Odisha's Very Own Kapil Sharma! - Debarchan Mishra

"I was born in a village and no education facility was available there. I was sent to my uncle's house in Balasore and there I started my studies. Later, my father got transferred to BBSR and I continued my schooling there.

When I was in class 9, I noticed that my friends used to laugh at whatever I said and they were intrigued by my words. One of my teachers used to make me speak in his free classes and the whole class used to go on a rollercoaster ride. Some of my friends and cousins suggested that I take this seriously. 

I attended one open mic. The room was quite dead till my performance. Even the best performers couldn't do anything about it. Then, I performed one of my sets, Prarthana, and the audience enjoyed it. Satyabrat Mohapatra, founder of Comedy Highway, took notice and insisted that I join the team. Then I got into Comedy Highway. 

Initially, arranging an open mic wasn't an easy task. We had to keep looking for venues regularly. Some of them agreed and some of them didn't. We could hardly conduct 1-2 open mics per month. As the number of open mics were few, it was a challenge for all the comedians to perform well. Gradually, people got aware of us. Different venues called us to perform at their property, the audience grew and we were able to arrange 4 open mics per month.

During my first few open mics, speaking Hindi used to be a nightmare for me. I fumbled numerous times on the stage. Ever since then, I have been working on my Hindi speaking skills vigorously.

My parents propagate my videos in their own circle. Watching my parents while they are watching my videos is the last thing I would want to happen. 

Had I not been a comedian, I would have loved to go into research on snakes. Since childhood, I used to say I want to be a doctor, but by class 10, I realized that humans deserve to live, so I can't be a professional in that.

It's been around 3 years into this noble job. My team is like my second family. Our aim to improve the comedy scene in Odisha seems possible now because of all the love and support that we have been bestowed with. We have a lot of surprises for our dear audience, so watch out for it!" - Debarchan Mishra.