For a hot minute the India’s Got Latent stage was the ideal launch-pad for up-and-coming comedians. They could leverage Samay Raina’s format show’s virality to run up their Instagram following, get their foot in and land regular gigs at venues, open at Raina’s sold out auditorium shows and even land brand deals in the process. Naman Arora and Sharon Verma are two comics who tasted this success. Another comedian who was bracing himself for this post-Latent life of luxury was Mangu Singh. But like Murphy’s law suggests—anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The episode featuring his performance was never released because of the controversy surrounding a particular question asked by Ranveer Allahbadia.
The Bikaner-based comedian had signed up for India’s Got Latent to promote his self-released half-hour special Dadi’s Death. While Singh didn’t taste the fame that the show had to offer, he did get something a lot more valuable out of the experience—material for his next standup routine. Singh shares his experience of performing in front of Raina, Bhuvan Bam, Balraj Singh Ghai, Ahsaas Channa and Rahul Dua in his latest YouTube video titled I Won IGL But You Never Saw It. “Na episode aaya, na paisa, na fame,” Singh says at the beginning of the video.
We caught up with the comedian to know more about his Latent experience, his standup comedy journey and his latest tour The Man Has No Feeling.
When did you decide to sign up for ‘India’s Got Latent’?
So, when the episodes with Naman [Arora] and Sharon [Verma] blew up, I was building my half-hour special Dadi’s Death. I finished writing it, figured out a way to record it and released it on my YouTube channel in August last year. Once that was done, I was thinking of ways to market the special. And India’s Got Latent was the obvious choice to promote my work. My end goal was that I showcase a snippet from the special and reach out to as many people as possible who could then go watch the entire set on my channel.
What was the experience like?
Experience toh badhiya tha. I performed the trailer that I had cut for the special in addition to some new jokes. I ended up performing for three minutes. When the timer hit 90 seconds, I looked towards Samay [Raina]. He was vibing with my performance, I was also enjoying, so I went on to do some more material.
The panelists were also very sweet to me. Bhuvan Bam, Ahsaas Channa, Rahul Dua, Balraj Singh and Samay were part of the panel. They gave me a standing ovation for my bit. That was my win. I didn’t win the money because I had given myself 9 marks and the judges’ average was 9.5. The conversation with them was also great. There was no roasting involved. Balraj bhai knew about me before the performance too. We spoke about my standup journey. With Samay, it was more like a riff session. I’m particularly upset that that interaction never came out.
Despite your ‘Latent’ episode not airing, your half-hour special has 400k views on YouTube. That’s a pretty big number. How do you feel about that? How did that end up happening?
I had set my expectations a little too high, to be honest. [Laughs] Insaan ko positive hoke toh chalna chahiye. If I don’t think that I’m going to get 4-5 million views on my special, then it’s never going to happen. I was also coming from the perspective that the special was not just my hard work. There were a lot of other people who deserved their dues. Abhishek Bhutwani, who directed my special, spent one year with me to figure out the angles and lighting options. There were many others who were working behind the scenes.
But to be honest, I’m glad for whatever views I have gotten so far. It’s all been organic. All the comedians who saw it, ended up sharing it. There was no negative feedback as such. There are small things that I might have changed if I had taken more time, but overall I’m happy with what I released.
This special was the first thing you ever released on YouTube. What made you decide that you wanted to put this out even before sharing some smaller bits to gain some following or traction?
Main sach batau toh, when I had entered the standup comedy scene in 2018, the motive was to release a special directly. Pata nahi tha special kya nikalenge, but that is what I wanted to release. And then the incident that happened with my grandmother, it affected me in a way that I felt like talking about it on stage. For me, standup is a means of communicating how I’m feeling. So I started writing that and built the first 5-6 minutes but then the COVID-19 lockdown happened. But even if I couldn’t get on stage, I used this time to think about the special’s structure. Then once things opened up, I went and tightened the set in Delhi. So overall it took me three years to write and finesse the special. And then I came to Mumbai to figure out how to shoot it.
What was it like to shoot the special? What were some challenges that cropped up?
The biggest challenge was to bring an audience to shoot the special. It’s like I need to shoot 30-40 minutes but I don’t have people to perform it in front of. And I was not comfortable to call friends and family to shoot the special. So the next year was all about figuring out who I can record my half hour with. I approached a lot of comedians but most of them were either recording their entire solo or 10-15 minute bits. Nobody was doing half an hour.
Then Vivek Samtani entered the scenario. For the last year we had been meeting and every time he asked me if I had managed to record my bit. Finally one day he told me that I could do it with him in Bengaluru. He was gracious enough to let me perform for 40 minutes at his show. But yes, finally I was able to record it all thanks to him.
Let’s dial back right to the beginning. Tell us how your standup journey began.
Frankly, the kind of studying I did, all I could really do with my life was standup comedy. [Laughs] I’m from Bikaner. So I got my Bachelor of Arts degree from Dungar College there. The thing about Rajasthan is, everyone who does BA over there is preparing for some competitive government exam. I was also preparing for SSC (Staff Selection Commission) at the time. For this preparation I used to go to Jaipur quite often, where standup open mics used to happen. That’s where I started doing standup.
As far as interest in the art form goes—since childhood I had seen Great Indian Laughter Challenge and those kind of shows on TV. I was also a fan of reading comedy magazines. There was one called Balhans published by Dainik Bhaskar. Every Saturday there used to be a jokes section in the Rajasthan Patrika that I used to look forward to. So yeah, those were my inspirations to get up on stage and tell funny stories.
And a big part of the credit goes to my friends. It’s not easy for people to just move to Mumbai and pursue their dreams. It’s very expensive. But my friend Saurabh Sarswat, with whom I was preparing for SSC, kept at it and got a job in Mumbai. And I moved here with him.
How did your family react to this decision? And what did they think of your special?
Obviously, when I was moving to Mumbai they were worried about what work I’ll do. So I told them I’ll write for television or something of the sort. I told them that I’ll write for the shows they watch like Uttaran and Crime Patrol.
About the special… Samay Raina’s India’s Got Latent couldn’t reach Bikaner properly, toh mera special toh kya hi pahuchta. [Laughs] I had asked my siblings not to show it to my parents. I told my brother and sisters you can watch it if you want. Because I didn’t know what the overall reaction was going to be in general. My siblings really liked it though. They’re quite unfiltered though. When my sister saw the Latent video she said “kuch dhang ka kaam kar”. [Laughs]
What’s your new hour ‘A Man Has No Feelings’ about?
So, this is actually the hour that I was working on when I started standup. But the passing of my grandmother affected me quite a bit and I knew that if I don’t talk about that experience immediately then I never will. So I worked on that and this was also growing side by side. After the release of the special, I fully focused on this hour and now it’s at a stage where I can tour with it and punch it up further.
The hour focuses on different aspects of my life. For example, my name is quite different. A lot of people are amused by it. I talk about why I was named Mangu. I talk about my childhood. And then I touch upon my past life. Yes. You need to come watch the show to know what it is. But the larger theme is about growing up in a village and how certain superstitions in these rural areas affect your life.
You can book your tickets here.
comments
comments for this post are closed