Standup Comedy in India: A Stage Under Siege?

The Kunal Kamara Controversy has brought up the discussion whether standup comedy in India is a viable business with the risks involved or not.

From vandalism to complete no shows, venue partners seem to suffer the most.

Venues take a big financial hit when a standup show is cancelled out of nowhere. Ticket sales, food and beverage sales, and other earnings all go out of the window. “A full-house standup event on a weekend contributes significantly to our monthly revenue. When a show gets cancelled, we lose not just ticket sales but also substantial food and drink sales,” said a venue owner from Mumbai.

Recently Shiv Sena members did a little bit of vandalism to the Habitat Centre in Khar, Mumbai, where Kamra's show was held.

Regarding this statement, Kamra explained that an entertainment venue is simply a stage. “Habitat (or any other venue) is not liable for my comedy, nor does it have any influence or control over what I say or do. Neither does any political party. To blame a venue for a comedian's utterances is as pointless as flipping a truck full of tomatoes because you disliked the butter chicken served to you.” Venue partners couldn’t agree more.

Enemies of their own success

“Restoration losses aside, additional reoccurring damages are more dangerous because they tattoo chronic instability on the finances. Vendors and venue partners frequently front cover costs like advertising and logistics and staffing ahead of time. An event being canceled wastes these expenditures and creates rescheduling problems and inefficient operations,” said Nishant Kini, who manages shows of comedians.

Dinesh Bhutani Founder of SuperTalks India – a boutique comedy club, claimed that venue owners are hosting stand ups barely surviving.

Channels (venue owners) can’t afford rents or keep staff on, most venues are owned by comedians themselves. Usually, a group of struggling comedians come together to hope to build a space that can support new talent. It’s more of a need than a business, which is why so many venues close, because the model isn’t feasible.

He said that sometimes venues can be closed for 3 to 6 months because of these expenses.

A comic from Delhi who owns a venue where he hosts comedy shows comments that a small setup of a 30-35 seater room costs around Rs 5-8 lakh while a bigger setup is not less than Rs 25-50 lakh.

Absurdities of the business.

Lajit Bhatia who is a comic and runs the Nerds of Comedy club in Gurugram had also and suffers the severities of the backlash from the comic.

One time, a comic said some offensive things in one of his YouTube videos, and everything started becoming a headache when we had him live at our venue. The local police gave us issues, disrupted a few of our scheduled events, and offloaded plenty of restrictions on us.

Another venue owner had a similar story. Two users from the audience left one of the studio sessions, rounded up 70 additional viewers, and demanded that a comic who had made a laughable joke be brought out so they could physically assault him. By luck, the comic had left the venue before meting out the beating. These incidents have happened far too often, and it becomes exhausting mentally. Jokes need to be considered just that—jokes. If there is a chance people get offended instead, learning to move on would be helpful.

Last year, 15-20 people stormed a comedy club and began broadcasting live on Instagram to bring in even more people. This was after the comic's video where he asked why people respected cows but not bulls went viral. A month later, some extremists told the venue owners that they needed to hand over the comic or else they would resort to vandalism.

While reflecting on Kunal Kamra’s incident, another comic was filming his solo act. He later on took the money back for an approximate 300 to 400 tickets that were sold. **Losses are incurred in all levels, ranging from the comedians to the venue partners and even the online platforms used for booking tickets.** This was stated by Yash Bhatia, a Delhi based stand-up comic.

Stakes for Reputation

Yash Bhatia observed that places that hosted open mics have , in the past, black curtains covering their names. “Moreover, when you purchase tickets for high profile comedians, the venue’s details are only sent through email after the tickets are bought which makes sure that large groups do not attend. For a comedian, word of mouth is important because it brings a lot of people and more ticket sales but sometimes, these precautions have to be made for everyone’s safety. Venue partners have become sceptical of political comedy shows and comics are not getting spots.” 

Bhutani argued that a venue's reputation is the first and foremost casualty. “First-timers are the most vulnerable, leading to negative feedback. Incidents of violence only worsen matters and make the audience more afraid of showing up.” 

There is also the issue of trying to maintain the draw which, because of having to cancel regularly, means paying audiences abandon the venue because they grow tired of buying tickets for shows guaranteed to be cancelled. “When people purchase tickets, they look forward to an enjoyable hassle-free evening. If a venue becomes known for cancelling shows at the last minute, people are reluctant to book for the next time,” explained a venue manager from Bengaluru. In consequence, it lowers a venue’s overall reputation, resulting in a loss of customer confidence and engagement.

Mental strain

Business owners and managers say it irritates their emotions as much as their finances are affected when dealing with cancellations, especially if there is a case of vandalism or threats. A venue partner from Delhi detailed the story of a recent show that was cancelled due to pressure: “We had to refund the money, deal with irate customers, and protect our employees. It was terrible.”

On the one hand, even a comic needs years to prepare to enable him to one day make an audience smile, on the other, venue partners need to spend weeks preparing for a comedy show.

Meticulous planning goes into preparing a standup including sound check, venue setup, security, marketing. “It’s disheartening. All that effort just to wash down the drain,” said another venue partner who wished to remain unnamed.

"When it comes to working on the initial video, Kamra took 17 recordings before he was satisfied with the final result which he eventually posted online. This makes it easy to comprehend why he had put so much effort towards that one video. And the effort is accompanied with a cost as well. In a comic's life, there is a time when he needs to book a venue. A small venue that holds 20-25 audiences, charges between Rs 1,500-3,000 for a 2 hour rent. For a medium sized venue with a capacity of 300-350, the rent goes to Rs 80-90,000.Depending on the venue, there is also the expense of editing where one has to spend on average Rs 800 for every minute. If there is work needed with sound editing, that will also incur additional expenses. There is a significant amount of work that goes into preparing for a 45-minute standup comedy show. Years of dedication and work is put in by the comic along with his partner who provides them the venue,” said Yash Bhatia.  \n\nAhmed Shariff, who fulfills his passion of being an amateur comedian on the side of his job as a content writer believes that standup comedy in India is not a sustainable job in the long term.  \n\nShould we take the chance?  \n\nWith an ever-increasing number of incidents happening, venue owners are taking time to think if they should leave standup comedy to the side as it is too risky. Because of how controversial the topic is and the threats that follow, along with event cancellations make it extremely difficult. These days, some venues have tightened content restrictions or have done away with comedy events altogether, Kini said."

For the open mic shows, some of the more popular venue owners usually request the comics to send them the video footage ahead of time so that they can look out for potentially offensive joke/s. \n\nA venue owner in Pune claimed that one of the more serious issues is having no clear legal guarantees or coverage for the interruptions that may come. “If a show is canceled because an extremist group applies pressure, there is no proper system through which we can have any payout. We are on our own.”\n \nThey were particularly concerned that a comic’s opinion must not be the opinion of the venue. “There are spaces that novice comics can venture into. Advanced comedians can get an audience from everywhere even their homes which is not the case with the novices.” \n\nHabitat, which also got attention because of the comment made by YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia during his appearance on India's Got Latent show and it sparked a huge controversy, issued a statement after the Kamra show saying they are goin out of business until they can figure out how to support free speech. Many have heard their word. “We Simply give them a stage, and they come up with all sorts of wonderful self-expressions.”

“In a week, there are around 50 beginners at the same stage as five established comedians. Venues are important for new talent.” Bhutani added.

Kini has seen a sharp decrease of in-person standup shows. “A lot of comics are opting to work overseas or do their sets online to escape local interference. This change impacts not only the performers, but also the venue owners who depend on live shows for business.”

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