In the past year’s comedy meant any work that is intended to incite laughter and amusement, it was associated with film, television or any other entertainment medium, in short comedy makes people laugh and enjoy. It was mainly dominated by Bollywood and well-established TV stars. Throughout the time the comedy genre has also changed and made remarkable popularity and acceptance by the audience. In today’s time, we see a whole new bunch of comedians with original content, and the success of these comedians solely depends on how unique their act is and the ability to connect to the audience and make it relatable. And this has led to the steady rise of stand-up comedy, a comic style in which the comedian performs in front of the live audience, usually directly talking to them.
YouTube is the most preferred platforms for these content, comedians post their funny videos or short clips of performance which is accessible to everyone. All you need is to search, subscribe, watch and laugh.
Here, we have compiled a list of Top 10 Best YouTube Stand-Up Comedians in India 2020 who will make you laugh till you drop.
Top 10 Best YouTube Stand-Up Comedians in India 2020
1. Abhishek Upmanyu
Abhishek Upmanyu made his place in individuals’ heart with his jokes and the manner in which he has made us laugh. The manner in which he has changed himself is momentous. He’s excessively capable, entertaining and a decent individual. He has made his profession in stand up satire and youtube. His Instagram handles bio says Ajibogarib, well definitely jokesters are intended to be Ajibogarib.
Abhishek Upmanyu was conceived on 19th May 1990 in New Delhi. He finished his tutoring from St. Xavier’s High School, Chandigarh and A.K.S.I.P.S Chandigarh. He went to Punjab University for his graduation degree B.E. in Chemical Engineering. Presently it’s unmistakable why he is so acceptable entertainer, he is an Engineer. LOL! Jokes separated, subsequent to finishing his instruction he worked in not many privately owned businesses. In 2009 and 2010 he filled in as an understudy Ranbaxy, Gurgaon and Engineers India Limited, New Delhi separately. He joined HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd., Bhatinda in 2011 and Grail Research as an examination examiner. In 2013 he joined Bain and Company, however later, he exited his position to seek after his vocation in stand up satire. In 2015, he joined ‘On Air with AIB‘ as an essayist. He deals with a twitter handle called GareebGuy.
In 2016, he transferred his first video on youtube channel with the title Indian Insults and Comebacks. His two parody shows Thoda Saaf Bol and Jealous of Sabjiwala got monstrous ubiquity and love from people in general. He has performed at both public and universal stages. He was on a world visit which finished before lockdown. His notoriety has reached to next level in fact during his live world visit shows the seats got full so quick which indicated the measure of adoration he has earned from his fans.
Discussing his youtube channel, he has 2.85M Subscribers and he has transferred 12 recordings till date. The most recent video he transferred was 2 months back of title Khichdi Recipe. He unquestionably has such a great amount of help from his fans is as yet developing. I recall one of my companion saying me, hello did you watch Abhishek’s new video? Buddy watch it he’s astounding, buddy did you see his change damn he looks so hot and for the record that was the first occasion when I consented to what she said. He performs on many live stages and is pulling in individuals with his young ability.
His leisure activities are playing guitar and voyaging. He is likewise a feline sweetheart and possesses a feline named Mitch Hedberg. Well everybody has there tutors or some most loved people in a similar field. He got a portion of his preferred humorists as well. His preferred humorists are Vinay Sharma, Zakir Khan, Aditi Mittal and Bridget Christie. He has a got a tattoo inked of his preferred dish in his own penmanship ‘Dal Makhni‘.
Almost all of his videos are super amazing but some of his famous videos are:
All the absolute best to the best comic and many pulverize of numerous young ladies. He’s unquestionably going to continue making us laugh and show his ability with astonishing substance.
Social Media Profiles of Abhishek Upmanyu
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Abhishek Upmanyu
TWITTER PROFILE: @AbhiUpmanyu
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @aupmanyu
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Abhishek Upmanyu
2. Jaspreet Singh
Jaspreet Singh is one of the top leading stand-up comedians at present. He finished his schooling in S.G.H.P School and He finished his Bachelor of Technology, computer science and engineering in Guru Nanak Dev University.
