From starting out as a YouTuber and comedy-sketch artist to performing her own stand-up sessions, Gurleen Pannu is taking the world by the storm with her witty anecdotes and bang on comic timing. Catch this up-and-coming comedy superstar live this August 6 at Bhaskara Auditorium, Khairtabad.
Gurleen sprung into the limelight following her stint on Comicstaan Season 3 streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The stand-up comedy series saw a long tough battle in the finale and saw Gurleen Pannu emerge as the first runner-up. She was a surprise package! From judges and mentors, everyone marvelled at Gurleen’s growth on the show as she had just begun her comedy career. Staying constantly on the top of the leaderboard, the Chandigarh-based comedian even though lost to Ashish Solanki in the finale, nailed all the formats and received a perfect 10 from the judges multiple times.
Reminiscing about her Comicstaan days, Gurleen says, “I learned a lot, it is almost like a crash course in comedy. One of our judges, Zakir Khan once pointed out that if one is in Comicstaan, one can save two years of struggle in the comedy industry. All the judges and mentors were super helpful, mainly Rahul Subramanian and Aadar Malik. Rahul was our therapist and Aadar got the most out of us during his round. Even the eight of us contestants are very good friends.
We have our own WhatsApp group where we stay in touch.” It would be the first time that Gurleen will be performing in Hyderabad and she’s all excited about it. “I will be performing my solo show Pannu Yaar, which is entirely new set of jokes along with a bit of anecdote and crowd work. Next, I will be performing in Lucknow as a part of my India Tour of Pannu Yaar show,” says Gurleen. Like many other fellow comedians, Gurleen’s journey into comedy was accidental.
“I used to do theatre in college and then one day my friend told me that she is organising an open mic session and wanted me to give it a shot. So, that’s how in 2019 I did my first stand-up show. The overall journey has been good, even though the journey had a few roadblocks. Due to the pandemic, all live performances had stopped and our only way of performing was through online platforms. For a budding comedian, stage time is very crucial, which I lost during the pandemic. Instead, I focused my energy on writing, which helped in Comicstaan,” she shares. According to Gurleen, if one wants to pursue standup comedy professionally, it is important to just own the stage. “Don’t take any advice, just be yourself. Stage time improves comedy timings, so try to do it as often as you can. But most importantly, you need to remember that comedy is an art and if you are after money then this is not the right profile for you,” she concludes.