Earlier this summer, Bandra comedy club J-Spot was forced to shut down after the building it was located in was bought up by a major business enterprise. At the time, comedian and J-Spot founder Pankaj Sharma had promised that they would soon be back with a new space. “This new space might be a little bit bigger, a little different aesthetically,” he had said. “But everything else will be the same, yaar.”

It’s taken Sharma just a little over two months to deliver on that promise. At 6pm today, the new, improved J-Spot will open its doors as a 100-seater comedy venue in Mumbai’s posh Juhu suburb. “It’s been a complete roller-coaster since the club shut down,” says Sharma, who is understandably excited about this new beginning. “It’s much bigger, better and one of the best venues that the country has seen, biases aside.”  

The club will host more than 20 of India’s top comedians over its opening four nights, with the Comedy Mela show which runs from 29 September to 2nd October. Aakash Mehta, Abhishek Upmanyu, Amit Tandon, Gaurav Kapoor, Prashasti Singh and Urooj Ashfaq are some of the comedians on the lineup for the club’s re-opening celebration.