After college, he got a job in Noida. He then moved to Delhi from his home town and he was quite busy with his work. At his workplace, one of his colleagues told Jaspreet that he has good humour sense and also advised him to do stand-up comedies. As per his colleague’s idea, Jaspreet saw few videos based on stand up comedies and he thought he was really good and capable of doing it and that is where a stand-up comedian career of Jaspreet Singh started.
He observes a lot and with all his observation that is happening in his life he comes up with comedies to present it to his audience.
At one of his interview, Jaspreet Singh told that “I have a strong memory in terms of observation, but not in studies though.” He says he has a better view when he observes things that are happening in his life or that might have happened in his life to create contents for his stand up comedies. People love real-life happenings. When a movie is released stating that ‘this story is based on real-life’, it triggers the audience to watch the movie. They show a little more interest towards that movie more than any other movies that are being released at the same point of time. Likewise, when Jaspreet makes comedies based on his real-life happenings, People love it.
Life of a comedian is not as easy as we think, they face hardships like us but they make us happy by being fun covering all their sufferings within themselves and that is definitely not easy as we think it might be.
In Indian families when a child or a man or a woman comes up with an idea that guarantees no future according to them, most of them refuse to give them their part of the support. Jaspreet Singh faced this situation; he did not get his families to support at his initial stage as he was the youngest one in his family but like any other successful person he got through that situation. Later when he was successful Jaspreet made a few jokes on his father during his performances. Jaspreet told in an interview that his dad loved the jokes that involved him and gave his support. We will all win the love of everybody when we succeed in whatever we choose and for that, we must never give up and stand back up every single time we face failures. Looking at the water and being afraid of it will not help us swim, but facing the water with all courage and jumping into it will help us swim deeper with no fear throughout our life.
Jaspreet is an engineer and he was doing stand-up comedies in his college at times of cultural events and then he worked for 8 years in IT Industry before choosing stand-up comedy as his full-time profession. He performs not just in colleges but also does stand-up comedies for corporates like Adidas, Hyundai, Olx, American express etc.
From finishing his engineering and working as a normally recognized employee in an IT field to being interviewed by BBC Asia Network London and ABC News Australia he showed immense success in his comedy career. He was also featured on NDTV rising stars.
His works were recognized by well-known Newspapers like The Hindu, Economic Times, Tribune, HT and so on.. He was also featured on some of the online portals like MenXp, MTV and ScoopWhoop.
Jaspreet Singh has done more than 450 live performances, not just in India but also in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Some of the famous videos of Jaspreet Singh
From 2011 till 2020 Jaspreet Singh has only uploaded a total of 12 videos in his YouTube channel and also he does not post videos regularly like other YouTubers but still, he has got a huge fan base in YouTube for his comedies. He is about to reach 1 million subscribers, his current number of subscribers are nine hundred and ten thousand [910] for his YouTube channel. He started his YouTube channel on 8th of November in the year 2011. Maximum views for his channel are Sixty-one lakhs, six hundred and eighty-seven thousand, one hundred and thirty-two views (61,687,032). Jaspreet also does not feature any other channels on his YouTube page.
Jaspreet Singh’s estimated monthly income for the year 2020
January 2020 – $ 5.41k
February 2020 – $ 3.03k
July 2020 – $ 983
August 2020 – $ 1.17k
It is not easy to make people laugh; it is a blessing to be able to make people have a big curve in their face. People these days face a lot of stress and struggles and that is why we need more Standup comedians like Jaspreet Singh for a happy surrounding.
Social Media Profiles of Jaspreet Singh
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Jaspreet Singh
TWITTER PROFILE: @LifeOfPaaji
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @lifeofpaaji
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Jaspreet Singh
3. Zakir Khan
It has always been easy to make people cry, but when it comes to making them laugh you have to be stubborn and bold to make them crack. Similar was the idea of our “Sakht Launda“ Zakir Khan who is one of the top Indian comedians of our country. A self-made person or a self-made star to be more precise. Zakir Khan’s life story is just like every common man but with more passion and love towards what he wanted to do in life.
