For the good hour, hour and a half that I was there at the ‘Open Mic for Comedians’, carried out by the Chalta Hai Comedy Club last week, there were numerous gloriously gross, intricately intelligent moments, that got people to let out sighs filled with, great, broad laughter. There was good comedy that people laughed at, and there was bad comedy, which too, people laughed at. Some laughed quickly, some a little late compared to others, but everybody, indeed had a good time. The idea was to be up on the stage, with original material, and getting your four minutes of letting out all the frustration.

We had an engineer talking to us about how he has never kissed a girl and also subconsciously spilling out the reasons for it; a frustrated Punjabi son exquisitely explaining the female anatomy of the women from that part of the world; a Grammar Nazi trying hard to get, let alone her jokes, but her plain statements across, to a man reading out his plight of not being able to tell his wife that she look like, in simple words, a tree. All of this, and the other things which I missed. Pure, unadulterated, bakchodi. As of late, the Stand Up scene in Surat, has seen some nice, lush green growth, and it seems like, slowly, the idea is being accepted by the people. Vir Das’s show was a sellout. The Comedy factory has been consistently belting out good shows, and above all, even the diarrhea that Kapil Sharma squirts out has found a lot of takers in the city.

” Comedy is a form of art that has hardly found feet in Surat. Now that I have moved to Surat, I have a special interest in developing a scene here. I recently did a featured gig with Comedy Factory. With Chalta Hai, we did the first ever comedy open mic in Surat. The idea was to find local talent. If one of their own is doing stand up comedy, it gets easier for that format to find feet and gain popularity in any place. ”

–  Sonal Biyani, Stan- up comedian

P.S. : This picture has been used for a representative purpose, no copy right infringement intended.

The gig was put up in a week. And still, there were a good 8 people, who decided to get up on the stage and humiliate themselves, ready to be laughed at, while they tried to do exactly the same with the audience. Varietea, the coffee shop where the Open Mic was organized, was packed with smiling, uncomplaining faces that left at a note, where they knew they wanted more of it. Well, why wouldn’t anyone want to sit back, and relax, while someone stands, and tries his or her best to make them laugh. To the new found brimming love of Surat for Stand Up Comedy, Salud.

Words by : Rahul Nair

Photography : Hetvi Shah