By the time the audiences sink into their cosy seats to laugh the workday’s stress away in Bandra and Andheri’s popular comedy clubs, Mumbaikars from the far-flung suburbs are usually still elbowing their way through packed local trains. On most days, they won’t find a seat to sink into. “Leisure is not wired into the average Mira-Bhayandarkar mind. We’re simply not conditioned to make time to unwind and laugh,” shares Rohit Pandey, showrunner for the NoBo Comedy Club.

To bring the stand-up scene to the suburb, Pandey and his co-founders and comedians Ravi Gaikwad and Akash Purohit have pulled all strings; from handing out flyers on the streets of Mira Road (where locals mistook them for real estate agents), to inviting comedians from across the city to feature on the line-up. Their latest experiment is turning a local fitness studio into their stage. “The unusual venue works in our favour. During a pilot run, we found that the absence of a physical stage lent a personal vibe to the whole show. As for the sound, we carry our own sound mixer and engineer to the venue,” Pandey shares.