Zakir Khan was born on 20th August 1987 in a Muslim family in Indore India. He was a middle child with an elder brother and a younger brother. He belongs to an orthodox Muslim family who has a long history with music for over 300 years. His dreams and passion were different but was not supported by his family especially by his father who was a music teacher in a school in Indore. Zakir completed his schooling in St. Paul higher secondary school in Indore. And applied for b.com as said by his family. But he dropped college in the midway saying that degree was not more important than his dreams. As a person belonging from a music family, he was very much into music and so after dropping out of college he decided and pursued a diploma in playing the sitar. Zakir always wanted to produce radio shows and was interested in the writing field. And so, he worked as a copywriter in HT media ltd. For four years but he was still not satisfied and then in 2012 his life took a jump when he won the title “India’s best stand up “organised by comedy central. Since then Zakir has performed many open mics and has done comedy shows and also judged and trained many youth in the field of comedy.
Other than playing and doing stand up Zakir is also a poet and a writer and has written and produced many radio and podcast shows. Zakir is a ghostwriter and has written shows and produced them. After his release of prime special “Haq Se Single“. His youtuber channel hit 4 million subscribers. And then he wrote and played a protagonist in a prime special “chacha vidhayak hai humare”. His hardwork and creativity and was of looking at life and people has made him a star in the field of comedy. For him the version of comedy is very different than others.
He says that “Nowadays people have become matured so even the level and content of comedy should also become matured.”
The man who brought out the terms like “Sakht Launda“, “Chacha Vidhayak Hai Humare“, “Lekin yahan mein pighal gaya” these lines which took over the meme world also helped Zakir to gain fame and popularity through his experiment in the field of comedy. Zakir appeared as a judge in the amazon prime’s comicstaan season 2 along with many other famous comedian celebs.
Zakir is very down to earth and has always been very much careful with his comedy not to hurt anyone. When asked about this Zakir said that “ As a child, I was bullied a lot by my fellow students for my dark complexion and my height and my size. So I know how it feels to be bullied and to be discouraged like this.” But furthermore, he added that “but this type of incidents helped me to be bold and make fun of this issues so that no one else will feel inferior or has to be afraid of it.”
Zakir Khan recently co-hosted the 5th Annual Golden Kala Awards. Zakir’s method of comedy is very much relatable to people and this is the sole reason, that his stand-ups are loved by the people.
The person who loved his dreams and passion proved that one life is not enough for doing all you love. But if you have the stubbornness then you can even take down the whole world. Zakir has not only experimented in the field of comedy but also he has experimented himself as an actor, writer, presenter, YouTuber and as a sitarist. When asked about if not a comedian what would Zakir be he replied: “If not a comedian then I would definitely be a music teacher as I love music and kids.”
Life of this famous comedy star was never easy. He has faced many rejections and has heard many insults from the people. But this did not stop him from doing what he wants. In fact, these instances gave him inspiration for his content and power to do comedy. Other than this he is also a very famous and the most followed comedian in social media he has over 1.6 million followers in Instagram and more than 1.5 million followers on Facebook. His small Shayaris which he posts on Twitter also gets many retweets and likes on Twitter. The journey from nobody to a comedy star has inspired millions of people. Zakir Khan brought a change in the field of comedy which opened gates for many others to join him on this journey to make people laugh.
He is not only a Sakht Launda on stage but also in real life. Apart from this Zakir also loves travelling. He always shares stories and posts on travelling on social media which is liked by many people and also his followers always eagerly wait for his posts and stories.
We may not know about his life much but we do know about some incidents and some inspiring instances which Zakir always shares with us. For Zakir, insulting someone or making fun of someone is not a comedy. While in an interview also he said that this kind of comedy is very exaggerated and it doesn’t make him laugh. For him, the situation and the way of looking at everything are what finding comedy is. For him, weaknesses which we can make fun of and turn to strength is what comedy is. Because people have become more matured than making fun and insulting someone for comedy.
Zakir Khan’s net worth is $1 million to $5 million. And his primary source of income is stand up. He always has a positive outlook on life and is very optimistic. For him hardwork, passion, love is what brings you success and also to add a twist he said that sometimes luck also takes your side which is very rare.
Even after being such a big star, Zakir Khan continues to live like a free and common man because this his how he has lived all his life and said this is what helps him to do stand-ups.
The self-made star Zakir Khan has always been an inspiration to many in the field of comedy and also to the other people teaching us the value of laugh and comedy.
