Comicstaan was one of a kind comedy series or a digital talent hunt for a rising comedian (lol), conducted by Amazon Prime Video and streamed online. But many of us didn’t had the Amazon Prime subscription. Poor we!
Then too, in its first week only, Comicstaan comedy series became the most streamed reality show online. Out of all the people who had the Amazon Prime subscription, a majority loved the Comicstaan series for their unique, fresh and serious take on comedy. (Take it seriously!)
Comicstaan might have been officially over, but there’s much more to the Amazon Prime Original Comedy Hunt Reality Show (Okay, you can laugh!), which only Feeding Trends has collected, bit by bit for you.
Comicstaan Concept
Laugh out loud dialogues, carefully plotted jokes, quick-witted answers, and hilarious moments are the ingredients that make up Comicstaan. The dish of Comicstaan was cooked with all these ingredients, and Season 1 was ready with 9 episodes.
Each Comicstaan episode had a judge (Tanmay Bhat, Sapan Verma, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanney Sebastian, Kanan Gill, Naveen Richards, or Kaneez Surkha), mentoring the 10 handpicked contestants on a specific genre of comedy.
After mentoring, the Comicstaan contestants had to prepare their acts on the taught genre of comedy and perform it before the studio audience. This act was scored by judges and studio audience separately. These scores were averaged to maintain the ranks on the leaderboard of Comicstaan.
This was how 7 weeks passed. (There were 7 judges, hence only 7 mentors!) And the first two episodes were about handpicking the Comicstaan contestants. At the end of 9 weeks, top 5 contestants were to contest the finale and become the winner of Comicstaan.
Comicstaan Judges
The Comicstaan judges, ironically, were not big enough to give a good judgement. Along with the Comicstaan contestants, Comicstaan judges also gave rib tickling performances.
Tanmay Bhat, Kanan Gill, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanney Sebastian, Kanez Surkha, Sapan Verma, and Naveen Richards, partnered with OML (Only Much Louder), to bring Comicstaan to life.
Comicstaan Set
The set of Comicstaan was a subject of discussion among the audiences. The Comicstaan set was much like that of ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’, which is a nuance to remember except, of course, if you are Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The audience expected the Comicstaan set to be like a comedy club, where people are laughing in reality and their laughs are audible. The technical laughter is simply not today’s thing.
The comedy reality show, Comicstaan was produced by OML (Only Much Louder), which is an artist management firm. And that’s why the professional comedians – Tanmay Bhatt, Kanney Sebastian, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Kanez Surkha, Sapan Verma, and Naveen Richards - turned into judges!
The comedians turned judges for Comicstaan shot the Amazon Prime Series in Anderi’s Filmalaya, where the Comicstaan set was based. Hopefully, they’ll shoot more seasons of Comicstaan in the same hopeless set.
Comicstaan Different Element
There are so many reality shows running on Television –
- Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Indian Idol, India’s Best Dramebaaz, Dance India Dance, Raw Star, Dance +, Dil Hai Hindustani, Big Boss, Dus Ka Dum, Kaun Banega Crorepati (which provide entertainment),
- and Savdhaan India, Crime Patrol, CID, Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma, Comedy Circus (which give chills),
- and Fear Factor, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Love School, Splitsvilla, Roadies, Gumrah, Yeh Hai Aashiqui (which give lessons),
but none of them can match the level of Amazon Prime Originals’ Comicstaan.
And you know why Comicstaan is above all of them? TRP? Entertainment? Contestants? Drama? Suspense? Lessons? No. Comicstaan had that one element, which all these reality shows lacked – ‘the judges being judged’.
Comicstaan judges were judged by the studio audience for their judgement, in order to have a fair score at the leader board. And why shouldn’t they be? Comicstaan judges are no established artists. They are growing as they are learning and improving. They can go wrong too. (Insaan hai bhailog bhi!)
But Comicstaan judges did a fabulous job training the Comicstaan contestants and allowing the audiences to judge them. (Grand salute!)
There is no shortage of excellent comedians online, but Comicstaan’s success is a proof that TV reality shows with their old concepts are going to die. (Maar daala, Allah!)
Comicstaan Contestants
The Comicstaan Contestants are honestly the show’s saving grace. All of the contestants are truthful, have a unique voice and don’t pretend to be funny. Some of the Comicstaan Contestants will become even bigger comics than their mentors (or judges, or names in making). Here are the names of the Comictaan contestants with their hometowns:
1- Nishant Suri, HomeTown: Delhi
2- Rahul Dua, Hometown: Ludhiana
3- Sejal Bhat, Hometown: Bengaluru
4- Shankar Chugani, Hometown: Coonor
5- Shashwat Maheshwari, Hometown: Kanpur
6- Aishwaraya Mohanraj, Hometown: Mumbai
7- Ruben Kaduskar, Hometown: Mumbai
8- Prashasti Singh, Hometown: Amethi
9- Saurav Mehta, Hometown: Kolkata
10- Arnav Rao, Hometown: Chennai
The most cringeworthy part (which makes half of the fun that Comicstaan contains), lies in watching the Comicstaan Contestants as the frail and fail on the stage several times, but noticeably improve in the successive episode.
Comicstaan Contestants were mentored by the judges (Tanmay Bhat, Biswa Kalyan Rath, etc.), week by week to learn and present various types of comedy, which Indians rarely know. In fact, most of the Indian comedians do anecdotal comedy, which is again a comedy statement for Indian readers.
Comicstaan Review by Tanmay Bhat
Tanmay Bhat, who was one among the 7 judges of Comicstaan comedy series, gave Comicstaan 5-star rating as a viewer. Tanmay feels that Comicstaan will give all 10 contestants a decent fan following once the show is over.
Tanmay added that Comicstaan has been winning over hearts with its high on laughter content and will bring good fortune for all of the aspiring comedians. After all, it was a serious hunt for comedy.
According to Tanmay, any comedy company would be interested in hiring these Comicstaan contestants for so many good reasons. So what if they didn’t had a video that went viral? Not everyone can be Zakir Khan.
They are all on the cusp of making it big and future waits for them. You never know that Comicstaan contestants become judges for the future Comicstaan seasons!
Comicstaan Winner
As said above, Comicstaan is officially over, with its finale taking place in a stadium in Bangalore. Nishant Suri, the self proclaimed Saddam Hussain look-alike from Noida, has been declared the winner of Comicstaan.
Nishant Suri carried away a prize money of INR 10 lakhs after being the Comicstaan winner. Rahul Dua and Prashasti Sinha have been declared as the first runner up and second runner up respectively.
The finalists of Comicstaan, who were battling for the title of Comicstaan Winner, supported India’s attempt of truly judging standup comedy without turning it into a cringeworthy reality show.
Comicstaan Season 2
After the huge success of Amazon Prime Original’s Comicstaan, the makers have announced Comicstaan 2 (second season of Comicstaan). They are not troubled about the viewers, because the youngsters are already bored with traditional reality shows.
It is actually Comicstaan’s lack of elimination at the end of every week and Comicstaan’s hit or miss concept, which has ensured that viewers will return for the next season. Also, Zakir Khan will be joining the judges panel, which means more viewers will stream Comicstaan 2.
Comicstaan might not be the final punch line for Indian comedy world but yes, it is a great attempt, for nothing is limited today.
Comedy has a great future in India!