Most comedians announce a tour by putting up a poster with a list of cities and dates. Sumit Sourav is doing things a little differently. For his upcoming tour, Manifest, he’s announced a show in Mumbai, but he won’t reveal the next city until the first one sells out. If Mumbai wants to see him, it has to fill the room. If Delhi wants him next, well, Delhi will have to help Mumbai first.
“I’m manifesting a tour where I don’t lose money,” Sourav tells DeadAnt. It’s a refreshingly practical ambition for a comedian who’s spent 11 years in the business, performing across venues and figuring out what it takes to make a living from standup. Rather than commit to a string of shows and hope the audiences turn up, he’s making demand the deciding factor.
“If Delhi people want to see me, send your friends to Mumbai,” he says. “Make this show sold out, only then will I list my Delhi show.”
The idea is to make touring less of a financial gamble, while giving audiences a more active role in his career. Sourav has built a website where people can buy tickets, track sales and see how close a show is to unlocking the next city. The first 15 people to buy tickets also get their names in an “inner circle”.
For Sourav, who’s also a co-owner of Mumbai’s Khar Comedy Club, this is an attempt to make the business of standup work on his own terms. “As an indie artist, I feel you define your own game. So this is the game I want to play with my audience.”
It’s a decision informed by experience. Sourav has spent more than a decade in comedy, has a Prime Video special to his name and recently released a half-hour special on YouTube. He has experimented with ways to get his work in front of audiences. He released what he describes as India’s first comedy audio album on Spotify titled Acquired Taste. During the pandemic, when performing opportunities were scarce, he offered to perform for colleges for free if they covered his travel and accommodation. He received 30 entries and eventually selected 15 colleges, using the opportunity to build material when regular stage time was hard to come by.
“Every problem comes with their new solution,” he says. The current experiment is another attempt to find one, this time by asking audiences to demonstrate that the demand for a tour exists before he commits to it.
Running a comedy club has also given him a view of the business that goes beyond his own time on stage. He sees comics trying new material, understands the work that goes into building a set, and knows how much effort goes into getting an audience through the door. But wearing both hats has its complications. At his own club, he’s thinking about the light design, the temperature of the room, whether the comic next on the lineup has arrived and a dozen other operational details before he has to switch gears and go up on stage himself. As he puts it, it’s much harder to disengage from the work when the venue is yours.
That experience has helped shape his approach to Manifest. Sourav hasn’t written and rehearsed a complete hour that he’s ready to take on the road. Instead, he’s working on 10 to 15-minute spots at open mics, gradually building the show. The tour’s success will determine where he performs, but the writing process will continue regardless.
“If this doesn’t work, then I won’t be able to do the tour. That’s the only thing,” he says. He’ll continue performing in Mumbai, releasing videos and building an audience online rather than taking shows to cities where he might lose money. “Till the time I have the pull, I will not go on a tour where I know that I am not going to make money, I am losing money and I am also not enjoying this process.”
The name Manifest might suggest a leap of faith, but Sourav is clear that he doesn’t see manifestation as a substitute for work. “It’s not spiritual, or something that the universe brings to you,” he says. “Whenever I am manifesting something, I am telling myself that I want this. And if I am telling myself that I want this, then I have to figure out the logistics in between.”
That means writing jokes, performing regularly, selling tickets and making sure the show is worth the audience’s time. He says the first 10 tickets sold through his website gave him enough of an initial push to take the idea seriously. Now, he’s trying to convert the people who discover him at his club and other performances into ticket buyers.
There’s still a risk that the experiment won’t work. Sourav knows that. But he’s spent enough time in the business to know that risk is part of the job. He’s bombed innumerable times, left a job to pursue standup and opened a comedy club. He’s also seen how quickly things can change when a piece of content finds an audience online.
“Whether it will happen or not, I’m taking my chance here,” he says.
For now, Mumbai gets the first move. If the show sells out, another city gets its date. If it doesn’t, Sourav will keep working on his material and building his audience until the numbers make sense. It’s an unusual way to announce a tour, but one that makes the audience’s support tangible.
You can get your tickets for Manifest here.
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