East India Comedy’s Youth Academy:
We at East India Comedy believe in nurturing and giving opportunities to new and young talent. We believe that young comedians should be given the freedom to express themselves and enjoy their time on stage. We train them, coach them, make them our slaves until they are good enough to set free into the universe! Here are some of them who are training with us, writing events and performing shows across the country:
Nick Pillow
Nick Pillow hails from a small inconsequential island off the coast of France called the UK. He is one of India’s only foreign comedians, although his grandparents were born somewhere near Lucknow as part of the British Empire, for which he apologises. He has been doing stand-up for just over a year, although his main job is working here in Mumbai as a theatre teacher in an International School, but also does regular comedy gigs across the city, as well as in Bangalore, Pune, and forthcoming shows in London this summer.
Nick has done shows and guest slots for The Canvas Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store, as well as numerous public and corporate shows for East India Comedy. He has performed in venues from the Taj Palace hotel in Colaba to a dodgy warehouse in Dadar. He has thrice won East India Comedy’s Virgin Pants, meaning his status as a virgin is now even more dubious than it was before.
Twitter: @nickthepillow
Sonali Thakker
Sonali is a dance enthusiast and a “curator of her closet” who is currently working towards being a CA so becoming a comedian was the next logical step. Her quirky sense of humour touches upon everything from superstitions and dating to the awesomeness of being Gujarati.
Sonali has won the Open Mic RAW at Canvas Laugh Factory on two occasions and has also performed in the ‘Best In Stand-Up’ show at The Comedy Store, Mumbai. She was one of the 10 finalists from all over India in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival held in Delhi in 2012. She has performed at numerous college festivals, public and corporate shows in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.
Twitter: @extremelibran
Aditya Desai
Aditya is a CA student. He believes that in Comedy, 2 + 2 may not necessarily be 4, it can be 5, 1 or even zero! Incidentally, he also uses the same principle in his CA practice. Aditya’s humour is generally observational with subjects ranging from political satire, relationships, cricket to being a Maharashtrian in a cosmopolitan Mumbai. He also plays the guitar and often does some comedy with it.
Aditya has won the Open Mic RAW at The Comedy Store, Mumbai and East India Comedy’s Virgin Pants. He has also won the Bachelor of Comedy, the hunt for Mumbai’s top college comic organised by East India Comedy at the Nehru Centre. Aditya has also featured in the ‘Best In Stand-Up’ show at The Comedy Store, Mumbai. He has done regular guest appearances at The Canvas Laugh Factory, NCPA Mumbai and other East India Comedy Shows. Aditya has performed at various college festivals, public and corporate shows all across Mumbai and Pune.
Twitter: @AuditDesai
Simran Bir Singh
Simran is a Chartered Accountant by education, marathon runner by passion and cut surd by religion-which makes him 87% less susceptible to being a butt of all Sardar jokes. He swears to have never participated in the demand for Khaalistaan – however, considering he is a CA- we really don’t have any reason to believe him.
Simran is one of the youngest middle aged comedian’s in the circuit and draws guffaws when he reveals his real age – which he never does! Unless held to a gun point. The turning point in Simran’s stand up career came when he was told he is too well dressed for a Comedian. Since then he always imagines himself naked on stage because, in his books, that’s better than being badly dressed!
Apart from regularly featuring in the open spots at the Best In Stand-Up shows at Canvas Laugh Factory, Simran has gone on to win East India Comedy’s Virgin Pants Open Mic, The Big Mic’s Open Mic and has performed at various East India Comedy shows as well as Comedy Cartel Comedy nights. Simran also works on comedy writing projects and has contributed his fair bit in making the world a better place by performing at charity comedy gigs. He insists he is not a “Writer” but a “Typist”, as the last he actually wrote something on a piece of paper was while giving his CA exams. And whenever he insists that – everyone has the same question – “What’s your point?”. He then stops insisting.
Twitter: @simranbsingh
Jaideep Singh Juneja
Jaideep Singh Juneja is also known as JD in quality circles, which is ironic since he is the only teetotaler Sardar! His parents wanted him to be an astronaut when he grows up so that he can go to outer space and find his real parents. Fondly referred to as a Catholic Sardar, he firmly believes in Jesus’ saying – Have each Supper as it’s your last. After watching one of JD’s shows, Manmohan Singh claimed, “He is the funniest Sardar since me!”
Fairly new to the scene, JD started off by winning the coveted OPEN MICS at Canvas Laugh Factory, Virgin Pants and The Big Mic. Since then he has made guest appearances at several Canvas Laugh Factory’s Best in Stand-Up shows and East India Comedy’s specials. JD has also tested waters at shows in Kolkata and Pune and has – to quote him –“embarrassed himself to tears” in a few corporate and college shows as well!
Twitter: @jaideepsj
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