Venue: DLF Mall of India, Noida
Date: 8 July 2017

The word “mall” and the expression “shopping mall” were synonymous in India. Till the owners thankfully discovered that a lot more could happen here. Including comedy shows. DLF Mall of India at Noida has just launched LOL Comedy Evenings in association with Canvas Laugh Club. This is on till 31st July 2017. The impressive line-up includes acts by popular to upcoming comedians and new stars. We watched an opening performance, last Saturday evening, that covered all the above varieties.

The show was hosted by Akash Gupta, a young comedian who set the mood with simple jokes, mostly in Hindi and fun but not uncomfortable interactions with the audience. The desi basic jokes struck an instant chord with the house.

The first performer was the veteran comedian Aditi Mittal. Her jokes hovered around the experiences of a 30 year single old Indian woman. She spoke mostly in English with some Hindi quips and was confident and authoritative in both mediums. She is among the first batch of our home grown stand-up artists and her experience showed during the performance.

The second comedian for the evening Karunesh Talwar actually took the bull by the horns. He started off with simple jokes about weight issues etc. But in a while his act veered towards the recent political circus that we are seeing thanks to the beef ban. The current issue of demonetization was also brought up in his jokes. The act was contemporary and relevant. No wonder this bit was super engaging.

A rising comedian Manik Mahna took the stage in between for a mere 10 minutes of so. He was a surprise performer and had the audience in splits with his dry almost offensive humor.

The whole show lasted for about 2 hours. ‘Nuf time for de-stressing for a week – thanks to Canvas Laugh Club and their LOL Comedy Evenings. in association with Canvas Laugh Club.