Melbourne Comedy Festival is back this March and bringing with it a wealth of very funny people including Maitreyi Karanth, who will be jetting in from Hong Kong for her two week run at Ballers in Melbourne’s CBD. Not only is Maitreyi funny, she’s also very very accomplished! She’s a winner of AmCham’s Women of Influence Award 2025, Leading Woman in Arts, Sports, and Leisure and was a TEDx speaker in 2021 with her talk “Age is not just a number, it’s a journey”. We were lucky to grab five minutes with Maitreyi to find out what we can expect this comedy festival from her show.
Congratulations on your Australian debut for your show MATRIARCHY! How does this show differ to your last? Maitriarchy is a powerful play on my name, Maitreyi, and my role as a Matriarch of Hong Kong comedy. The title carries real significance: this show marked the first time a female comedian in Hong Kong performed a full one hour show in a 400 seater theatre. It wasn’t just another performance — it was a milestone. Maitriarchy represents growth, visibility, and the rise of women in Hong Kong’s comedy landscape. It wasn’t just a show — it was proof of how far things have grown, how far I’ve grown, and that women in comedy here aren’t just part of the scene…
We’re headlining it.
Your show MATRIARCHY touches on age being just a number, can you give us a glimpse into what sounds like a globe trotting lifestyle? When you travel as much as I do and meet people from every possible culture, you end up with a very fresh outlook on life. Fresh… or confused. Depends on the day. But you definitely stay updated with the fast changing world — mostly because the world does not care if you’re tired. And then there’s my “young company” — the comedians in their thirties who go to bed at 2 am because they are, wait for it…. “too old”. While I am dancing in front of a live band singing to Justin Beiber (or is that old now) at 5 in the morning! The goof-ups, the slang I pretend to understand, the young people chatter, me trying to hang with my age group and theirs… and failing at both. I’m basically a full-time cultural exchange program — with jet lag and jokes.
You’re an expat Indian now living in Hong Kong, how did that happen? Oh, I just followed my husband. We moved from Mumbai to Bahrain in 1992 and then to Hong Kong in 2000. As simple as that.
And how did this lead you into comedy? Comedy was never on my radar. Not even in the same galaxy. My childhood dream was to be an actress… but life took me in other directions. My father passed away when I was nine, we had exactly zero money in our bank account. My mother was blind, and in India at that time, being a fatherless girl during those in India, you were not encouraged to do anything adventurous. So I studied. I collected degrees like Pokémon: BSc in Mathematics, MBA, PGCE… Got married, moved abroad, lived the “good sensible life.” Then I turned 40, and something switched — probably a hormone, but let’s call it destiny.I realised that I have outlived my father, but I have not done anything with all the talents he passed on to me …with that epiphamy, I closed my tutoring business, and I dove into acting. I even got an acting diploma. And then I discovered that in that industry I was too fat, too old, and too outdated! And THEN — by pure coincidence — I discovered live stand-up comedy. In comedy, being too fat, too old, and too outdated is a superpower!
You are already very successful as a philanthropist and public speaker, how do you bring those things together as a comedian? When I started my charity, Koma Karanth Foundation, I funded the entire thing with money I earned from comedy. To put it into perspective: the proceeds from one of my one woman shows were enough to build an entire home in the Philippines. Thankfully, the comedy club owner donated the venue as his act of charity, which meant every cent from the show went directly toward building a home for a family in need. I genuinely feel lucky that I can use something I love — and something I’m good at — to create real, tangible impact. Now that my charity has yearly donors and we are stable, I also organise fundraiser shows for other charities, because honestly, if my jokes can help raise walls, roofs, and hope… then that’s the best use of my talent I can think of.
Tell us a bit about the KOMA KARANTH FOUNDATION that you founded. KOMA KARANTH FOUNDATION builds homes for impoverished families in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. But our work doesn’t stop at housing — we believe in supporting communities in every way we can. We sponsor students through college, provide daily lunch for tribal children at school, and arrange transportation to ensure they can attend classes safely. We run a tutoring center to help them with their studies, and we create small businesses for single mothers so they can support their families with dignity and independence. We build communities one home at a time.
You performed in Sydney last year, how are Australian audiences different to Hong Kong? Like music and food, comedy is a universal language. Life is ridiculous everywhere, and making fun of life is even more universal. Everyone appreciates a good laugh, and my style of comedy is uncomplicated, unpretentious, and very direct. Straightforward English — no fancy metaphors, no poetic monologues… Of course, I had to tweak a few things. I removed the Hong Kong-specific jokes and added some Aussie flavour. Like how you people call slippers thongs — which, where I come from, is a completely different item of clothing. And of course, all the dead kangaroos I saw on the roadside. Nobody warns you about how casual Australia is about that. Sydney is multicultural, Melbourne is even more multicultural, and my comedy is basically a travelling UN meeting with punchlines — so it all blended in pretty smoothly.
What can audiences expect from Matriarchy? Anything else you’d like to add about your show? Of course, I can only hope they enjoyed my puns and my storytelling. But honestly, beyond the laughter, what I really want is for people to walk out thinking,
“Wow… comedy is powerful. Laughter is powerful. And apparently this woman onstage is even more powerful because she’s clearly running her own life.” Empowerment irrespective of gender… with a side of unhinged joy.
You can catch Maitreyi Karanth at Ballers in Melbourne’s CBD from Tuesday April to Sunday 19th April, tickets on sale now from here.
