One Mic Stand review: Watch it for Shashi Tharoor’s stand-up act

One Mic Stand review: Shashi Tharoor's act on stage is sharp, sarcastic and perfectly displays his wit. He admits being under-prepared but more than makes up for it through his well-written set.

Written by Sampada Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: November 16, 2019 01:58 PM IST

3 min read

One Mic Stand is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon Prime Video’s latest attempt at comedy, One Mic Stand, is out, and the five episodes of the show feature five celebrities and stand-up comedians. Bhuvan Bam with Zakir Khan, Taapsee Pannu with Angad Singh Ranyal, Richa Chadha with Ashish Shakya, Vishal Dadlani with Rohan Joshi and Shashi Tharoor with Kunal Kamra appear in one episode each.

In every episode, the professional comedian opens the show followed by a behind the scenes video where they prep and talk about the craft of comedy with the celebrity. This is followed by the celebrity’s performance in front of a live audience. All episodes are independent of each other so you can pick anyone to start with but my humble suggestion is, start with the last episode featuring Shashi Tharoor and Kunal Kamra.

While all the other celebrities might not be stand-up comics, the audience has an idea about their off-screen personality thanks to their multiple interviews, social media interaction and even the way they conduct themselves in public. All of this does not necessarily apply to Shashi Tharoor’s performance. He is a widely known public figure but watching him crack jokes on the current political climate, and his language skills is refreshing and quite funny.

Shashi Tharoor’s act on stage is sharp, sarcastic and perfectly displays his wit. He admits being under-prepared but more than makes up for it through his well-written set.

As far as the other celebrities are concerned, every episode in One Mic Stand follows a similar structure. The celebrity is introduced, they talk about how nervous they are, they acknowledge how they have no stage fright but continue to be anxious throughout. Talking about the jokes, a few will make you smile a bit, but there’s no ‘ROFL moment’ here. To cover for that, the show has included professional stand-up comics so the audience has something to hold on to.

If this show gets another season, it would be nice to see non-film celebrities take the stage.

Verdict: Shashi Tharoor’s episode is a must-watch, you can skip the rest.