One of the world’s largest comedy festivals — the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) — is in India and looking for people who have the talent to make the world laugh.
Open mic nights have become increasingly popular in the city, with many performers trying their hand at stand-up comedy and hosting ‘improv nights’.
This is the third time that the MICF has visited the country to find talent in their Raw Comedy competitions, in association with Teamwork Arts. The heats for the competition have been held in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. The Delhi heat, which was held on Tuesday., was hosted by Raghav Mandava.
The national finals of the event will be organised on November 19 at Fat Lulu’s, Crosspoint Mall, Gurgaon. The winner of the competition will win a trip to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia in April 2015. The national finals will be hosted by Neeti Palta, who won the first edition of the talent search and has established herself in the Indian comic scene.
This year, the best talent from the international comedy festival will fly down from Australia to perform at the MICF Roadshow, which will take place at Summer House Café on November 21 and 22. Ronny Chieng, Kate Mclennan, Elbow-Skin, Nish Kumar and David Williams and Rohan Desai (last year’s winner) will perform at the show. The international visitors will also judge the heats and conduct workshops.
Rohan Desai, who got a chance to visit the 2014 event in Melbourne, says it was an amazing experience to witness the festival in Melbourne, where he got a chance to perform. He believes there is much talent in the field in the country waiting to be discovered and that open mic shows have become popular over the last two years. Tickets for the show are available online.
