“We are the best all-women improv ensemble in India! And we can confidently say that because we are India’s only all-women improv ensemble.”
This is how Shalini Vijayakumar, founder of the eight-woman improv group The Hysterical, opens one of its many sold-out shows in Chennai.
Shalini, Keerthana PV, Monika Dhayalan, Nandita Lakshminarayanan, Neha Jhabak, Saga, Varsha Suresh and Vinithra Madhav Menon of The Hysterical have certainly had a busy year. . Since their premiere act on September 3, 2022 in Chennai, they have performed 17 shows, hosted over 20 open mics, and continue to have their audience in splits. It almost comes as a surprise that not all these women are full-time comediennes; among them, they have an RJ, a freelancer, baker, writer, and even a college student.
