Soho Theatre brings Janine Harouni, one of The Guardian’s ‘Ten Comedians To Watch’, to Mumbai and Bengaluru for her India debut, this March. She performs her Edinburgh Comedy Awards-nominated Best Show, Janine Harouni: Man’oushe at NCPA and The Habitat in Mumbai, and at Jagriti in Bengaluru.
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Janine’s comedy journey with Soho Theatre started in 2018, when she attended one of Soho’s acclaimed Comedy Labs workshops. Here she met Soho Theatre’s Associate Director Adam Brace (1980-2023), who encouraged her to develop the short set she was working on into a full-length show.
This became Janine’s debut hour, Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated), directed by Adam, which premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (the Oscars of comedy). It subsequently received three sold out runs back in London at Soho Theatre, where it was also filmed for Soho Theatre Live, available on Prime Video and on British Airways in-flight entertainment.
Janine Harouni: Man’oushe premiered at the Edinburgh festival last year where it was nominated for Best Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. The show then played to sold-out audiences at Soho Theatre last December.
Bringing Janine to India is part of the Soho Theatre India cultural exchange – bringing some of the best Indian comedy to the UK, and UK and international comedy to India. This has included Mumbai runs for Shaparak Khorsandi, Nina Conti, Lauren Pattison, Ahir Shah and Olga Koch (who also performed in Bengaluru in January).
Over the years Soho Theatre, London’s leading producer of Indian comedy, working with artists of South Asian heritage from around the world, has also hosted a huge range of Indian performers at its London venue, and at other iconic venues in London and across the UK.
Last year alone, comedians included Zakir Khan at the Royal Albert Hall, Vir Das at the Eventim Apollo and Urooj Ashfaq at the Edinburgh Festival, who won Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards and returned to the UK in January and February 2024 for her hugely successful debut UK tour. Soho Theatre has just announced it will be bringing Kanan Gill to the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall this May, in association with UTA.
On making her India debut, Janine said:
“I’m so excited to be performing in (and visiting) India for the first time. And even more excited to be doing it with Soho Theatre who helped me grow from an insecure open mic comedian on their Soho Labs course in 2018 to an insecure professional comedian on my first international tour in 2024.
“And while I’m very sad to leave my Irish husband and son behind – there’s not enough sunscreen in the country to keep those two safe in India.”
Janine Harouni: Man’oushe
Janine Harouni thought she knew her family. Then she took a DNA test and things got messy. Her critically-acclaimed stand-up show explores Janine’s Arab roots, pregnancy, and what happens when a mail order DNA test does not go to plan.
Star of her own special on Amazon Prime Video and ITV2’s Buffering. Seen and heard on The Russell Howard Hour, The John Bishop Show, Comedians Giving Lectures, Question Team, The Stand Up Sketch Show and The Now Show.
Directed by Adam Brace and Jon Brittain.
★★★★ Telegraph
★★★★ List
★★★★ Fest
★★★★ Arts Desk
★★★★ Beyond the Joke
About Janine Harouni
Janine Harouni is a UK-based Lebanese-American comedian. One of The Guardian‘s ‘Ten Comedians to Watch in 2021,’ her critically acclaimed debut hour, Stand Up with Janine Harouni (Please Remain Seated), was recommended by critics at the New York Times and sold out across the UK and US before being filmed as a special for Amazon Prime UK.
As an actor, Janine appeared as Carla in the DC Comics film The Batman (Warner Bros). She also stars in the ITV2 sitcom Buffering, for which she served as a writer in series 2. She was a writer and performer for two seasons of ITV2’s sketch series The Emily Atack Show. Other appearances include: The Russell Howard Hour (Sky Max), Comedians Giving Lectures (Dave), Question Team (Dave), The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV2), Iain Stirling’s CelebAbility (ITV2), The John Bishop Show (ITV), and multiple appearances on The Now Show (BBC Radio 4).
Her stand up clips have been viewed 80 million times on social media and have gained her over half a million followers across TikTok and Instagram.