The well-known stand-up comedian Amit Tandon spoke on “Comedy is serious business” and also performed stand-up comedy at the FLO (FICCI Ladies Organization) meet at Hyatt Place, Banjara Hills in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening.
Interacting with Ms. Ritu Shah, Chairperson of FLO, he said, Comedy is a serious, lucrative, engaging and promising business with a future full of promises in India, he said.
Though stand-up comedy is new to India and just 15 years old, it has fully evolved. Indian comedians are performing in the most prestigious venues of their lifetime- Albert Hall London. They have gone all over the world. Nearly 700 international shows are performed by Indian comedians. Comedy is a big business. It is evolving as an industry. Nearly 10,000 to 15000 comedy show tickets are sold a month. There are 300 to 400 full-time comedians making their living out of it.
Regional comedy is also emerging very big. Unfortunately, Hyderabad doesn’t have good venues for standup comedy. Most of the shows happen in pubs. We need good auditoriums. Amit Tandon said.
As regards women comedians, he said they have abundant talent. “But you don’t find many women comedians. There are several reasons for that as most of the comedy shows happen after 9 pm and go on till 11 pm. Women still have parental restrictions and societal taboos. But things are changing, “ he said.
Standup comedy is also spreading to tier 2 and 3 cities like Agra, Ludhiana, Jalandhar etc. he said.
Amit was initially in conversation with Ritu Shah. However, the audience became restless and wanted him to perform. Then he had to cut short his conversation and got into a performance which continued well over 90 minutes. And the 300-plus audience burst into laughter continuously all through his performance. Some of them had to walk out of the hall as their stomachs were aching and they were unable to laugh.
Relationships are the best topics for comedy. My comedy is about family. I am a family man. I spend a lot of time with my family. I keep innovating and writing, he said.
Most of his comedy was about relationships in the family, children, shopping, parties, traffic jams etc. There was never a boring moment during his performance. The audience was laughing till he said enough.
Ms. Ritu Shah, Chairperson of FLO said in the fast, stressed lives stand-up comedy is very much required. It boosts immunity, lowers stress hormones, decreases pain and relaxes muscles. Of late, stand-up comedy has evolved as one of the most preferred forms of entertainment by people of all ages and from all walks of life. We have been eagerly looking forward to this program, Ritu Shah said.
Amit Tandon is a well-known comedian, writer and storyteller. His viral videos have crossed the sacred mark of a whopping 100 million views across social media platforms. Amit took the stage by storm in the mega-hit comedy events series “Comedians of the World” on Netflix. This international platform had a select set of 47 comics from across the world. Amit was one of the three comedians chosen. His comedy has crossed boundaries and gone global with over 200 international shows across 25 countries including the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Dubai and Singapore. Overall, Amit has a mind-boggling 1400 shows to his credit. As a professional comedian, Amit has scaled new heights with the launch of Grandmasters of Comedy. This unique platform is a testament to his commitment to comedy as it strives to introduce comedy in the corporate world.
An MBA and Engineer by qualification, Amit started comedy as a hobby. Comedy became serious business when he was featured on Rising Stars of Comedy on NDTV and later “CEO’s Got Talent”, aired on CNBC TV18. His rapport with TV continued as a host of the “New Year Show” on Doordarshan