Karunesh Talwar had started the year with an exciting announcement on his Instagram stories. The comedian had said that he was all set to record his special Adrak Ka Swaad, which he had been touring with across the globe for the last two years. Before performing in front of the camera at Mumbai’s National Centre for Performing Arts on 24 March, Talwar went on a short tour with dates in Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Vadodara.

Talwar is pretty happy with how the show in Mumbai turned out and is excited to start pushing out the material on his YouTube channel that has been dormant for the last two years. The comedian, who was high up in Nepal when we got in touch with him, is looking forward to his first release in May. Here’s everything you need to know about his new hour and what he’s been up to.

You’ve been touring with ‘Adrak Ka Swaad’ for almost two years now. How much has the material changed since the first trial show?

I think it’s changed quite a bit, and that’s the best thing about touring. It allows you time to come up with more angles and make the show tighter in general. The show gets better the more you do it, and that’s why it takes so long to come up with a decent hour of standup comedy.

What’s the show largely about?

⁠I don’t like doing pretty much anything, and instead of acknowledging that I have a problem, I hate on people who like doing stuff, which is an obvious defence mechanism. That’s what the show is about. It’s a caricature of myself.

You had mentioned that you’ll be releasing this material on YouTube. What made you skirt the streaming services and release it on your own?

I like putting material out on YouTube because it reaches as many people as possible and you get immediate and honest feedback. On streaming platforms, you put it out and that’s it. Besides, I haven’t uploaded something to my channel for years now so I’m pretty excited to get back to it.

Have you seen any new comedian recently whose voice you find fresh and interesting? Indian and international.

She’s not exactly a new comic but I think Shreeja Chaturvedi is one of the freshest comics in India and of course extremely funny. Amongst international comics, I saw Sam Campbell’s special Companion recently and it was great. Just really different from anything I’d seen before it.

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A post shared by Shreeja Chaturvedi (@shreejachaturvedi)

With so many people vying for a career in comedy, do you have any advice for the newcomers from all your years in the game?

⁠I really, honestly don’t. It’s such a subjective thing and I don’t think anyone can tell anyone else the “right way” to do standup.

Now that the recording is done, what are your plans for 2024?

I just got done taping my show last month and I’m going to be putting out half of it in a YouTube video in May. I’ve honestly never been more excited or nervous about an upload before this. Post that, I’ll be writing a new show and I’ll start touring with it November onwards.