Stand-up comedy acts & open-mic sessions are a hit among Lucknowites

- By Adnaan Rizvi

Lucknowites'

entertainment

options seem to be growing every day. Apart from movies, plays and cultural programmes, a large number of city folk are now attending several

open-mic

sessions and

stand-up

comedy acts being organised in the city.
Mohd Nadeem, who has organised two open-mic events at Sheroes Hangout Cafe in Gomti Nagar, feels that the trend of such events is the need of the hour. "In our first season, we got 100 participants while in the second season we got 200. Such talent has always existed in Lucknow but earlier there wasn’t any platform for people to showcase it. People used to go to Delhi and Mumbai to showcase their talent. But now Lucknowites have come to like such open mic sessions encouraging us to come up with this concept of Lucknow Open-Mic sessions where we provide a platform to budding writers, poets, singers, stand-up comedians, etc," shares Nadeem.
Prasoon Dixit, a Lucknow-based stand-up comedian and a student, made the most of this platform as he performed in one such event. "Frankly speaking, open-mic sessions have helped me a lot in not only in polishing my skills but also enhancing them. I have learnt a lot by performing with people who have the same thinking process as me."
Another organiser of such events is Rahul Singh Rathore, a mass-communication student, who recently organised an open-mic session at a popular cafe in Gomti Nagar where several college students participated and expressed their feelings in words. "I wasn't expecting to see a participation of so many people that too at an event that was organised at such a short notice. Many people write but hardly anyone comes forward and performs in public. But now people are coming forward and sharing such stuff in public. Now I am getting a lot of calls from my friends and others about the second season of my open-mic session."
A group of school students, who are also coming up with their second season of the open-mic session this month, were quite happy with the response they got from city folk during the first season. "Our first season saw participation from 80 people. And now we are planning the second season where we will be focusing only on poems and story-telling," says Aryan Pankaj, the founder of the group.
Apart from open-mic sessions, another entertainment option which has gripped Lucknowites is stand-up

comedy

acts with a lot many being organised in the city since the past year. Be it Zakir Khan, Amit Tandon, Angad Ranayal or Jeeveshu Ahluwalia, Lucknow has seen several well-known comedians performing in the city of late.
Amit Tandon, popularly known by his stage name – The Married Guy, who performed in the city of Nawabs twice within a span of few weeks, hardly finds a difference between the audience of Lucknow and Delhi or Mumbai. "I was surprised to see a jam-packed audience which was very supportive and could get every joke very well. Lucknow audience was as good as most cosmopolitan cities in India. I didn’t see too much of a difference while performing in Lucknow and in Delhi or Mumbai," he shares.
He adds, "People in Lucknow are liking this change in entertainment options. When stress level is getting high in life, people love going to such events where they can just laugh their hearts out without having to worry about anything. It is a total paisa wasool for them."

An open-mic session was recently held at a cafe in the city (BCCL/ Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui)
"Get the latest news updates on Times of India, including reviews of the movie Coolie and War 2."