Some Popular Videos Of Zakir Khan
Social Media Profiles of Zakir Khan
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Zakir Khan
TWITTER PROFILE: @zakirism
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @zakir_khan
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Zakir Khan
4. Anubhav Singh Bassi
Anubhav Singh Bassi is one of the famous stand-up comedians in India. He was born in a middle-class family in 1991. By 2020 he is 29 years old he was brought up in Meerut. He completed his schooling 10+2 from Dewan Public School in Meerut and completed his further studies from DR. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. since from childhood he is an artist and an excellent storyteller, and coming to his lifestyle he likes his sister very much and everyone calls him by his nickname ‘Bassi‘.
He is a lawyer by profession later turned UPSC aspirant and then finally turned up stand up comedian. A person with multiple talents. He is a lawyer by profession, then he entered into this field as a coincidence In 2017 to try his luck at an open mic at the canvas club, and that was very successful later he got many calls to do another open mic event, Then he decided to continue his passion to make another laugh more and more so he made a video and uploaded it in his Facebook profile in 2017 and that video was about lawyers.
Many people were appreciated in his work. Then he decided to create a youtube channel and make more videos and introduce it to the people so he uploaded his first video named ‘cheating’ while uploading the video he thought that if this video gets millions then he will continue with it and the applause he got from that video was unbelievable That video got around 36 million views in youtube, this video became very popular among the youth. He decided to continue his hobby as his profession later he uploaded much more video like ‘hostel’, ‘waxing’, and many more. And then He became very very popular within time and got 1.92 million subscribers in youtube. His coincidence at an open mic at canvas club made his life a turning point towards success. Now he is one of the best standup comedians in India.
Some of his famous videos in youtube:
Social Media Profiles of Anubhav Singh Bassi
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Anubhav Singh Bassi
TWITTER PROFILE: @be_a_bassi
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @be_a_bassi
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Jaspreet Singh
5. Appurv Gupta
Appurv Gupta is a stand-up Hinglish comedian and satirist. He has done stand- up comedies in India as well as abroad.
He was born to an engineer father and homemaker mother. He studied in a government school and graduated from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology in Engineering.
He said that engineering was not his cup of tea. But he completed his education because his parents wanted him to. In the first year itself, he started looking out for alternative professions.
While he was still figuring out on what to do in his life, his brother told him about a non-profit public speaking organization called Toastmakers Internationals. Since Guptaji had no experience in public speaking, he wanted to give it a try and became a member. After learning and performing there for 3 years, Guptaji was told to try his hand at stand-up comedy. He considered stand- up comedies as the toughest form of public speaking. Since then, he had performed in more than 1000 shows in India and abroad including corporate performances for Airtel, Tanishq, Adobe, Amex and Radio Mirchi, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur and IIT Jodhpur.
Around 2011-12, Gupta started exploring places where he could perform. One day, one of his friends told him about the venue called Jukebox in Nehru park where he could see stand-ups and even do an open mic. So, he went there. He said later that even though he could not perform good, it opened doors for him and he got to know of places where he could perform. Then he got to know about an open mic happening at Shooters Bar, South Extension, so he went there and performed securing position but realized that this is the profession he wants to choose.
His 3 solo shows Appurview, RelationShip or RelationShit and Laugh with an Engineer 2.0 was popular enough to have 10 million views on social media. Appurview – Laugh with an Engineer, which tells about the life of an engineer from the point of view of an engineer, is his most popular show. He started his web shows “Mudde Ki Baat” which covered topics like India, Cricket, Bollywood and Chetan Bhagat.
He was also ranked in “Top 20 Indian Stand-Up Comedians in 2014” by CNN-IBN. His recent videos on Chai, Maggi, Biryani, Neend, Tinder, Cookery and Aeroplane have already got millions of views on social media. With over 200 Million views on social media, recently, Forbes India had listed his name in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 Nominees list in 2015.
Well, now he is a Laughpreneur. He is giving back to the field what it gave him. He opened Central Club at Akshara Theatre for artistes to perform. Open mics happen here every day but full-fledged shows are on weekends or holidays.
His comedies are available on his YouTube channel Appurv Gupta. There are over 49 videos so far along with 424K subscribers.
