A nearing BOSM meant a busy schedule for all organisations involved, and Aarav Jain, the Coordinator of ComHub, spared a few minutes to describe his club’s role in the fest.

Aarav began by explaining that his club was the only standup comedy club at BITS, and a few of its members were typically shortlisted to perform at the opening act of N2O—the professional standup show in every fest. During BOSM, the club hosts Back to School, which uses nostalgia to persuade large crowds to participate in dodgeball, three-legged race, dog and bone, and other games reminiscent of their school days. 

As Coordinator, Aarav attended EPMs and enlisted the help of his club members to guarantee successful events, and a large part thereof comprised effective publicity. He recalled his experience as a first year when not a lot of students knew of his club’s existence, and shared that he was delighted by the overwhelming attendance at the Freshers’ Show, despite changes in the venue at the eleventh hour.

Aarav felt that his club was diversifying into ‘too many domains’, and meant to devote this year to ‘parody videos’. Aside from small issues while booking rooms, he said that the club had no significant challenges, and so far, his experience as Coordinator had been smooth and not too hectic. He then explained that ComHub had adopted a novel method of recruitment this year, which included a workshop that introduced freshers to new formats of comedy. Then, applicants were invited to perform short acts, and were inducted into the club following a personal interview with a panel including the Coordinator himself.

Aarav spoke of his plans to explore ‘sketch comedy’ which had for long been the sole purview of Mime Club, and added that the club’s considerable workforce allowed for bolder initiatives. He urged the GBM to attend ComHub’s events since the club tailored it to be enjoyable. He explained that comedy was an improvised act, which is why there was not a lot of work throughout the year per se. The preparation for the act itself was exciting and the aspiring comics were helped by their seniors in creating the perfect punchline. Aarav ended with a secret to being funny; he said that all a comedian needed was to be genuine, and considered babies to be the funniest creatures since they are the most genuine.