Desi After Dark! Stand Up Comedy – Sonal Aggarwal, Vik Pandya and Hari Rao – Glenview, IL

Academy After Hours invites you to a delightful night of hilarious Asian-American stand up — starring hilarious comics headliner Sonal Aggarwal, featuring Vik Pandya and Hari Rao

Seen on national stages ranging from the NBC Showcase to Zanies and The Laugh Factory, this is your chance to spend an evening with some of the freshest and funniest voices in the Desi community.

So, call the sitter, drop a bottle of BYOB in your Birkin, and head over to The Laughing Academy to find out A) how to properly pronounce “Desi,” and B) why laughter knows no cultural boundaries!

ACADEMY AFTER HOURS is The Laughing Academy’s grown-ups-only late-night performance series, bringing the best of Chicago comedy right to YOU in the ‘burbs!

Sonal Aggarwal – Former international street performer turned emcee, Sonal Aggarwal has brought her talents to Chicago as an actor, comedian, producer and movement artist. Her one woman show The Alchemy of Bliss played for a sold out weekend at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and you can see her on Netflix’s Easy as well as the short A Period Piece which debuted at SXSW 2020. She is a regular host of the Moth.

Vik Pandya– Vik Pandya is a nationally touring stand up comic based in Chicago. Known for his sharp self-deprecation, observational humor on dating, & hilarious crowd work, his comedy album ‘Friends With 401(k) Benefits’ debuted #1 on iTunes / Top 10 on the Billboard Charts. Vik’s Dry Bar Comedy special ‘No Refunds’ hit Top 10 on the platform, and his Only Fans TV special is now streaming. Vik has opened for Trevor Wallace, Roy Wood Jr., & Michelle Wolf and performs regularly at Zanies Comedy Club, The Laugh Factory, & The Improv in Chicago. He’s been featured in 19 comedy festivals across the country including: San Francisco’s Sketchfest, NBC’s Breakout Fest, & the SLO Comedy Fest. He’s also a regular opener for international acts like Vir Das, Zakir Khan & Atul Khatri. Vik’s comedy has appeared in Vulture, the Chicago Sun Times, & the Chicago Tribune. Follow him on IG / twitter @vikpandya and TikTok @vik_pandya

Hari Rao – Comedian. Musician. Proficient in Microsoft Excel. Hari Rao’s comedy draws upon 45 years of life experience to highlight the peculiarities of everyday living that we simply accept as given, as well as dissecting his own personal experiences that can best be described as “are you being serious??”. His adventure in standup began in 2017 while his experience in entertainment spans two decades as a recording artist, a reoccurring theme in his comedy (the song “Rewind” by his band I Fight Dragons can be heard as the theme song to ABC’s “The Goldbergs”). A clean(ish) comic with a tinge of absurdity, Hari has a broad appeal and has opened for a wide range of comedy club favorites including Jake Johannsen, Sam Morril, and Chris Kattan. Hari is a regularly featured performer at Zanies Comedy Clubs in Chicago.