Comedy goes to college

Necessity is the mother of invention. And few cities in the world offer as much scope for invention as Mumbai does, thanks to its space crunch and the premium at which a square foot costs. College auditoria and school grounds doubling up as venues for social and cultural events is therefore not uncommon, and as long as the academic schedule is not hampered, it is only a win-win. Bandra's St Andrew's Auditorium (see facing story) is a popular venue for plays, music events and the occasional comedy gig, as is the Sathaye College hall in Vile Parle for theatre. The latest to join the list is the Rama and Sundri Watumull Auditorium, better known as the KC College Auditorium, since it is housed within the premises of the institute at Churchgate.

Barring a handful of gigs by East India Comedy years ago, the space has largely been rented out for annual general or shareholders' meetings and even condolence gatherings. It sprung to life with sounds of laughter in December 2018, when Chalta Hai Comedy (CHC) hosted its first gig here. Since then the independent stand-up events producer has had two more events at the college, the most recent one being Kunal Kamra's, which ran to a packed house.

"The comedy scene in the city is getting competitive, so instead of having multiple events at smaller venues with a capacity of not more than 50, we decided to concentrate on bigger shows by hosting at least two a month. But unlike Delhi, Mumbai has a dearth of large auditoria. And the ones that do exist have their own set of problems," says CHC founder and comedian Punit Pania.

Punit Pania

"Government-run venues have a bureaucratic maze to navigate. Some established private venues have their cliques, or look down on stand-up comedy. Even among the colleges we approached, some don't approve of the language comedians use, or they are not open to ticketed events. But it was pleasantly hassle-free to deal with KC," he explains. Jeevat Hajrani from the college's admin team, says, "The auditorium is a separately run space by the Hyderabad Sindh Society, and if not in use for academic purposes, we rent it out."

Does the idea of hosting a comedy gig at a college draw the younger crowd, especially students? Pania thought so before starting out and the show's posters were put up at the college and neighbouring institutes, too. "But we realised that having a show on a weekend means students won't travel to the college on their holiday. So, our shows had our usual audience of people in their mid-20s," he says.

Kunal Kamra

While Pania feels that a formal auditorium gives the performer a better platform to showcase his art, instead of say, a bar, where people may be distracted, Kamra feels that with stricter

F&B service rules during shows, "anywhere you can gather people" is good for a comedian.

Of course, with venues with a bigger capacity, the maths has to work out, which is why the reliance on more established artistes. Much like sports, even the comedy scene in India runs on star value. "But in the long run, the art form has to grow, and not just the artistes," says Pania, adding that another show will be hosted at the college soon. "That's why more venues need to be developed as comedy venues, so people frequent them no matter who is performing."

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