Queer Rated Comedy is an open mic night hosted by Navin Noronha and produced by Jeeya Sethi’s Comedy Ladder that gives queer comedians a platform to talk about themselves, share their stories, and explore what it means to be queer.

They had their first open mic last month when, although the turnout in terms of the audience was great, a lot of registrations had non-queer comics who were asked to not perform.

“But people turned out in big numbers to see what’s happening,” Noronha says. “Eventually it was me talking, but there were a lot of queer people who were there to watch. So, we’re definitely trying to spread the word.”

In terms of performers what one can expect, “There’s no holding back in terms of what the material can be as long as you’re queer and ready to talk about it,” he explains. “The idea is to get more people involved, find humour in everyday activities, and to bring out more stories from the queer community. Everyone who comes from this spectrum has different perspectives. The goal is also to have better comedy with time.”

Noronha recommends Aayushi Jagad as one to watch for; she was a contestant on Queens of Comedy and is a relatively experienced comic compared to the others in this space.

When asked if the idea came about post the decriminalization of 377, Noronha replied, “No, we had something known as the Rainbow Mic back in 2014-15 in Bandra at Hive. It had a mixed bag of performers from the LGBTQ+ background. We’ve had people doing open mics for queer people over the past few years, but nothing so streamlined.”

Queer Rated Comedy is an ongoing series with a monthly open mic. August’s open mic is tonight at 9 pm, at the Integral Space in Lower Parel.

Register, perform, watch and support!