The past decade has seen phenomenal rise of the Indian stand-up comedy industry. Before that, a comedy performer’s role was limited to being in movies, as the protagonist’s pal or assistant, something that would guarantee a few laughs. Famous comedians being Mehmood, Jaspal Bhatti, Johnny Lever etc. But now, stand-up comedy is seeing legends in the making. Performers are achieving super success with massive and noteworthy fan bases, and are making stand-up comedy a lucrative and successful career option.
India has quite a few such performers whose acts have made the entire nation, especially its youth, sit up and take notice. Let’s check the top ten Indian stand-up comedians, not in any particular order.
1. Kenny Sebastian
31-year old Kenny Sebastian, rose to popularity through his YouTube channel, that has recordings of his stand-up acts and songs that he made from tweets, titled #KennySingForMe. One of the most followed stand-up comics across several social media platforms and streaming channels, he performs mostly in English using Hindi only for comic effect.
A musician and film maker too, he has various shows and series to his credit, like, Getting There, Sketchy Behaviour and Die Trying. His standup acts on ‘Middle Class Restaurant problems’ and ‘Me, My mother and Our Maid’ are exceptionally hilarious.
2. Biswa Kalyan Rath
Originally from Orissa, Biswa Kalyan Rath caught attention with Pretentious Movie Reviews that he co-hosted with Kanan Gill. After quitting his job at Oracle, he started performing as a full-time comedian touring pan-India with shows like ‘Biswa In Your Face’ and ‘Biswa Mast Aadmi’. Since then, he has been a regular and a popular face in the Indian comedy circle. He is also credited with creating “Laakhon Mein Ek”, a critically acclaimed web series for Amazon Prime
3. Rahul Subramanian
Rahul started his career in comedy with a YouTube channel Random Chikibum. His standup acts are extremely spontaneous and based on interaction with the audiences. He delivers punches in a slow and unnatural manner which makes it funny, and his observations on middle class life are exceptional which he utilizes wittily.
4. Kanan Gill
After winning the Punchline Bangalore competition, Kanan Gill quit his job as a software engineer and gained popularity with Pretentious Movie Reviews, where he along with Biswa Kalyan Rath reviewed Hindi movies in a hilarious manner. He has also worked on sketch comedy show ‘The Living Room’ and also has ‘Keep It real’ on Amazon Prime video along with ‘Yours Sincerely’ on Netflix to his credit. He also made his acting debut in ‘Noor’ opposite Sonakshi Sinha.
5. Sorabh Pant
One of the earliest initiators of comedy groups in the country, Sorabh started to work with Vir Das for his show’s opening act. He later found East India Comedy in 2012, where he toured along with other comedian’s pan-India, to perform at various comedy clubs in the country. He has performed in more than 250 shows.
6. Zakir Khan
Zakir Khan rose to prominence when he won Comedy Central’s India’s Best Standup comedian Competition. With two-hour standup specials like Haq Se Single and Kaksha Gyarvi, he achieved massive acclaim. He has more than 6 million followers on YouTube and has also starred in the web series Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare. He has written and co-hosted On Air With AIB.
7. Vir Das
One of the earliest stand-up comedians in India, Vir Das is also an actor and a musician. He has performed over 35 plays, 100 stand-up comedy shows, more than 15 films and six comedy specials. A prolific comedy writer, Vir has also written for Femina, Maxim, DNA and Tehelka. With his brutally honest comedy his stand-ups especially the ones- Indian are Racist-ish and Indians are Homophobic are a must watch.
8. Sumukhi Suresh
Stand-up comedian, actor, writer and director, Sumukhi Suresh is rightly called India’s Tina Fey. She joined an improvisational comedy show in Bengaluru called The Improv in 2013, after which she quit her job to switch to full-time comedy. With several shows and comedy specials to her credit, Sumukhi is one standup comic to watch out for.
9.Urooj Ashfaq
Known for her dark and absurd humor, Urooj made her debut in TLC’s Queens of Comedy and was among the top three finalists. She has written content for multiple comedy projects like ‘Die Trying’ and has worked with Abish Mathew for his show ‘Son of Abish’
10.Abish Mathew
Abish was a radio jockey before he began his career in comedy. He is known for his comedy talk show-Son of Abish and Journey of a Joke. This host of Comicstaan, also released his Amazon Prime video special “Whoop”.
