Kolkata has a new spot for your funny-bones! The Chaiwala has opened the city’s first live comedy station, where they will introduce Bengal’s local comedians and will also host open-mics by celebrity comedians. With a seating capacity of 32, Calcutta Comedy Company (CCC) hosted their first open-mic night, with local comedians — an opening act by Anyaman Majumdar, followed by Rohit Mishra, Ritabrata Dass, Rivu Ganguly — and special guest for the evening, Vaibhav Sethia. It was a full-house show and the audience couldn’t stop laughing at the jokes. The stage room walls had artistic posters by The Chaiwala’s in-house artist, The Hangryartist, audiographs of famous catchphrases by celebrity comedians like Abishek Upamanyu, Vaibhav Sethia and more. Calcutta Comedy Company will be hosting regular weekend shows and other different kinds of shows like the 99shows for students, comedy face-off shows which will be the battle of comics, Comedy Paanchphoron, late-night comedy shows and more. The Telegraph dropped in.
The comics
Rohit Mishra during his set. “Kolkata historically has been a place of jatras and Rabindrasangeet. CCC’s opening will only push forward the live performance culture of the city for new-age arts like comedy,” he said.
“Calcutta Comedy Company is an initiative taken by the veterans of this scene, Sukrit Poddar and Anyaman Majumdar. Sukrit started The Chaiwala, which was one of the first venues where comedy started in Kolkata. Today’s comedy stars like Zakir Khan, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Anirban Dasgupta, Vaibhav Sethia and others were regular faces at this mic. Kolkata will finally have its first comedy club which will be operated by the comics. I am very excited to be part of the opening line-up of this club and look forward to more comedy talent being nurtured here,” said Ritabrata Dass.
Rivu Ganguly cracked up the audience. “The butterfly feeling when a new comedy club opens is better than the butterflies of love. So excited for the first show of the Calcutta Comedy Company alongside a stellar and surprise line-up,” he said.
Organiser Speak
Owner and founder of The Chaiwala and Calcutta Comedy Company, Sukrit Poddar (right) with Anyaman Majumdar, the chief comedy officer of CCC. “The Chaiwala has always welcomed all forms of art, be it visual or performing arts. At a time when the city was still new to the art form of stand-up comedy seven years ago, we were one of the first cafes to host open-mic shows. Seven years later, we are happy that we have finally been able to dedicate a room to this very difficult art form. I hope we can make it bigger and better with the city’s support,” said Sukrit. “Kolkata is not new to stand-up comedy but a dedicated club for comedy will do a world of good to the art form and its audience. The Chaiwala was home to stand-up comedy open-mic right from the beginning. Now we have a full-fledged comedy club dedicated to stand-up comedy enthusiasts throughout the city,” said Anyaman.
CCC gave Vaibhav Sethia an audiograph poster made by The Hangryartist, of his catchphrase “Bhut bhut bhut”, as a vote of thanks.
The audience enjoying the comedy show.