Given below is the link to one of his most liked comedy.
Social Media Handles Of Appurv Gupta:
Facebook- @TheAppurvGupta
Instagram-@appurv20
Twitter – @appurv_gupta
6. Neeti Palta
A famous YouTuber, screenwriter, stand up comedian, and artist who got tremendously famous because of her sense of humour and presence of mind.
Ms Neeta Palta was born on 11h February 1980 in Agra. Her hometown is New Delhi. She has done her schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya from Colaba, Mumbai and also from the Army public school in New Delhi. She graduated from Delhi University in English Major. She did her post-graduation in Master of Journalism and Mass Communication from Symbiosis Institute of Media and communication in Pune. Her father, Mr Anand Prakash Palta is a retired Army Personnel. He has an older brother too. She got married to Mr Rahul Soota who is a known financial consultant.
She initiated her career with an advertising company, JWT( J.walter Thompson.) She worked for 12 good years as a Senior Art Director. In the year 2006, she got an opportunity to work in the Tv puppet series,” Galli Galli Sim Sim”, which used to air on the DD National. She worked as a writer for that series. In an interview, she said, that “ Mr collin suggested her to be a stand-up comedian and that is how the thought came to her mind.” She shared her whole story with Mr collin where she told, that she was always a huge fan of Improv shows and always was curious about the sound. She attended the Collin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood in India where they needed some volunteers for the show. She participated in the round and played some sounds for the situation. And at that moment, Mr Collin told her about her personality as “ You are such an innocent face but bit of a devil, you should try to stand up.” This statement of his inspired her to try out this field as well.
In November 2012, she participated in the comedy competition RAW. The competition was sponsored by the OZ fest where luckily she won the competition and boosted her confidence. In the year 2013, she started her own YouTube channel where she posted all her stand up videos for her audience as she did numerous amount of shows all over the country and used to post that videos on her channel. She got immensely popular because of that. In the year 2014, she wrote down the beautiful script or the Bollywood film, “O Teri”. She has also appeared in many comedy web TV series such as “Comedy central stand-up Asia”(2016), “ Comedy up Late” (2017), “Comicstaan”(2019), “Almost Sanskaari”(2019). She is also the founder of one of the oldest comedy outfits of Delhi – Loony Goons. She has also associated with Amazon prime and Hotstar and done various corporate events too.
Her YouTube channel Neeti Palta has 198k subscribers for the moment but her stand up videos are all viral and all over the internet.
This youtube video of hers got immensely popular and got 4M + views as she talked about the feminism and equality with a graceful touch of humour.
Back in her career days, people always thought of her as an emcee, where she had to tell people that she is a Comedian. She always thought that because she is a woman, it is more difficult to stand out against all the myths of our society. She never wanted to become a stand-up comedian, she was a writer, she is done advertising scripts but stand up comedy was accidental rather than planned. She also told that because there was no other female stand up comedian so she got noticed early.but all of her jokes were the judging criteria for the audience to know her. She also talked about how she had to break all the stereotypes in society. She even told about her asking so many questions to her organizers about the venue about the type of audience and about why do they want to hire me as some of them wanted her to talk Dirty on stage and there were the issues she had to face for several years as it got 4 years to find herself as the female stand up comedian.
She also told about how people would get offended when she made jokes about men as they thought it is male bashing but she stood up against them and she thought it is not male-bashing as many male stand up comedians made jokes about the women but there were not being asked about that. She started her own solo show, “Almost Sankari” where she told about her experiences across the country where she told about all the parents are the same as not just because of Indian parents. She fought herself for the position she had now as she struggled with being a female stand up comedian.
Social Media Profiles of Neeti Palta
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Neeti Palta
TWITTER PROFILE: @neetipalta
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @NeetiPalta
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Neeti Palta
7. Abish Mathew
Abish Mathew is a stand-up comedian. His notable work known is with All India Bakchod and as the host of Comicstaan. He is also the creator and the host of the show Son of Abish and Journey of a Joke.
Abish was born in Kerala, India on 28 February 1987. He is 33 years old. He did his schooling from Fr. Agnel School, New Delhi and completed his graduation in History from Ram Lal Anand College, University of Delhi. Mathew is a catholic, he was the member of St. Mary’s Church, Noida before moving to Mumbai. He is married to actress and YouTuber Archana Kavi on 23 January 2016 in Vallarpadam Church, Kerala.
