Kumar Varun has had a great run this year with his popular comedy quiz show Kvizzing with the Comedians, which features our favourite comics facing off in themed and general quizzes to win the top prize and earn bragging rights. The host and comedian is all set for the live recording of the 9th and final edition of the show for the year, which will be conducted over the weekend from 6-8 August.

32 comedians—including some of the industry bigwigs such as Zakir Khan, Kanan Gill, Kaneez Surka, Abish Mathew and Varun Grover—will be battling it out in the general quiz edition. You can pick up your tickets for the taping here. And if you can’t make it don’t worry, KV uploads every quiz on Random Chikibum’s YouTube channel.

For viewers not in the know, Kvizzing with the Comedians started as a live show in December 2019, with a handful of quizzes that took place in Mumbai. KV had more shows lined up for other cities in 2020 but the pandemic put a stop to those and he had to improvise and move online.

The first online-edition episode of Kvizzing with the Comedians dropped in August 2020, and since then the fans have been hooked. Over the last year, KV has become a part of our Sunday routine where we start out the day with some quizzing action and pick up on interesting trivia while enjoying our morning coffee. Did you know where the phrase “son of a gun” comes from? Or how 7up got its name? You can find the answers to these questions and many more on Kvizzing with the Comedians.

This morning, we quizzed the quizmaster himself about some of his favourite memorable moments from the previous tournaments. There have been numerable close encounters and nail-biting finishes of course, but KV did not want to dwell on that. What stands out for him is the unparalleled support he received from his fellow comedians.

“This might sound like one of those emotional answers but it’s true,” KV told DeadAnt. “To give you context, when I reach out to people, I reach out to finalise 48 contestants (16 for the themed edition and 32 for the general edition), and I’m not kidding, within a few hours I get a total of 48 confirmations. I’ve done it 9 times now and there have been barely any noes from people. They treat it as something where they’ll come and have fun with their peers and learn something new”.

KV’s love and interest in quizzing started off way back when he was in school and he just never stopped. “At every level of my life quizzing has been a constant,” he told us. “When I started Kvizzing my idea was to turn a life-long passion into something and that is why in terms of success I never really looked at it as a project that would get me views or money or popularity or fame.”

Talking about the success of the show, KV said, “On YouTube there is so much content. One feedback that I always get from the viewers is that they spend time watching the show but never feel like they’re wasting their time. It has become a show which they watch with their family and everyone gets different answers depending on their area of expertise. I never thought I’m making a family-based show, I never thought I am making a show which will help people get through such a tough time over the last year or so. These are the things I never thought of and they’re extremely heart-warming to hear,” he said.

As for the future of Kvizzing with the Comedians, KV is keen on bringing back the live format. “The moment we get a chance and the world is back to normal (or close to normal) I would love to bring it back to its offline version in which even the audience could participate. I used to have a prelims for the audience and the top 3 contestants would team up with comedians for a live stage show at the finals. The joy of quizzing is always in person.”