Check out what Anmol Garg had to share about his special ‘News You Can Misuse' and his journey in comedy so far.
Anmol Garg is a popular standup comedian who is well known for his business comedy & startup humour. Like some of his other comedian counterparts, Anmol has his own show on DisnyePlus Hotstar called ‘News You Can Misuse’ where he adds comedy to daily news (which is otherwise boring!).
Traditional news media is always negative, highly opinionated, and largely biased. Adding comedy to news seemed like a good idea. Anmol just gave it a shot and lo & behold, the response to the first video of ‘News You Can Misuse’ was overwhelming. People loved the concept! This comedy typically falls in the ‘edutainment’ segment where the viewers get educated & entertained at the same time. News You Can Misuse has been running for the last 1 year and has shot 49 episodes so far! We had the opportunity to chat with Anmol Garg himself where he talked about his special and his comedy journey.
Here's what Anmol had to share:
Can you tell us what your special is about?
"My first episode was on Feb 10th 2020. So, this is been a year now that I’ve been doing this. The idea was to look at news from a very different perspective. You have mainstream media which is the very biased, very opinionated and negative end of the day. So I thought why not add comedy to news and make it fun, make it interesting. So it is both educating and entertaining at the same time. Typically the edutainment section. I had this idea where I’ll pick up news and add comedy it but I was not very sure if people will like it. I asked a couple of friends that if they will watch something like this. That is when I decided to give it a shot. The response after the 1st episode was good, people loved the concept.
Because it is something new that has not been done at least in India. In the US we have the likes of Oliver and Trevor Noah doing it, but in India, it is a relatively new concept. Here we definitely have Cyrus doing it but it is a little more political. Rizzle is a platform where I have tried my content in terms of different duration, different styles, different backgrounds, different editing styles. And then I came up with a formula that I know people will like. From then on I began shooting episodes and we have done close to 53 episodes so far."
Did you always want to do stand-up comedy or was it an impromptu decision?
"Well I don’t think anyone comes with a plan in stand-up, it just happened to be honest. In fact I read stand-up about seven years back at my friend's office. He just asked me to entertain the crowd and I thought, why not I’ll give it a shot. People actually loved it but I thought they laughed because everyone was drunk. But I never pursued it after that I thought this was just like okay maybe it was just good that day. Then about one and half years back again another opportunity at a Digital Marketing firm and I performed there and that is when I thought, ‘ Hey, maybe I should something more around this.’ That is when I started focusing more on it. I didn’t look back since and here we are."
Do you find writing for your special different from the usual corporate sets?
"Online content is very different from offline. In an end, there are two different ball game altogether. It is not like the same content is going to work both online and off-line. If you see Rizzle, it’s more short form and content. In 30 seconds I have to bring my punch lines out. It’s an off-line event I have some time to do a setup. Typically my setup will last for 45 seconds or one minute and then I started my punch lines. So the content approach is very different and that is very interesting and exciting."
When talking about fake news, WhatsApp and family groups are a great spot to find some. Do you remember any such fake news that you read there?
"So, on WhatsApp whatever gets forwarded is fake news. The best part is Indian is full of content right. All you need to do is just open the news and you’ll find all sorts of news. So there is various bizarre kind of content all around us. The source can be WhatsApp on the internet and all this news keep coming in. Now that people are liking my show they share various news that they want me to cover on the show."
You is that standup comedian you love or who inspires you?
"Sure in terms of international it will be a guy called Sebastian Maniscalco. He is half an Italian and half American. I really love his content. Then if you come to India I will typically be Bassi. That’s because in terms of storytelling you know he’s just amazing and I really admire his work."
Digital content is gaining immense popularity in India, including your own show on Rizzle. Can you tell us more about that and your thoughts on such platforms?
"Rizzle has created a platform for a lot of budding artists like me. TikTok was typically not my thing because it’s just a lot of dance and music somewhere my content gets lost. Plus I don’t have spiked hair which is pink. So somewhere TikTok never worked for me but Rizzle was a little more mature content and that’s where I still get a lot of responses. The idea again is news comedy. So I have two channels on reserve on a Sana news comedy and the other is for entrepreneurship comedy. To otherwise get to the main platform in terms of performing offline you need the support of all these platforms as these platforms help you in providing those opportunities."
You can check out Anmol Garg's special titled 'News You Can Misuse' on Disneyplus Hotstar and Rizzle.
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