While comedians from across the world are just few clicks away on internet, attending open mics in your city is a great way to support local artistes or even start your journey as a professional comedian. The city-based comedy group, Vizag Komedians is keeping the comedy quotient high with weekly open mics on Wednesdays and Saturdays in an attempt to kickstart the local comedy scene.
Recently, Satyabrat Mohapatra, a Bhubaneswar-based comedian performed at The Gallery along with local talents — Rahul Narendra, a Telugu mimicry artiste and Akash Singh, a Hindi comedian. About 30 people joined the open mic. Satyabrat, founder of Bhubaneswar Komedians, turned to comedy as full-time profession from the past two years. He shares, “Performing regularly at open mics in Bhubaneswar gave me the confidence to take up comedy full time.” He says that many artistes from Bhubaneshwar see performing in Visakhapatnam as a major stepping stone.
Ashish Kumar, a member of Vizag Komedians shares, “Open mic is a platform where comedians get to practise the material and improve their skills. How can comedians improve without performing in front of an audience?”
Hailing from Lucknow Akash, 20, moved to the city last year. “I have been performing at the open mics from the past three months. The first sign of improvement is when we get few minutes to open for the big names in the city,” he shares. Last year, established comedians like Zakir Khan, Sapan Verma, Aadar Malik and Sonali Thakker performed in the city.
After the success of Vizag Comedy Festival last year, budding comedians from cities like Raipur, Asansol, Nagpur and Lucknow have expressed their interest to perform in the city. Ashish says, “In the past few months, we have built a network of artistes in 25 cities. Aspiring comedians now reach out to participate at the open mics.”
The next big show of Vizag Komedians is one by Abhishek Upmanyu, a Mumbai-based comedian who has over two million followers on social media. Abhishek will perform at Kalabharathi Auditorium on January 31.
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