All in the family: Comedian Zarna Garg enlists husband, children for new podcast

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Zarna Garg can’t resist a good mother-in-law joke.

Maybe it’s because they are a major part of the New York-based comedian’s remarkable origin story. It has become part of the lore surrounding Garg, who was born in Bombay, ran away from home at 14 to escape an arranged marriage, and became a lawyer. She gave up practising law, got married and became a stay-at-home mom for nearly 20 years.

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It was at the urging of her teenage daughter that Garg decided to give stand-up comedy a go. After all, she told funny stories. How hard could it be? It was 2019 and while Zarg had written a comedic screenplay that took home a top prize at the Austin Film Festival, her experience in comedy was otherwise lacking. She had never been inside a comedy club up until that point. But her children convinced her she was funny and so she went to a comedy club for the first time during an open mic and was given half an hour to show her stuff. She didn’t really have material, per se. So she went with what she knew.

“The thing is, I discovered there is a big and vibrant audience for Indian mother-in-law jokes,” says Garg, in an interview with Postmedia from her home in New York. “I didn’t know enough to have stage fright, to be honest with you. The lady that ran that open mic encouraged me to go up there and talk about whatever I think is funny. I thought about a lot of things my mother-in-law said to me. So I just went with it without thinking twice. I’m really glad I was ignorant of what it should be, to be afraid up on stage. Because that vibe of just naturally showing up on stage and talking about life is also how I do it now. It’s much easier for me to not overthink it and to treat every show like a big, extended dinner party.”

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Five short years later, the mother-of-three has become one of the most buzzed-about comedians, making the rounds on late-night talk shows, opening for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on their national tour, starting a hit podcast that features her husband and children called the Zarna Garg Family Podcast, having profiles written about her in the New Yorker and New York Times and overseeing several productions in various stages of development. According to the New Yorker profile, she has more than two million followers on social media.

Garg will perform on opening night at the three-day Great Outdoors Comedy Festival on Friday at Prince’s Island Park. The evening will also include performances by Calgary-based comedian and This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Trent McClellan and headliner Russell Peters. Garg calls Peters the “OG of Indian comics” and the two share not only a similar background but a penchant for mining their own family and the vagaries of immigrant life. Still, Garg says she considers her material to be universal.

“You don’t have to be of my culture to know there are inappropriate people in everybody’s life who say crazy things,” she says. “They don’t have to be Indian or even have a mother-in-law, we all have that friend or neighbour or uncle or aunt or whoever that randomly blurts out completely inappropriate things and thinks it is totally OK to do it.”

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While this may all sound off-the-cuff, part of Garg’s reputation in the comedy world revolves around her savvy approach to the business. Part of that is keeping very busy. She has an active social media presence, is often touring and continues to write projects for herself. In 2023, she not only launched the podcast but also produced the comedy special One in a Billion for Amazon Prime.

“These things evolve one thing at a time,” she says. “Once I understood what stand-up comedy was, I hung out with comics, learned what they are doing. I’m immersed in that world of entertainment in the comedy format. Now that I’m in it, I’m very attuned to what’s going on in the digital space. It’s very interesting, once you decide you want to do something, you start learning before you even know you’re learning.”

Given that it was her children who convinced Garg that she was funny enough to make money at comedy, it’s perhaps not surprising they have remained supportive as her career took off, as has her husband. All are willing and enthusiastic participants in the family podcast.

“I think when they first started they were a little nervous,” Garg says. “They weren’t sure what they were getting into. But as we travel everywhere people are extremely happy and excited to mention that they watch our podcast and it’s so entertaining and therapeutic for them to hear their stories. The more that they meet people like that, the more they understand the reality and gravity of what they are doing. I already knew it, but they came along with the spirit of ‘let’s help mom out.’ It evolved from there.”

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Her husband has a similar view. He worked in finance while Garg was a stay-at-home mom who supported his business for nearly 20 years. “So he came into it with ‘What can I do to be supportive of your ambitions.’ No one expected it to become what it became, to be honest with you. No one really thought, ‘Oh my God, this is going to take off in such a big way.’ Each show felt like ‘OK, I’m sure this is the last show. Who’s going to come after this one?’ And then it just grew and grew.”

The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival runs from Friday to Sunday at Prince’s Island Park. Friday will feature Russell Peters, Zarna Garg and Trent McClellan. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. There are two shows on Saturday featuring headliner Tom Segura. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Sunday show features headliner Iliza Schlesinger. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Visit greatoutdoorscomedyfestival.com.

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