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Desi Tech Comedy Show next week!! 🎤🎭
Shaunak Kulkarni
October 28, 2024
Happy Diwaliween y’all! 🎃🪔
I tried so hard this morning to come up with a clever way to connect Diwali or Halloween to our upcoming comedy show, but I think it’s safe to say... I failed 😞
But hey, holidays are all about people coming together for a good time - what better way than sharing some laughs?
Long-winded way of saying: Outsourced: A Desi Tech Comedy Special is next Thursday (11/7)! We’ve got a fantastic lineup incl Naveed Mahbub, Divya Gunasekaran and others, a great crowd, and of course, an afterparty for more vibes ✨
Sign up here to reserve your spot. 🎟️ Just for today, use code MANGO1028 for 50% off tickets! If you miss that, don’t worry—MANGO2K24 will give you $5 off.
Upcoming Mango Events 🎇
Register on the links below!
Outsourced - A Desi Tech Comedy Special (11/7) - A special Diwali event!! MANGO2K24 will give you $5 off 👀
Happy Hour for South Asian Engineers (12/12) - Open to engineers or former engineers!
The Scene 🪔
Other South Asian events I’m keeping an eye on in and around the city
Date | Event | Link |
|---|---|---|
10/30 | A Spooky Bollywood-Themed Halloween Party | |
11/2 | No Nazar | |
11/8 | Honthon Mein Aise Baat | |
11/12 | Network is your net worth | |
11/14 | Jay Sean Podcast Recording (Use code SOUTHASIANTRAILBLAZER) |
Cool Desis Doing Cool Thing 🐘
Highlighting people in our community making strides in diverse fields!
This one is special as Neal is our partner and host for the upcoming comedy special!
Neal Patel is a midwest born, NYC based stand up comedian, software engineer, and activist. He’s been active as a comedian for 3 years, performing at Broadway Comedy Club, LA Convention Center, NY Comic Con and more. He runs Not-So-Daily Stand Up, producing tech comedy shows here in NYC and across the country. This past summer, he was invited to the Impact Summit in Washington D.C with VP Kamala Harris to speak about desi identity in comedy.
Why do you do what you do?
I was a classic desi kid in MUN and have always been an absolute yapper. I found comedy to be the best means to connect with people and gaslight them into believing in my policy points. I started taking comedy seriously in undergrad and have been performing ever since freshman year in 2019. I live for the ‘jump-scare’ of relatability I see in my audience when I talk about shared experiences they otherwise wouldn’t get to hear about, which is why I love doing desi, tech, and nerdy themed comedy shows.
What does your Desi identity mean to you, and how has it influenced your journey?
Desi identity means service to the community with the shared childhood, experience, skin color, and struggles. Our diaspora should do everything in their power to share the Desi experience, not just the objective nature of our identity. There’s more to Desi identity than going to Rutgers or being from Freemont. There are so many issues pertaining to Desis and the greater Asian American diaspora that I like to engage my audience with in comedy, but it doesn’t take a Netflix special to galvanize the diaspora to start taking action to lift their own voice up.
What advice do you have for those entering your field?
Unironically: Go make a tik tok or reel. Who cares if only 50 people looked at your reel? In the world of stand up comedy, that’s a full house. Just promise to be true to who you are, and don’t fall into a caricature. You owe it to the Desi comedians and content creators who limped before you to do our diaspora justice and show them who you really are.
Neal’s favs 🌟
🎬 Bollywood Movie: Padmaavat
🍛 Desi Eat: Desi stop
🌶️ NYC Restaurant: Time Square Taco Bell Cantina Hometown Hotpot
Meme Bazaar 👳🏽♀️
Random Stuff 💃
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