Over the past five years, comedian Navin Noronha’s Queer Rated Comedy nights have become a much-needed safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. What started off as an open mic in 2019 has now become a highly-anticipated event, and a launch-pad for queer comedians from across the country. Now, he wants to build on that success with the Double Bill(iyan) tour, an off-shoot of Queer Rated Comedy, featuring Noronha, Anshita Koul and a rotating cast of local comedians.
The tour opens tomorrow in Bengaluru, before the two comedians head out to Pune, Mumbai, Thane and Goa over the next month. Each stop on the tour will feature a bunch of up-and-coming local talent alongside the two headliners.
Ahead of Double Bill(iyan)‘s debut show, we caught up with Noronha to learn more about the tour, and his thoughts on the Indian comedy scene’s lack of inclusivity. Edited excerpts below.
Queer Rated has had a lot of young, fresh talent on the lineup lately. Are there any interesting insights or fresh perspectives you’ve picked up from the new blood?
Yeah. That’s true. Most of the shows we did recently, whether it was in Goa, Pune, Mumbai or Bengaluru, had fairly new comics going up on stage. It can be a hit or miss but because I trust them to know what they’re doing, it’s always been great. There have been a couple of instances where the comedians were not fully ready but we also have a very kind and forgiving audience. The idea is that anybody who wants to get up on stage should be able to and have fun while they’re at it. That’s the motive because there are also so many different perspectives across the spectrum, right? And now thankfully we have representation for all parts of the community now. That was always the idea.
You’ve been doing Queer Rated for a few years now. Has the audience response improved over the years?
Absolutely. We’re a bunch of not-so-famous comics but we do our best to get the word out there. And through word-of-mouth and queer people wanting to support queer artists—which has been our main motivator for doing this—we’ve been doing well. Surprisingly we get more love outside of Mumbai, but people have been nice across the city and the country.
Can you tell us a little about this new show Double Bill(iyan)? What led you and Anshita to do a tour together?
I met Anshita while I was touring in Berlin this year. We spent an entire evening together, where I told her that my eventual idea was to put comics on a tour bus and travel across the country, even to parts that might not be very progressive. Mainly to see how much can we challenge the norm. Anshita also hosts a queer night in Berlin, so it was quite obvious that we needed to combine forces. When she told me that she was coming down to India in December, I thought it was the perfect time to do the show. We had two headlining-level comics and the younger ones could fill in the spots.
Who are some of the other comedians who are going to be on the lineup?
Every city has a different story. Some of them are doing comedy for the first time, some of them have been on stage a few times. Some of them are regulars. For example, Ragini Singh—who performs in Bengaluru—did a spot with us. She’s really funny. In Mumbai we’ll have Aayushi [Jagad], but we also have Mahima [Gad] who’s fairly new. In Pune we have Subaranjan [Sundaram]. He’s also fairly new. In Goa we have Chutney Mary. She performed with me and Anshita in Berlin, so she has some experience already. These are the new names that are coming up in each city.
There is also going to be a Q&A session after each show. What sort of questions are you expecting?
A lot of people who come have a lot of questions for queer people. So we try to answer their queries with some humour. I do this at corporate shows as well, because people have these curiosities. They want to know how me and my partner make it work as two men, do we fight, do we have a messy house? Similarly with Anshita, she’ll speak from her own experiences that will bring up follow-up questions. It’s always fun to have some personal insight to target these questions. But we’ll always insert some humour while we do that.
You toured Europe earlier this year. How does the queer comedy scene there compare with India?
Well, Europe is very pro-queer as we all know. Every other person is fairly on the spectrum. It was a lot of fun because I performed across various rooms in different cities. Everywhere I went, a lot of love was shown to me. The background I come from, a boy from a Mumbai chawl growing up queer, had never been shared with the western world so far. So my perspective was quite unique for them, even though there are a lot of queer comedians there. I also got a lot of spots because of word-of-mouth from producers who liked me. Also, you get paid for the gigs, which is something that doesn’t happen here.
What’s one thing you wish would change that would make the Indian comedy scene more inclusive?
I think I’ve tried for years to make the Indian scene inclusive, but that’s not going to happen. The larger majority of comedians are quite problematic. They want to be edge-lords. There’s a certain big comedian who will say the wrong things constantly around queer people. These are problematic things that I notice in the scene but I’m ignoring them.
I’ve created a safe space for myself and my comics where we can enjoy and perform. We might not bring in massive audiences, but the people who come have a good time. And we are constantly trying to take it to the next level in terms of our humour. Queer comedians are also now running their material through me. So I’m trying to help wherever I can.
But overall the scene is extremely transphobic. One of the biggest venues in Mumbai refuses to give Ritushree [Panigrahi] spots despite me having put in a good word. They’ll put 10 unfunny male comics on, because it’s their gang and we’re on the sidelines. But we also have incredibly supportive folks such as Karthik Kumar, Daniel Fernandes, Anirban Dasgupta, Aditi Mittal. They’ve been very helpful and spread the word.
Which city are you most excited to perform in?
Goa, hands-down, is my favourite city to perform in. I’ve had quite a few shows in Goa in the last few years and each one of them has been an exhilarating experience. It’s also because I’m a Konkan boy, my tribe is also very open to listening to new concepts. Goa also has a small but very intimate queer scene as well. Delhi too is incredibly supportive. Bengaluru as well. It’s only Mumbai where I feel the comedy scene as well as the LGBTQ community is pretty fragmented. I’m probably going to be leaving the city soon.
You can pick up tickets for Double Bill(iyan) here.
comments
comments for this post are closed