Indian American comedians Samson Koletkar and Abhay Nadkarni have announced that they will be touring through nine California cities to celebrate the 4th Annual Desi Comedy Fest, which will be an 11-day South Asian comedy extravaganza.
According to a release, the two comedians will tour throughout Northern California: San Francisco, Berkeley, Mill Valley, Santa Clara, Union City, Alameda, Livermore, Santa Cruz, and Mountain View from August 10 to 20.
The Annual Desi Comedy Fest will showcase performances of 40 South Asian American comedians from across the US who belongs to different ethnicities.
The final performance as part of the Annual Desi Comedy Fest will be held at the Marine’s Memorial Theater in San Francisco on August 20.
Abhay Nadkarni, festival co-producer, said, “2017 has been a great year for South Asian comics. Aziz Ansari hosted Saturday Night Live; Hasan Minhaj hosted The White House Correspondents Dinner; Kumail Nanjiani is back with a new season of Silicon Valley; and Aditi Mittal got her own Netflix special, just to name a few.”
“In the current political climate, it’s important to provide a platform for South Asian voices; breaking stereotypes with humor is an effective way to do so,” festival co-producer Samson Koletkar said. “Where else can you find Indians and Pakistanis sitting together and laughing?”
The first edition of the Annual Desi Comedy Fest was held in 2015 after Koletkar came up with a comedy show that featured Pakistani and Indian comedians as part of the Independence Day celebrations of the two countries.
The positive vibes created by the show prompted Koletkar to discuss the idea of the Desi Comedy Fest with his fellow Indian comedian Abhay Nadkarni.
Considering that the South Asian community in the US is excited to present their cultural characteristics on stage giving their experience of immigrant life, Koletkar and Nadkarni came up with the idea of Annual Desi Comedy Fest in 2014.