medium. I guess going into regional spaces will break standup free from its urban bondage. It is the best way, I feel, of speaking truth to power, and who better to punch up than those who are clearly at the bottom of the pile.”Punya feels we need to loosen up more, laugh more, not take our jokes and our comedians as seriously as we tend to and we definitely need to see a lot more women take the stage here as well.
Stand up comedy venues in the city
Classic Rock Coffee Co, Kalyaninagar
Leafy Trails, Erandwane
Nukkad Cafe, Viman Nagar
Hummingbird Training and Infrastructure Facility, Town Square, Viman Nagar
Unwind, Koregaon Park
Euriska, Mundhwa
Creativity, Yerwada
Ticket rates for these shows range from Rs 200 onwards
