Meet the SHEROES - Aditi Mittal

Aditi Mittal is a stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. Rated as one of India’s Top 10 comedians by Times of India, she has performed in over 500 shows in venues across India, UK, and USA. Today, she is a regular at Canvas Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store and at various venues across the country. She was featured in the American documentary “Stand-Up Planet” where she had the pleasure of personally meeting and shaking hands with comedy stalwarts such as Bill Cosby, Carl Reiner, Dane Cook, Bill Burr and Norman Lear. She has not washed her hands yet. She is also the 1st Indian comedian to perform at the home of stand-up comedy in the world “The Laugh Factory” in Los Angeles, California. She was featured on BBC World and BBC America among “India’s trailblazers” and appeared on BBC Asia with RJ Nihal. Aditi tickles our funny bone in an interview. Read further for more.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am 27, a stand-up comedian, actress and teacher. I grew up in Mumbai, went to boarding school in Pune and then to States post that. I worked with an Indian media channel in New York. I grew up watching stand-up comedy all my life and enrolled in comedy classes back in the States.

What inspired you to be a stand-up comedian?

I come from a family where pulling each other's legs and putting people on the spot is pretty routine. Ours is a family that laughs together. Everyone in the family from my dad to granddad has a funny bone and cracking jokes is a norm. So, being funny has always been an important virtue to me. Humour is a way of life.

We do not see a lot of women stand-up comedians in India. Why is that?

I think it is a lack of lot of things, women in comedy aren’t mainstream. Kapil’s show has a man playing a woman as the daadi, which is really sad and disappointing. Women are generally the butt of men’s jokes and not the ones who are expected to be funny. How often do we hear lines like, “ You are a woman, you can’t drive.” But honestly if we look at the women in cinema, I think Juhi Chawla was genuinely funny. Her Kurkure ads were spot on and made people laugh. Even Karishma Kapoor for that matter was hilarious but their performances were overshadowed by men in the industry and less attention was paid to them.

What is your favourite joke?

There are two muffins baking in the oven.

One muffin to other – It is really hot in here.

Other muffin – Oh my god, you are a talking muffin!

Message to upcoming stand-up comedians

Perform as much as you can, write a lot, be honest and sincere. The more sincere you are, more are the chances that people will connect with you and like you.

Aditi Mittal in 5 years from now

I will be living in a penthouse with 100 rooms on the top of a hill. Unfortunately that isn’t happening, so I will just be cracking jokes and making people laugh. Hopefully, I will be much better than what I am right now. 

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