From the last five years, Mathew is one of the most recognized comics in the country in an industry that has grown so much over the past years. Although we might know him for his comedic excellence comedy comes into his life much later.
While growing up, he had his interest in music and was involved in a number of bands while studying in school. He was part of a band named Lithium X in which he was a lead vocalist. He even performed as a solo singer at some of the places but soon he understood that music wasn’t going to help him with his expenses. His last tryst with music was with some folk band.
Later, he started working at Hit 95 FM as an RJ in New Delhi. With the help of the internet, he came across the stand-comedy of late American actor and comedian Robin William and Jumanji’s star inspiration Jonathan Winters. By looking at the stand-up he decided that this is what he wanted to do. He started his research about Stand-up and how is it done.
His love for performance art grew when he started attending open mics in New Delhi. He would also use his radio show to crack jokes and most of these jokes would be puns. He took a flight to Mumbai for an open mic spot at The Comedy Store. After seeing the working of the open mic scene, he flew to Scotland to check out the Edinburg Fringe Festival to gain more knowledge for what he wanted to do.
In 2011, he booked his first comedy special at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi called Abish and Friends. He recorded this special and uploaded on his YouTube channel but later deleted them as he felt it was too old. With his comedy special achievement, he decided to move to Mumbai in the same year. His main intention to move to Mumbai was to have an exposure with the stage. He learned how to edit videos and started his own YouTube Series ‘Pun Liners’. He always wanted to have a version of the show The Tonight Show and present it with utmost confidence.
Later in 2014, he did introduce the late-night show format with ‘Son of Abish’. For his first episode, he booked Mumbai-based independent musician Sidd Coutto as his guest at Mumbai’s Canvas Laughter Club. The title of the show came from his father’s recurring joke about his name. His show was a multi-variety comedy show. He even uploaded the shows online so that people come and buy the live tickets of the show as he believed there was more gratitude in life than for digital.
His show got all the well-deserved appreciation from the audience making it a success. He made his debut in the movie ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’ in 2017. He also hosted Comicstaan.
Since 2015, he and his team have introduced 6 seasons of the show and the show has hosted guests such as Kenny Sebastian, Vidya Balan, Irfan Khan, Suresh Menon, Dulquer Salman, Zakir Khan, Shirley Setia, Mithila Palkar, Abhay Deol, Tanmay Bhat, Bhuvan Bam, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Radhika Apte, Radhika Madan, Vir Das and many other well-known artists and musicians.
Even in the middle of this pandemic, Mathew launched his show’s season 7 virtually with all the same elements that audience is familiar with- live audience, celebrity guests, comedians, activity segment and music. Though there were challenges of how to manage the budget, new set for the show, live audience engagement but Abish and his team managed it all with great efficiency.
So far, they have already premiered two episodes of season 7. The first one had Shruti Hassan and comedian Rahul Subramanian and the second one had rappers Raftaar and Utkarsh Ambudkar. Both the episodes of the show are highly appreciated by the audience. With this amount of love and appreciation given to the show, there might be another season as well. He even said that ‘the show ain’t stopping and will shoot the show no matter what happens’.
Son of Abish premieres new episodes every Friday at 8 pm on YouTube.
At the end, when Mathew was asked in an interview how all this success happened for him, he said: “Comedy happened because of failure in theatre, music, hosting, love and in physical appearance.”
EPISODES OF SEASON 7 VIDEO LINK:
Social Media Profiles of Abish Mathew
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://abishmathew.com/
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Abish Mathew
TWITTER PROFILE: @abishmathew
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: abishmathew
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Abish Mathew (@abish)
8. Kunal Kamra
Kunal Kamra is a very popular Mumbai based comedian who is especially known for his standup comedies and political commentaries. Also, he is a very famous Social media personality in today’s time.
Kunal Kamra was born on 3 October 1988 in Mahim, Mumbai. He joined Jai Hind College, Mumbai to get a degree in Commerce stream After that he joined MTV as an intern and dropped out from college in 3rd year. Then he started working in Parsoon Pandey’s Corcoise films which is a production house of ad. films as a production assistant. There he was involved in jobs like producing commercial advertisements, international shoot and conducting important official meetings with big media organisations.
