“At the end of the day, every comic just wants to say their piece,” comedian Shashi Dhiman tells DeadAnt, speaking over the phone. Known for her anecdotal comedy, Dhiman has touched upon topics such as college life, relationships, family dynamics in her sets. A quick look at her YouTube video titles will tell you exactly which year she went through a breakup or how she was scarred by hostel life. Hostel Ka Khana. Ex By Chance. You see what we mean.
For No Fox Given, a new women-focused comedy night launched by beauty brand Foxtale, Dhiman’s “piece” is all about the challenges of being a woman in comedy. Through her set, Dhiman—who will be performing at the 27 June show at Mumbai’s Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, alongside co-headliner Swati Sachdeva—aims to shine a spotlight on the prejudice she’s experienced and challenges she’s overcome as a standup comedian. It’s all part of the event’s core idea—using humour and story-telling to fight against dangerous and demeaning gender stereotypes.
Since she began her standup comedy journey in Chandigarh in 2018, Dhiman has emerged as one of the most sought after comedy voices in the scene. The energy she brings to the stage is reminiscent of a long-lost friend catching up with you. “Mujhe lagta hai mera naam kanoon hona chahiye tha…kyuki andhi toh main hoon,” she says in one of her YouTube videos. This kind of candour, relatability and zeal for performance have helped her amass a combined following of roughly 800k on Instagram and YouTube. Her videos have racked up almost 30 million views and her short-form content have helped her bring in millions more.
This success didn’t come easy though. As the funniest person in her social group, Dhiman was always urged by her friends to take her stories to the stage. But open mics were hard to come by in Chandigarh. When she finally did get the opportunity to perform, she instantly developed a taste for the art form. But with open mics being few and far between in her home town, it took her a while to get the ABCs of comedy down pat.
To fix this immediate challenge, Dhiman took advice from comedian Jeeya Sethi—whom she met at the Femapalooza open mic in Chandigarh—and moved to Mumbai. She was finally part of a real comedy scene, one with proper infrastructure and support. It was no longer a struggle to find stages and packed rooms to perform in. With up to four open mics to hit up daily, she was rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of Indian comedy. She settled into a steady routine of writing, testing jokes and consuming live comedy. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. In particular, says Dhiman, the green room environment was far from ideal.
“There were things that were said very casually but to be honest, they weren’t very nice things to say to anyone,” she says.
Undeterred, Dhiman kept head down and focused on performing, slowly but steadily rising through the ranks. She took inspiration from the women who had paved the way in the early years of the comedy scene. “When I did my first open mic, there were women who were already pretty big,” she says. “Aditi [Mittal], Neeti [Palta], Kaneez [Surka] and Sumukhi [Suresh] were already killing it. So we have to give it to them because they made sure it was an environment that we could easily adapt to.”
Despite the efforts of these early pioneers and those that followed in their wake, Dhiman points out that female representation in the scene remains quite low. There may be more women in green rooms than when she started, but the gender ratio is still skewed in favour of men. But the heartening thing, according to her, is that more women are coming to open mics. They have an audience that is willing to hear their stories. And the comedians who have done their time are also finding commercial success. “Prashasti [Singh], Shreeja [Chaturvedi] and Urooj [Ashfaq] have always been doing good work. But finally they are getting their dues. They’re getting opportunities to create a name for themselves.”
But this is just the silver lining to the grey looming cloud of trolls, who shower their misogyny on every reel or video they find by a woman comedian. That’s part and parcel of being a woman in comedy according to Dhiman. “They’re also seeking validation,” she says. “They want to leave a comment that gets a lot of likes. They aren’t talking about the joke or performance. They’ve made up their mind that they don’t find any women funny.”
You have to choose your words wisely in today’s world but that’s the job. At the end of the day, society gets a voice from comedy.
After grappling with the trolls for a couple of years, Dhiman came to the realisation that it’s just better to ignore them completely. “They’re never going to show up to any comedy shows. They have decided that no woman can ever be funny. So I don’t really care anymore. With time I’ve learnt how to differentiate between criticism and hate.”
In addition to the trolls, the verbal acrobatics that comics have to do to avoid controversy is an added challenge, she says. This has always been a hurdle, but comedians have and will continue to find ways to speak their truths.
“It might be difficult right now but people will find a way as they always have,” she added. “It’s not only about anti-establishment comedy. People have tackled various issues such as mental health and body image issues to normalise these problems in society. Sure, you have to choose your words wisely in today’s world but that’s the job. At the end of the day, society gets a voice from comedy.”
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