Indian comedian Varun Thakur says the comedy scene in the country has evolved with people treating the art as a legitimate profession.
“I started out in 2010, and to just map my individual journey out from then and reflect on what we had done versus what is happening right now — It’s been a huge jump,” Varun told IANS.
“When we were doing comedy in 2010, like the first batch of comedians from Mumbai, we had no idea what to do. When I say that, it is in the sense that where do we go and perform. We would literally go to bars and ask them to just give us a stage and ‘keep all the money, keep alcohol, keep the food, just let us perform’. That’s what we were doing back then,” he recalled.
Now, the comedian says there are “many venues for doing comedy”.
“That is great because now you have the 20 seaters, 200 seaters, and also the 2000 seateers. Now, it has become a legitimate profession that you would pursue,” he shared.
The “Bhaag Beanie Bhaag” actor continued: “I know a lot of comics who have left high paying jobs in MNCs to become a stand up comedian. The journey is so amazing to see. Because when we were starting out, we didn’t have these avenues. We had to make them but nowadays with the advent of social media, and more understanding of what stand up comedy in English entails, it’s just growing and it’s going to boom even more.”
On the work front, Varun was seen connecting with Singaporean comedian Sharul Channa in an episode of “My Singapore Connect”. The four-part web series is a result of partnership between the Singapore Tourism Board and BookMyShow.
