Milestones

August 1998Officially performs stand-up for the first time at Go Bananas Comedy Club in Montgomery, OH
August 1999Wins the amateur field of the Funniest Person in Cincinnati Contest @ Go Bananas Comedy Club
March 2000Opens for Dave Chappelle at University of Cincinnati (sold-out 900 people)
2000 - 2003Stops live performing to write material and develop on-stage persona:)
May 2003Opens for Kevin James at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, OH (sold-out 2400 people)
April 2004Writes first blog
May 2004Performs at the M Bar in Hollywood, CA
February 2005Opens for Russell Peters for the first time at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH
July 2005Wins the professional field of the Funniest Person in Cincinnati Contest @ Go Bananas Comedy Club
July 2005Opens for Kevin Nealon at the Funny Bone in Newport, KY
July 2005Lands on front cover of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the city’s most widely-read newspaper
July 2005Wins voting contest and is named “P&G’s Funniest Employee” by Q102, Cincinnati’s #2 FM radio station
August 2005Records first podcast, which appears in iTunes
September 2005Does first TV interview (Fox 19 morning news)
August - September 2005Appears on four different radio stations around Cincinnati as a result of being the Funniest Person in Cincinnati
September 2005Performs at Gotham Comedy Club in New York City
September 2005Opens for Dave Chappelle at the Funny Bone in Newport, KY - his very 1st show after returning from Africa
October 2005Opens for Russell Peters at the Moore Theatre in Seattle, WA (sold-out 1900 people)
October 2005Performs first feature week at Wiley’s Comedy Club in Dayton, OH
November 2005Performs first feature week at Go Bananas Comedy Club in Cincinnati, OH
November 2005Opens for Dave Chappelle at his home club of Wiley’s in Dayton, OH
January 2006Opens for Russell Peters on home turf at the Funny Bone in Cincinnati
May 2006Moves to Los Angeles, CA
June 2006Appears on The Gary Burbank Show on Cincinnati 700 WLW
June - July 2006Takes 2nd hiatus of career for acclimation to LA
August 2006Gets on stage for 1st time after the move
September 2006Goes full-time
September 2006Performs at The World-Famous Comedy Store in LA for the first time
October 2006Performs at The World Famous Laugh Factory in LA for the first time
October 2006Launches The Funny Indian Newsletter as a monthly occurrence
November 2006Opens Russell Peters’ LA shows to crowds of 1200 and 1800
November 2006Performs for 10,000 people in North Carolina
November 2006Performs an hour-long set for first time
November 2006Returns to P&G for first show since leaving this esteemed company
December 2006Unveils new image as “Your High-Brow, Fun-Size Comedian”
February 2007Features at the Improv with Kevin Nealon, at his request
February 2007Lands college representation
February 2007Passes audition for The Groundlings
February 2007Crosses 5,000 MySpace Friends
March 2007 Lands commercial representation and goes on first audition
April 2007“Passes” showcase to feature in Midwest Funny Bones
May 2007Designs and unveils T-shirts
May 2007Does 75 minutes of clean material to an audience ranging in age from 10- to 80-years old
June 2007Performs at the Hermosa Comedy & Magic Club for the first time
June 2007Performs at the Hollywood Improv for the first time
July 2007Launches IndianComedians.com, the world’s first Indian booking agency
July 2007Runs first-of-its-kind user-generated content program with Tremor, P&G’s word-of-mouth agency, for teens to submit & vote on jokes to be performed in LA comedy club
July 2007Shoots first TV commercials
July 2007Launches The Funny Indian Fan Club on Facebook
August 2007Is Interviewed on XM’s National Lampoon Radio channel
August 2007Has video accepted as submission on Current TV’s website
September 2007Tapes 30-min set as part of Indian Invasion Comedy DVD
October 2007Co-headlines Make Chai, Not War, a Hindu-Muslim comedy showcase, in DC, to an audience of 550
November 2007Hosts 2007 Bollywood Music & Fashion Awards for an audience of 4500
December 2007Returns to home club of Go Bananas Comedy Club in Cincinnati to feature
December 2007Hosts AVS, a weekly Bollywood TV news show
January 2008Lands IMDB page
January 2008Is featured in LA Times
February 2008Lands the #35 spot on the Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2007
February 2008Appears on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Channel Howard 101 - Jackie The Jokeman Martling’s hour-long show
February 2008Hosts AVS for the 2nd time
February 2008Passes 1,000 friends on Facebook within a year
March 2008Records first collaboration with Melanie Kannokada
March 2008Showcases at the APCA National Conference
April 2008Gains first mainstream TV credit by taping for Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes?
April 2008Passes 2nd showcase at Laugh Factory
May 2008Begins taping own talk show for Pan Desi
May 2008Kicks off motivational speaking career by talking to NFL rookies about personal branding
June 2008Opens for Jo Koy
June 2008Does first international shows - in Geneva, Switzerland, for P&G
June 2008Decides to pursue comedy full-time beyond self-imposed 2-year deadline, given achievement of financial goal for Year 2 (three months early)
July 2008Receives approval of trademarks for Funny Indian and Your High-Brow, Fun-Size Comedian
July 2008Releases point-of-view
August 2008Co-hosts first show with Melanie Kannokada
September 2008Gets signed by comedy management firm Messina Baker Entertainment
October 2008Becomes Laugh Factory Regular
October 2008Becomes Improv Regular
November 2008Returns to Cincinnati to feature again for Kevin Nealon
November 2008Hosts 3 shows in 3 weeks at new Long Beach Laugh Factory, billed as world’s largest comedy club
December 2008Quoted in The Wall Street Journal
December 2008Hired VP of Marketing for FunnyIndian.com
January 2009Tied longest set (75 minutes), this time for a majority non-South Asian crowd
January 2009Began improv classes at Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB)
March 2009Got a good review from Bob Saget after Hollywood Laugh Factory set
March 2009Auditioned (first time) for the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival
March 2009Performed in the Main Room at the Comedy Store
April 2009Finished “Material Document” - every joke written… Times New Roman, Font 12, single-spaced… 130 pages… and counting
April 2009Did 3rd (sold-out) Make Chai, Not War show with Azhar Usman and Paul Varghese
May 2009Performed at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd.
May 2009Opened for Maz Jobrani at the Irvine Improv
May 2009Hosted Bruin Bhangra, the largest South Asian collegiate event on the West Coast
May 2009Had best standup financial month ever
May 2009Surpassed 1,000,000 views on YouTube videos
June 2009Opened 8 shows for Russell Peters at the DC Improv
July 2009Announced launch of Funny ‘Cause It’s True, consulting program that uses comedians to generate marketing insights
July 2009Broke own record for longest show - 80 minutes
August 2009Booked and shot first network national commercial (Walgreens)
August 2009Opened for Kathleen Madigan at Hermosa Comedy & Magic Club
September 2009Toured India for the first time - 2 shows in Bangalore (performing 1-hr sets) and 1 in Kolkata
September 2009Debuted one-man show (as a two-person show w/ Melanie Kannokada) to a sold-out, standing-room-only crowd in Chicago
October 2009Opened for Tim Allen multiple times at the Laugh Factory
October 2009Graduated from Upright Citizens Brigade Improv 201 class
November 2009Headlined the Cincinnati Funny Bone for the 1st time, doing 50 & 75 minutes
November 2009Featured for Kevin Nealon at the Cincinnati Funny Bone, appearing w/ him for the 3rd straight year
December 2009Passes 3,000 friends on Facebook
December 2009Prepares to go out for pilot season for the 1st time