MUMBAI: Stand-up comedian Amit Tandon, who has bagged the upcoming global Netflix series “Comedians Of The World”, says lines are blurring today between the taste and preferences of Indian and international audiences.
After years of corporate experience Tandon decided to go back to his first love comedy after his videos exploded the YouTube in 2016, he realised he had chosen the right path.
He has performed shows in several cities in India and internationally as well in countries like the US, UK, Australia, Thailand and Singapore etc. Tandon has performed at Jaspal Bhatti Humor Festival and was also seen in “CEO’s Got Talent” show.
“When you’re performing for international audiences, they are more supportive, better listeners and they’ll give you the required time to set-up and deliver your joke.
“Whereas, in India, the expectation of audience is for you to deliver a joke every 10 seconds. Having said that, things have changed now in the last three years. Audiences are getting closer to the international audience,” Tandon said.
He is one of the three Indians handpicked for Netflix series “Comedians Of The World” and he sees it as a fantastic opportunity.
“Comedians Of The World” is the first series on Netflix that has been taped in eight languages other than English. This is great as we get full creative freedom over our material and we’re still reaching out to 100 plus countries.”
Tandon is thankful to the digital platform as Indian stand-up comedians are getting opportunities to cross borders.
He said, “Earlier television and movies were the only mediums to reach out to massive audiences. TV though was still restricted to national audiences, whereas digital platforms are way more democratised.
“With TV and movies, you had to go as per the creative insights or the idea of entertainment of the producers or directors of the show. Here you know you put out exactly what you want to and your audience will find you.”
With time, Tandon, who connects with all segments of audience from middle aged to young college going crowds, said, the Indian stand-up comedy circuit has evolved.
“It was limited to pubs and bars which was only accessible to these metropolitan cities. Now, the audiences have escalated to another level. There are people watching from cities like Moradabad, Kanpur to Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, etc.
“The audiences aren’t just for comedy as now we have various genres in stand-up comedy and they enjoy that.”
He asserts earlier performing arts wasn’t looked at with the right amount of respect in India.
Citing example of performing at a bar, Tandon said, “So you’ll be invited for a show, the bar is open and people are talking over you and those challenges are slightly tricky to handle. Today audiences enjoying stand-up. Now you don’t have to educate people, you need to set up the right room for comedy.” (AGENCIES)
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