Comicstaan Season 3: “Comics are only benefitted from one another’s success, there’s no room for insecurity among us,” say Zakir Khan and Neeti Palta

Team Comicstaan is all set to roll out the third season of the celebrated reality show. Comicstaan Season 3 premieres on Amazon Prime Video on July 15 with an improved and exciting format in store that not only brings aboard a bigger set of comedians as judges/mentors but also promises to be a tough stint for all the talented contestants. Abish Mathew returns as the host but is joined by popular social media content creator Kusha Kapila who makes her Comicstaan debut this season.

Coming to the new format, viewers will get to see a small judging panel this time around which comprises Sumukhi Suresh, Kenny Sebastian, Neeti Palta, and Zakir Khan with a bigger band of comedians set out to mentor the contestants. Prashasti Singh, one of the breakthrough performers of the first installment finds herself as one of the mentors along with the likes of Rahul Subramanian, Rohan Joshi, Kannan Gill, Aadar Malik, Sapan Verma, and Anu Menon.

The OML media creation, Comistaan has proven to be a highly rewarding platform for budding stand-up comedians. Many of the current hotshots - Aakash Gupta, Prashasti Singh, Rahul Dua, etc., to name a few – were able to create their on-stage personas through the show and one can expect the trend to continue for many years to come. But how do the judges feel about the community expanding around them? Is there a sense of insecurity when they see a young comic metamorphosize into an overnight superstar?

Zakir Khan says, “I don’t suppose that’s a valid question and we have been asked that several times so far. One can find this format of judging budding artists across disciplines like music, cinema, or even food for that matter and that’s exactly what we are doing here. The idea is to share your experience, mold/guide the contestants in ways required, and just hope that they utilize their talents in the best way possible. And the comedy space in India is quite big at the moment so there’s a place for everyone and every kind of comic. In fact, I remember when I was trying to make it in the scene, I had comics like Amit Tandon and Neeti Palta groom me and give me opportunities to thrive – if even one of them had been insecure about my talent, I don’t suppose I would be where I am today. Comics are only benefited by one another’s a success because if a good comic manages to attract a larger crowd, you can expect at least 1/4th of it to become your regular patrons. So, it’s a matter of handholding because we are a small community”.

And quite indeed, one can see the community often in solidarity and offering constant encouragement to each other. Interestingly, Neeti Palta, one of the most senior judges on this season’s panel, is said to have begun her stand-up comedy career upon the suggestion of the legendary Colin Mochrie of Whose Line is it Anyway? It was then that she quite her plush corporate job to try her hand at comedy and writing and the rest, as they say, is history. Speaking about the same topic of competition among the comics, Palta says:

“In my opinion, the more talent you induct, the bigger the industry grows, and hence, bigger the pie for all of us. The industry will shrink, however, if the same process brings in bad comics so our objective is to look for fresher talent, more original voices, and funnier comedians. I don’t suppose insecurity ever crops up here because we would only wish for the newer lot to do well individually and also help the industry grow. When one sees comics like Zakir Khan and Amit Tandon go global with their shows, they don’t see it as their “competition”.