The first digital edition of OML’s multi-genre comedy festival titled The Circuit #SitDownComedy will begin on April 22 with over 40 comedians performing for five days."We were one of the first few events to be called off," recalls Gunjan Arya, CEO, OML Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., adding, “We didn’t want to be any reason to cause panic. But, I am happy that we managed to do it on a digital platform the next month itself. The line-up is more or less the same, but not all artists have come onboard. Depending on how successful it is, we will do it for other artists, too.”
OML had planned 100 shows across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, but now, the plan is to do 15 shows. "Repeat shows and some of the smaller shows with regional comedy have been cancelled. Also, we wanted to be sure of artists who were comfortable doing the show digitally," she said.
Debate shows, storytelling shows, regional comedy, roasts and more is in store with performances by comedians like Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Sumukhi Suresh, Neeti Palta, Kaneez Surka, Amit Tandon, Abish Mathew, and more.
Every 45-minute slot will have four-seven artists performing. She said, "It is the formats that we are more excited about. There will be three shows on each day, with an interesting line-up. In the Punjabi Showcase, each artist will perform for 7-8 minutes each; while in The General Fun Quarantine Show, Kaneez Surka will host the show and others will participate. She will throw questions, and they will answer."
Some shows are in the podcast format, where artists Neville Shah and Varun Thakur will talk about weird things on the Internet and other topics. “Tanmay will be doing his version of The Roast, where comics will roast other comics. At Standup Games, comics will be given a topic and they will have to make up a joke about it,” Arya added.
The shows won’t be live streamed on any OTT or social media platform. “Live streaming is being facilitated by Insider. Fans across the world can book tickets on Insider, upon which you will get a link to a room call that can be opened only on one device,” she added.