When comedian Pankaj Sharma had to shut down his Bandra venue J-Spot, he had promised he would be back with a “new space that might be a little bit bigger, a little different aesthetically”. He came through on that promise just a couple of months later opening a 100-seater venue in Mumbai’s posh Juhu suburb. In just over a year, the club has become one of the go-to spots for comedians and comedy lovers in the city, with regular lineup shows, trials showcases and open mics taking place through the week. And now, the club is levelling up further with their alternative comedy festival Aaram Nagar Comedy Fest.
“In simple words, alternative comedy is anything that isn’t main stream in the scene,” said Nidhi Shah, co-owner of J-Spot. “It’ll include different types of shows like improv comedy, sketch showcases, musical acts, podcasts, mimicry. Anything that we don’t usually see in the traditional comedy club setup is alternative comedy.”
Taking place on 15 and 16 February, the festival boasts a lineup of over 100 artists including Abishek Upmanyu, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Abish Mathew, Anirban Dasgupta, Shreeja Chaturvedi and Urjita Wani. The comedians will put up 72 alternative shows across the two days.
“The idea came up when I was talking with Biswa [Kalyan Rath] about how most comedians on lineup shows sound very similar to each other,” said Sharma. “We’ve noticed this across the country. That’s when we decided to put up alt comedy shows at the venue. Slowly people started coming specifically for these shows. So we thought of putting up a festival where we showcase alternative comedy acts. The inspiration was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.”
Aditya Gundeti—who workshopped his character Vikas P.T. Sir at J-Spot before it went viral on Instagram—will be performing two shows at the festival. “I’m doing a corporate themed show in which I’ll be going on stage as my character Rachit,” he told us. “The second show will be divided into two parts. In the beginning I’ll be doing some crowd work and the second half will feature Vikas P.T. sir. Bringing these characters from Instagram and developing an hour-long show based on them is a great deal.”
Another show on the bill is Sahil Shah’s Dekh Lenge. “It’s a 1 hour set list show,” he said. “Which means the audience gives the topics and I just make up an entire solo show on the spot. It’s going to be hella chaotic.”
The festival will take place in a building in Andheri West with six shows taking place simultaneously. Ticket holders are free to go check out any of these shows. “There will be 36 shows on each day,” Sharma told us. “There will also be one open mic running for 12 hours straight. The comics will keep rotating so the audience in the waiting area will also have something to watch.”
“Usually comedy festivals in the city are broken up into separate days, venues and lineups,” said Pavitra Shetty. “But this time, to have so many comedians and shows happening at the same place at the same time will give it a proper festival feel. It’ll be great to pop into any of the rooms and see what other comics are doing. And the biggest change will be performing comedy during the day.” Shetty will be hosting her panel show DTF—Down To Fun which will feature Shreeja Chaturvedi, Supriya Joshi and Raunaq Rajani.
Sharma and Shah are also looking forward to highlighting some fresh voices through this festival. “There are multiple comics from Delhi who are flying down specially for this festival,” said Sharma. “They’ve been doing alternative comedy for 6-7 years there and this will serve as a platform for them to break into the Mumbai scene.”
“We’ve been really lucky that everyone from the scene has been extremely supportive with this experiment,” added Sharma. “If audience members discover a new artist or act that they really enjoy, that’ll be our personal win.”
You can get your tickets for Aaram Nagar Comedy Fest here.
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