Mumbai has a new comedy venue all set to open its doors next week in Bandra West. Opening weeks (18-31 July) for Spades will see over 50 comedians at the venue’s ‘Open House’, with two shows every evening at 8 pm and 10 pm respectively.

Owner and founder Sahil Kale is positioning this new space as a performance venue with a larger focus on standup comedy. “It will mostly be stand up but it also has provisions for more performance art forms like improv, storytelling, magic, mentalism, and music,” he told DeadAnt.

“From a comedy venue perspective, I feel like this is technically the best audience in the country and Bandra is one of the finest localities in India. So, it’s perfect for the artists and for me to do it in a place like this,” he added.  

With this new 45-seater venue, Kale aims to give comedians and performers quality stage time. His vision also includes enabling them monetarily by providing them with fixed performance fees for solo and feature shows, and regular recording opportunities to keep up with the current content climate.

This could be the new hangout spot for artists across genres with three shows—6 pm, 8 pm and 10 pm—on the schedule throughout the week starting August. The ‘Open House’ property will run through July featuring comedians such as Aaditya Kulshreshtha aka Kullu, Abijit Ganguly, Daniel Fernandes, Munawar Faruqui, Urjita Wani, Kajol Srinivasan, Punit Pania, Navin Noronha and Nishant Tanwar on the lineup.

Kale also hopes to experiment with newer comedy formats in his space to set himself apart from the other venues in the city. “We will be experimenting with new comedy formats like Street Jokes and even build on popular ones like ‘Best In Stand Up’,” he said. “We will try to keep it more interactive for the audience as well.”

During its opening month, Kale will focus on programming the bigger names to perform at his club to get word of mouth going. But from August onwards, he’ll be opening up the stage to first-time open-micers and upcoming comedians as well. “We will have a monthly calendar for open mics where people who want to perform for the first time can buy a performer’s pass on ticketing platform BookMyShow and come perform,” he told us. “Gradually, I want to create a property that encourages more people to come for comedy and not just specific comedians.”

Address: 3rd Floor, Madhu Milan Building, 33rd Road Above Smoke House Deli, Pali Hill, Bandra West, Mumbai

Seating: 45

Tickets for opening week at Spades Live are here.