S01E13 Sahil Shah, Hindi/ Gujarati/ Marathi speaker - From Mumbai, India 🇮🇳

India's stand up comedy star Sahil Shah has been in this business for over a decade.

He has been at the forefront of India's modern stand up comedy scene and has pretty much grown with the scene. It started with comedy sketches uploaded to Youtube, later packed out live shows. This year, he performed for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the UK - including a week at the Comedy with an Accent showcase - and was scouted by Soho Theatre to bring his own show to London.

On the eve of his second night performing at London's Soho Theatre in October, your host Kuan-wen reunited with the energetic performer from Mumbai to record this episode.

Sahil explains how the rich languages and the sheer scale of India give rise up to a variety of stand up comedy scene"s" in different language zones. As an act who performs only in English, he shares why he prefers to have jokes' set ups in English but reveals his punchline in Hindi. He nevertheless adjusts his performance style when facing non home crowds and discusses the difference between the comedy audiences in India and in the UK.

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Follow Sahil on Instagram , Twitter and Youtube

Sahil's first comedy special on Amazon Prime Childish Behavior

East India Comedy on Youtube

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram and Twitter

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Episode timeline

00:44 Intro

06:47 Languages Sahil speaks

10:05 Languages in India and languages switching in Mumbai

11:43 Set up in English, punchline in Hindi

17:55 Different performance strategies for non home crowds

20:53 Mindful of one’s own accent to adjust the speed and to enunciate

24:38 When someone “put on” an Apu accent

28:57 Indian audience clapping at comedy shows

33:31 The stand up comedy scene in India

36:27 Caste and comedy

41:51 Any plan for Sahil to perform comedy in Hindi and/or Gujarati?

42:42 Comedy at its funniest with localism; the bit about the chappal

46:41 Sahil’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe