One Mic Stand: Taapsee Pannu Is Better Than Angad Singh Ranyal

At the cost of looking nervous, Taapsee attempts a stand up for the first time and does a decent job. 

(Photo: Amazon Prime Video) 

One Mic Stand, an Amazon Prime Original, is now streaming. The show's name is so smooth but unfortunately, the one episode I watched was...not so much. The premise of the show is very simple and straightforward. Sapan Verma, the stand up comic who envisioned this, and a few of his stand up comic friends have undertaken the mammoth task of mentoring celebrities for a stand-up set.

I watched the second episode which has Taapsee Pannu being mentored by her college alumni, Angad Singh Ranyal. Now, Taapsee kept dissing him all through the episode, trying to bring down all his attempts to mentor her, and hence, I could hardly see Angad do anything.

Now even I am like, “Tu mentor karega? (You’ll mentor me?)”

Get off my back, already. (Photo: GIPHY) 

What a Dampening Start!

The episode starts with Taapsee talking about her thoughts on doing stand up and then her mentor. Post which, we see Angad perform a set which honestly seems longer than Taapsee’s set. And then you’re left thinking, why am I watching this series again?

Well, that could also be because things that accidentally fall from your hands land better than Angad Singh Ranyal’s jokes.

The Even Weirder Middle

Now honestly, I was expecting some Comictsaan level mentorship and setup and what I got was ‘Taapsee’s Day Out’. Ya, really like, Taapsee on a day out with a long lost college friend and his friend tagged along. It’s almost like these celebs are assumed to be born with the understanding of stand up comedy genres. And FINALLY, after all the fun and games are done, they discuss her set which was three jokes and, pretty much...that’s all you get.

(Photo: GIPHY) 

But the End WAS the Best Part...

(also because it was ending)

No. Jokes apart, I will give it to Taapsee. She tried and she is a hard worker. That’s something quite evident from the start because she looks like she’s taking it seriously and wants to ace. But unfortunately, she looks so nervous and the material fails to flow.

Kid you not, in the 30-minute-long episode I was looking at the time scrubber, thinking when will Taapsee actually start her stand up.

Finally, at 23 minutes in the show, we see Taapsee on the stage with her full set welcomed by an audience which seemed like they will jump on the stage, pick her up and then accidentally drop her because they were so excited.

Point being, they seemed like they were Taapsee fans! Now so am I, I like Taapsee as an actor and not as a stand up comic. And I’ll say the same even after watching her perform in this episode.

But I am sorry if a famous person stands amongst people who are meeting them for the first time, behavioral science says that they will laugh at 8 out of 10 jokes. Okay, I might have made those statistics up, but you get the point right.

From the point of view of a person who watches a lot of stand-up comedy, I will give this 2.5 Quints. But as someone who will NEVER attempt a stand up, I will give it half more!