Born in India, Gauri B moved to Germany at the age of 21 for an internship in architecture. But it led her to establish a career in stand-up comedy in the European nation, becoming one of the few brown comedians in Europe. And now, she is set to come to India in November for her first tour back home, and she is quite excited about it.
Sharing her excitement, Gauri says, “Indian audiences are one of the best in the world. Even in Germany, Netherlands or the UK, the comedians get so excited about performing for an Indian audience as they are so quick to laugh, and they have such a loud laughter that sets such a great vibe. I am looking forward to having an all-Indian audience. It would be my first time performing for all my people.”
While she isn’t in touch with the comedy scene in India, the comedian informs that she heard from other international artists who have toured the country, “internationally things are not so censored and are a bit freer when talking about sensitive topics.” However, the comic, who defines her style of comedy as “fresh, dark and culturally relevant”, hasn’t made any changes in her set for India. “A lot of people have told me not to talk about certain things, but I have found my audience through social media. They are the ones coming to the show and they have seen my stuff online. So, they know what to expect and it wouldn’t be fair to alter my set to suit a certain expectation,” she says, adding that she is quite excited to be on the stage at home.
Gauri’s been doing stand-up for seven years now and has toured all over Europe, Australia and the US. For her India tour, she would be performing in Mumbai on November 15, in Bangalore on November 16 and will have a show in Delhi on November 17. And the tickets for the shows have already been sold out. “It was absolutely insane to watch the ticket sales. We put the show live well in advance and I just posted a story on Instagram for the heck of it. And within hours, I had people messaging me it’s all sold out. The early bird tickets sold out in a matter of four to five hours, and we had to add extra tickets. The Bangalore tickets sold out in 48 hours. The ticket prices were also a bit higher, so we weren’t expecting that kind of a response early on. I just hope I match up to the expectations,” she says.
The comic insists that while she didn’t face any discrimination as a brown person pursuing comedy internationally, she has been a victim of sexism. “The comedy scene in Germany is very welcoming. My being Indian never came in the way but there is obvious sexism on social media and also in a part of the real world as statistically smarter people are less. But you can’t control it. I have my audience to cater to and thankfully, they are not sexist, and they don’t put me in a box. There are so many women who came before me and paved the way for me, and it’s improving with every generation. We are headed in the right direction,” she insists.
