Comicstaan 2 was one of the most anticipated and a very widely promoted event in the history of Indian Standup comedy. In 2018, the industry was a bit cascaded with #MeToo allegations. But this Amazon Prime show was successful in bringing the standup circuit back to limelight. With Nishant Suri as the winner, the first season was very successful.
As usually, big success comes with big responsibilities, Comicstaan season 2 has some very big shoes to fill. Nevertheless, the second season that debuted on 12th July was a bit disappointing. Amazon Prime has released 3 episodes and on the judging panel we can see Kanan Gill, Kaneez Surka, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Sumukhi Suresh and Neeti Palta.
Season 1 was bold, and challenged the then prevalent political issues and social problems. But this season was not able to make an impact so far. The sets were not so funny and the jokes were forgettable. There were a few exceptions like Aakash Gupta, Joel Dsouza and Shreeja Chaturvedi.
The First Episode
In the first episode Shreeja presented her observational bits about the very important cause of Indian waste management systems. She is witty and mic friendly. Raina came up with a set about AIDS and its awareness in India. He observed how misleading those can be, and it gathered laughters and applauses from all directions. But still it felt as if the contestants are playing safe.
..And Second
The Second episode was somewhat better than the first. Joel’s set about Mumbai and his local train sagas was undoubtedly the best so far. Kaneez Surka didn’t shy away from performing an improvised act, and it was very enjoyable for the audience.
But all throughout the episodes, it was evident that the makers were treading on a safe path and were very strictly avoiding uncontroversial topics. Devanshi Shah was named as the best writer amongst the contestants however her delieveries didn’t match up to the expected levels of Comicstaan.
Many of the sets seemed like a one act, non-dimensional act. The judges reactions were understandably bored and forced. The judges however are doing their best. Zakir Khan has been giving his valuable inputs in rehearsals. This is just the beginning however. We can expect them to improve, because that’s all we can do for now.
A few plus points include the increase in female representation. With inclusion of talented comedians like Neeti Palta and Urooj Ashfaq. The look, the performances were just as they should be, but still, it looked very mde up and carefully scripted. Intelligent shots at politics and social issues, the pathetic lack of female representation in stand up comedy could have brought the missing spice in the episodes but were not dealt with. Hoping for better episodes in future.