We were lucky to catch up with Mehr Juneja recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mehr, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

As a queer comedian of color, I always feel like i’m being mischaracterized and misunderstood.

Constantly, on stage and off it, I feel the pressure to flatten my experience for the white audience. I talked about this in the research paper I wrote, “Blank Papers and Perspectives: The Line Between Representation and Tokenization in Stand-up Comedy”, that won the Teague Melville Award in 2023. With my specific identity, I feel as though I am always performing on stage—if i talk about experience as a woman of color, I’m performing my race and gender; if I do not talk about it, I’m performing a protest. I feel the audience wonder, “when is she going to address the fact that she has an accent?” “when is she going to talk about it?”. It’s incredibly infuriating, and the root of it is that for most people, I am probably the first queer, female, Indian comic they have seen. For most people, they expect me to adhere to what they think I should act like.

The solution is simpler than I originally anticipated: if we had more diverse spaces, we would expose the audience to more diverse voices: hence, giving each voice room to be unique instead of flattening each experience and categorizing them according to race and identity. That was the root of the comedy production I started—Imposter Syndrome Comedy.

Mehr, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I heard, “write the movie you want to see”, which made me wonder what kind of live comedy event I would want to go to: something safe, something diverse, and something fun. That is, in simple words, the idea behind Imposter Syndrome Comedy. ISC is an independent comedy production that aims to give space to marginalized comics. We highlight queer, POC, female and non-binary perspectives in the comedy world.

I knew the LA comedy community lacked diversity, but what I didn’t realize is how much that community desired diversity. Very quickly, we started selling out venues, and had to move to bigger spaces. Established comedians like Joel Kim Booster, Aparna Nancherla, Zainab Johnson, Sheng Wang started headlining the show. It gained notoriety, and I started getting interviewed by magazines and newspapers, including newspapers in India, and the Daily Bruin—UCLA’s premier newspaper started in 1919.

I know that there is a need for diversity in entertainment—my aim was to take comedy a step in the right direction. I have been incredibly overwhelmed by the response I have gotten. I’m incredibly proud of our values, our mission, and the comedians we have in our network.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

A comedian came up to me after the Imposter Syndrome Comedy/Hollywood Fringe Festival on June 27, and told me that she was grateful for me. I didn’t know her too well—it was wonderful to hear. Then, she said “you’re a gift to the community. I’m so glad there’s a show I can bring people to without being scared that it’ll be offensive”.

The reception I’ve gotten from fellow comedians has to be the most rewarding part of this journey. People telling me I’m doing wonderful work, comedians coming to the shows they’re not even performing at just because they trust the lineup I put together, because they trust my decisions, they trust my production, has been the most rewarding part of this.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Everyone is a resource, and everyone is willing to help. That is what I wish I knew earlier. I can count on one hand the number of times I have asked someone for advice and they have not helped.

Everyone knows something that you don’t; everyone has a story to tell; everyone has had to learn after making mistakes, and you can learn from them too. Very early in college, I started emailing comedians and producers, and asking them for advice. And i absorbed knowledge, learned everything I could, and then I graduated college with more producing experience than I would have had if I didn’t ask questions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.instagram.com/mehrjuneja/?hl=en
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impostersyndromecomedy/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehr-juneja-3746871b1/