He worked there for around 7-8 years.
One of his friends Siddharth Dudeja suggested him to try to Stand up comedy. Then in 2013, he went to a Blue Frog event to meet his friend who was the headliner of the event. There Kunal was asked to perform small gigs in between the main event to save the act which was sinking. After that in the same year, Kunal Kamra performed his first professional stand up at Canvas Club, Mumbai.
Kunal Kamra launched his YouTube channel “Kunal Kamra” on 2nd March 2017. The first video published on the channel was “Patriotism & The Government” targetting demonetization, government and attitude of Indian people towards army the which gained immense popularity and was viewed by 14 million people as in August 2020.
Although along with popularity he also get death threats from the people for humours takes on Indian hypernationalism.
Along with his stand up videos he started a podcast series named “Shut Up Ya Kunal” with his friend Ramit Verma. In the episodes, he invites people like Madhukeshwar Desai, the spokesperson of BJP, Jignesh Mevani, Gujarat’s MLA and Dalit activist, and Shehla Rashid, the former JNU student leader and many other famous people. These episodes feature a conversation between 2-3 people about news, debates etc. In a humorous manner.
The first episode of his podcast series was published on 20 July 2017. Which was viewed by more than 1.5 million people as in August 2020?
Total no. Of subscribers on his YouTube channel are 1.76 million and total no. Of overall views on his channel are 134 million. He has uploaded around 40 videos on his channel.
His most popular video is titled as “Kunal Kamra | Stand Up Comedy 2019” which was posted on 11th March 2019. This video has more than 18 million views and more than 650 k likes. As in August 2020.
His most popular podcast from series was “Shut Up Ya Kunal – Episode 6: Ravish Kumar” posted on 24 May 2018. Total no. Of views on this video are more than 6.3 million and is liked by more than 249k people. As in August 2020.
Kunal Kamra has also faced many controversies, trolling and death threats in his career because of his edgy political humour. He was heavily trolled on twitter in January 2019 for one of his standup comedy videos. At that time his phone no. was shared on social media which led him to deactivate his Twitter account for around a month.
His recent major controversy was In January 2020, when his video of heckling a popular Indian Journalist Arnab Goswami in an IndiGo flight got viral on social media. After that incident, he was banned by many Indian Airlines along with the IndiGo airlines for some time.
After all these controversies, trolls and death threats Kunal Kamra continued with his YouTube channel and Stand-ups. And he is known as one of the most popular comedians in India.
Social Media Profiles of Kunal Kamra
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Kunal Kamra
TWITTER PROFILE: @Kunal Kamra
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: Kunal Kamra
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Kunal Kamra
9. Biswa Kalyan Rath
The stand-up comedy industry has its own “Mast Aadmi” and that is IIT-graduate who left his job and started stand-up, Biswa Kalyan Rath. A stand-up comedian, YouTuber, and writer. After leaving an IT job at oracle, he started stand-up comedy along with his partner Kana Gill. He gained popularity through his youtube series “Pretentious Movie Reviews” with his partner-in-crime Kanan Gill. Since then the stand-up comedian, writer and showrunner have done countless performances, shows across the country.
In his stand-up acts, he often talks about IIT life and work-life issues, the content is always as original and unique as it can get. Major pieces of his comedy his taken from his own experiences and the life he has lived. Born to a middle-class Oriya family in Bhubneshwar, he spent all his childhood moving all states to towns to villages to cities and later used it as an inspiration for his comedy materials.
The pretentious movie reviews first episode was put up on Kanan channel on 15th April 2014, where these two funny dudes were taking down on bad movie after another with their hilariously funny commentary. Taking a dig on the Bollywood cliché movies and rants on different scenes from the movie, helping them pit their idea and comedy more clearly. And these reviews worked, big time. The pretentious movie reviews episode went viral, it was being shared, re-shared across multiple social media platforms. Each episode of the pretentious movie review had gained more than 2million views each. It was a big, big hit.
