Stand-up comedy: Rung de

Laugh tracks

So it’s been a little less than a year since I started trying to do comedy. And let me share what I think the milestones in a stand-up comic’s career look like.

There’s one track that goes:

  1. Your first open mic
  2. Your first 3-minute set
  3. Your first 5-minute set or your “tight five”.
  4. Your first 10-minute set
  5. Your first 20-minute set
  6. Your first 40-minute set
  7. Your first special/hour-long show.

And on a separate track you have:

  1. Your first group show
  2. Your first opening act
  3. Your first double-header
  4. Your first special/hour-long show.
  5. A local/nationwide tour.
  6. A comedy festival.
  7. An international tour.

I’ve hit #4 on the first, and #1 on the second track. For context on what that means, most comics don’t make it anywhere near #7 (an international tour) and the select few that do, are the comedians that people have heard of.

Much ado about comedy

The thing is, while I’m aware of these milestones on the second track, I’m not seriously chasing them as they aren’t fully in your control. Comedy is hard. The arts are hard - precisely because they are approachable and accessible. The “competition” is intense. Unlike the sciences or engineering where the difficulty (and maybe monotony) in the field acts as an effective filter for most, the arts has an allure that escapes few.

To add another dimension to the difficulty doing comedy poses, how funny something is, by nature, will be subjective and your sense of humor may not gel with the audience’s. At that point you’re faced with an interesting choice - how much do you change your style, and go from doing not what you believe in, but what you think the audience wants? It’s like a CEO wanting to promote healthy drinks, but selling sugary ones because that’s easier. Now, I’m very aware of the tension between “reading the room” and “selling out” and the doubt it induces in a comic’s mind, because frankly, writing jokes is very hard work. Even the bad jokes and bits in my set, they took time and effort and they are there not because I thought they were good, but because they were the best I could do. So, at times, you have to “sell out” till hopefully someday you don’t. If you get lazy, you may fall into the comfort that selling out provides. The aim has to be to keep trying to get better.

And so we come to today, taking a step on the second track with my first opening act - opening for Varun Grover. When Aman told me I’d be opening I was in some kind of pleasant shock for the next few minutes. A mixture of happiness and excitement with a sprinkling of awe. I saw one of Varun Grover’s first videos on YouTube right when it came out (on Padmaavat) and to think someday I’d open for him was beyond dreams, beyond imagination - just pure fiction. I’d always thought of Grover and Kamra in the same bucket of stand-up comics who were willing to venture into political themes. In a way they are doing the hard work of peppering punchlines into a possibly provocative political piece, providing the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down.

And the Oscar goes to…

I’m glad I got this opportunity, but I couldn’t have done it alone. I grew up watching Oscar speeches, and I realize I will not get to do those, so time to use this post to thank those who have helped me on the journey so far and to highlight a few comics on similar journeys (with more to follow if I write another post =P). Shikha - who always turns up immaculately prepared, never reading from anything at open mics, always writing new jokes and inspiring me to work harder. Vaibhav - who I’ve seen grow from stage to stage, working on the art of holding a relaxed dialogue with the audience rather than narrating the set like a sixth-grade elocution competition (he’s on the relaxed dialogue side, I’m in the elocution phase). Naishil - whose natural delivery and writing both I admire, and whose decision to cut the “driving instructor” bit I bemoan as a fan. And hopefully you’ll check out some local comics when you can - you don’t have to, I realize nothing is given, but if you were thinking of it anyway, here’s a gentle push.

Of course none of this would have been possible without Aman, and I know because I’ve tried getting gigs. Being on this journey is not easy, and I’m grateful for the help. I’d also like to shout out my friends who have supported me through this, whether through words of encouragement from before I ever tried stand-up, coming to my shows, or the select few who bought tickets to see my set at its initial, roughest stages. You can read some on that here: https://www.ashwinmenon.com/posts/activities/2025-07-14-chancing-my-arm/

And last but not least (in true Oscar speech fashion), my wife, who has helped in more ways that I can count, providing feedback, being material and most recently, writing jokes (that didn’t make it into my set, but were used elsewhere)! She watches me practice with the most tortuously silent expressions in private, but laughs like it’s a Madison Square Garden sold out show in public. Thanks for being my first audience member!