On the Grinning Road
Neeti Palta is a known face in the Indian standup circuit. Presently, the Delhi-based comedian has embarked on a country-wide tour where she will be performing in multiple cities. “The tour has been going great so far. Both the Hyderabad and the Bengaluru shows were sold out. For the latter, we even had to add extra tickets. Next is Nagpur on June 23 and I’m really looking forward to it as this will be my first time performing there,” shares Palta.
The show that Palta is touring with is named Ulta Palta. “Honestly this show is my Bharat Hasao, Bharat Bachao Andolan. I genuinely feel we have all started taking ourselves far too seriously. We’re still getting out of the pandemic days also. Ulta Palta is basically me trying to make sense of this world that has gone ‘ulta’ (flipped). The show is a mix of anecdotal and observational humour along with some social commentary,” she says.
Palta started in Delhi and has been performing comedy professionally for almost 13 years. She feels the comedy scene in the national capital has evolved very well and is the most vibrant scene in India right now. “There are so many places to do comedy in Delhi now. There are small rooms everywhere; there are multiple comedy clubs scattered across the city. The varied amount of comedy that you will get to see in Delhi, I don’t think you will get to see in any other city. There is an influx of people coming into the city from all over the country, and they are bringing their voices and experiences with them. The Delhi scene is fascinating right now,” she says.
Palta’s personal philosophy about comedy is that ‘nothing is funnier than the truth’. “Every time someone takes offence to a joke, I always wonder if maybe they need to ponder whether they are being offended by the joke or the truth in the joke. It is a very fine line. And comedy doesn’t just come out of thin air, it comes from certain observations and experiences. I am always amazed when someone takes offence to someone’s joke without seeing the intent behind the content,” she says.
Palta has been a judge in the popular reality show Comicstaan’s seasons 2 and 3. She feels the comedy fan in her always got in the way of her judgments. “I am a big fan of comedy. In the beginning, I used to completely forget that I have to judge. I used to just listen like a member of the audience. I was naturally enjoying or not enjoying the set, and then suddenly everyone was looking at me for my opinion as a judge, and I used to go like ‘Oh no, one second’ (laughs). I hope my advice helped the comedians become better,” she concludes, mentioning that she is presently working on two shows, one of which is a dark comedy show tentatively named Wicked.