After many performances and shows, with time Biswa went past the shadow of Kanan and emerged as a solo stand-up comedian. Post fame, he went on a solo tour and performed in multiple cities such as Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, his sown solo shows called, “Biswa in your face” and “Biswa Mast Aadmi “ as well as he has also worked with the other stars and appeared at various AIB shows. He also got featured in a series “Laakhon me Ek” which was created and written by Biswa himself, in which he played a role of IIT entrance exam teacher.
Every comedian has its own unique selling point, delivering a story is as important as the content, to have the audience undivided attention. The stand-up comedians have their own way of making people laugh, Biswa’s USP is cracking a hilarious joke with a straight face as ever, the nerd looks and as a perfect geeky software engineer with spectacles and thin. His delivery is simple, straightforward about his IIT education, knowledge of maths language life and giving a gist about the life of a simple Oriya man through his content.
Currently, Biswa has 641k subscribers on his youtube channel and 32,955,783 views. The dialogues and acts are sometimes used in the meme creation also. Recently one of youtube video became the talk of social media. Not only this, but the social media have also come with their own ideas and making 100% more hilarious meme on this.
To have such laugh, do check out this website where it proves apart from being a comedian Biswa is also a meme material.- https://theindianidiot.com/bro-chill-maar/
Today, he has his own amazon prime special called “Biswa Mast Aadmi”. After success in stand-up comedy, he has levelled up and in 2018, appeared in a stand-up comedy hunt show “Comicstaan” in which he was the judge and mentor to the participants. The show was a huge hit, with various other comedians on the board too. He has also worked in AIB podcast with Sumukhi.
Biswa has a unique style of stand-up comedy, taking pointers from the simple life and presenting it in a comic way. As a comedian he has grown in the span of 6 years, being an IIT graduate to a judge in a comedy show proved his talent, just by cracking jokes.
Some Popular Video of Biswa Kalyan Rath
Social Media Profiles of Biswa Kalyan Rath
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Biswa Kalyan Rath
TWITTER PROFILE: @BiswaKalyan
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: @biswakalyanrath
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Biswa Kalyan Rath
10. VIR DAS
When we talk about the Top 10 Best Youtube Stand-up Comedians in India 2020 how can we not mention our beloved Vir Das? Vir Das is India’s highest-selling stand-up comedian, an actor and a musician as well.
After starting his career in the field of comedy he then later joined Hindi cinema industry. Delhi Belly, Badmaash Company and Go Goa Gone are some of his movies.
Vir Das was born in Dehradun and was brought up in Nigeria and is married to his girlfriend, Shivani Mathur. He completed his study from Logas, Nigeria and from Delhi as well. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Theatre. After completing his graduation Vir worked with Moscow Arts Theatre. The first time he had an experience in stand-up comedy was in Knox’s Harbach Theatre. He also received a Richter Scholarship for Theatre and later on his journey in he won Colton Performance Award for outstanding Achievement in acting from Knox, where he was also a teaching assistant for Beginning Acting. Vir was trained as a method actor at Harvard and performed a number of plays with the Moscow Arts Theatre.
Vir Das returns to India in April 2003 and since then started his career here and has performed over 100 comedy shows all around our country. In his initial stage, he started his career as a Television host and later appeared on a variety of comedy shows. Route ki Sabhin Linein Mast Hain and Ek Rahin Vir are some of his initial programs. Vir has also hosted a show for Star Worl, Top Drive – Getaway. Till date, Vir Das has performed in around 35 plays hosted over 100 stand-up comedy show and was a part of 18 films, 8 TV shows and 6 TV specials. Vir released his very first music album in the year 2012. Vir made his debut on the international stage with his Netflix special ‘Abroad Understanding‘ in the year 2017 and became the first Indian comedian to have a comedy special on the platform. In American television, he made his debut with a series named ‘Whiskey Cavalier‘. He has also written comedic columns for Femina, Maxim, Exotica, DNA and Tehelka. In the year 2019, Das released his own travel cum comedy show ‘Jestination Unknown‘.
Some Popular Videos of Vir Das:
Social Media Profiles of Vir Das
YOUTUBE PROFILE: Vir Das
TWITTER PROFILE: @VirDas
INSTAGRAM PROFILE: VirDas
FACEBOOK PROFILE: Vir Das
