A Gay Prince, The Taj Mahal, Popping Eyeballs & More: Gurleen Pannu, Varun Grover, Kanan Gill And Others Light Up Mumbai Fringe Fest Opening Night

If you weren’t at the Mumbai Fringe Festival opening night on Wednesday at NCPA, you really did miss out on something. Imagine running into Macbeth as you climb the stairs leading into the venue and end up having a conversation with him. And then catching up with The Chai Queens of Kolkata, who’ve won multiple awards the world over for their performances. And then heading into the auditorium, where you find yourselves in the midst of 1.5 hours of comedy, kingdoms far, far away, potshots at Bollywood, and a maniac running all over. Here’s a lowdown of what happened. And for the ones wanting to attend their solo shows, check out the schedule online and decide for yourselves.

Meet the cook

Gurleen Pannu was a great choice for the opening act and a good option for any budding comic to study what all is needed in a comic set and what it takes to be a solid comedian. The part which everyone laughed the most at was her bit regarding her relationship with the housemaid, who doesn’t need Netflix since Pannu is her entertainment.

Miss Universe

Sumer More made it clear that if you have a problem with profanity, then you have no choice but to bear with him for the next 10 minutes. Between making us understand why he would be the perfect candidate for Mrs Universe and his Mumbai roommate stories, the funny man made us laugh in the aisles.

The gay prince

Without a doubt, the most endearing act of the night was Rich Watkins giving us a glimpse of his show, Happily Ever Poofter. The audience became the subjects of the gay prince who is trying to find his perfect… man. With a hint of glitter on his face and a crown on his head, Watkins transports you to his kingdom, and what a wonderful place it is to be.

Popping eyeballs

With his sheer physicality, using the real estate of the entire stage and beyond by running into the crowd and picking up random audience members to talk to, David Hoskins enthralled us. With his voluminous hair tied up, he made us laugh and wonder, right from popping out his eyes to almost slow walking into me (the benefits of being seated right in front of the stage, I guess?)

Wedding bells

Shreeja Chaturvedi arrived on stage just after David and made one thing clear — she’s not going to be all over the stage, so please adjust your eyeballs to the spot where she is at and intends to stay for the entirety of her 10 minutes. What followed proved that in the dry, slow sarcasm category, she is a powerhouse, with her topics ranging from her recent wedding to how women are judged after marriage.

The Taj Story

Probably the best political comedian we have, Varun Grover took on the recent Taj Mahal movie, The Taj Story, which starred Paresh Rawal. From getting us inside Shah Jahan’s decision-making process to what Rawal’s evening drink of Hot Toddy could possibly comprise, Grover mixes the conspiracy theory of Reddit threads with his comedy, ensuring that this video too will go viral once on YouTube.

Learn Punjabi in 30 days

Kanan Gill was the last act of the night, and you will never look at home blood tests the same way again after hearing him. Gill also just might be the reason that a book called Learn Punjabi in 30 Days might make some edits… or not, since his ‘review’ of their book might end up boosting their sales.