Zarna Garg has achieved in a lifetime what most entertainers can only hope for.
She is a stand-up comedienne with sold-out shows and two streamer specials under her belt. She is also a writer, the author of a New York Times best-seller (This American Woman: One-In-A-Billion Memoir), a producer, an actress and above all, a mother of three.
Despite these accomplishments, the 51-year-old still can’t say “no”.
“In life, theoretically, we should be able to say no, and not have to explain ourselves. But, we cannot help it,” Zarna said. “Someone can ask me the most ridiculous thing, and I will be like, okay sure. I will do it.”
This premise is wryly examined in her new special, Million Dollar Excuses, as part of her international tour, where she will perform around 50 shows across 11 countries over five months.
Due to overwhelming demand, a second show was added to her Singapore tour date with a handful of tickets left. Indian standup comedienne and actress Adithi Mittal will open the two shows, which will be held in The Theatre at Mediacorp on Aug 1.
“She (Adithi) is a legend who actually pioneered comedy for women in India, and we are very good friends,” Zarna said. “I requested her, and she was kind enough to join our show.”
There will be a crowd work segment, so that no two live shows feel the same.
“When I travel, I also like to customise to where I’m going to, so there’s going to be some jokes about Singapore life,” she added.
With a 75-minute runtime, the show will attempt to overturn the gendered expectations and prejudices in community-based cultures that make it more difficult for women to say “no”.
“It might just be a family dinner that you don’t want to show up to for whatever reason. How do you get out of it without hurting anybody’s feelings or killing the relationship?” she said.
Audiences can expect a deluge of excuses and practical solutions to getting out of socially awkward scenarios, delivered through Zarna’s sharp wit and New Yorker-style punchlines.
The booked-out comedienne has herself had to turn down invitations to many social events, as she is on a stage almost every night of the year somewhere.
“As somebody who’s been doing this for a few years, and who’s really committed to my business and building my career, I have to say no a lot,” she explained. “And as I’m dealing with it, I’m writing material about it.”
Rooted in observational humour, her material takes inspiration from whatever is going in her life at the moment.
Her first two specials, One in a Billion (2023) and Practical People Win (2025), poked fun at the tension between modern American family dynamics and Indian immigrant parenthood.
“I don’t know if it’s a gift or a curse, but my eyes can find the funny, even in the craziest of situations,” Zarna said.
She cited a moment from her childhood, where the family had attended a big wedding with all her relatives in tow. The next day, they were informed that an uncle, who looked fine the night before, had passed away.
Everyone was shaken up by the news.
Except a 10-year-old Zarna, who said aloud that “at least he ate well before he went.”
“I saw him eat four desserts!” she quipped.
Her mother told her to be quiet, always pleading with Zarna to not say anything.
“I used to think, is my brain broken? Why am I not seeing these people crying, and instead remembering the gulab jamun that the uncle was eating,” she recounted.
To her nearly two million followers on Instagram and those who could use a bit more optimism in an increasingly turbulent global environment, Zarna’s “funny eyes” is a gift.
She had a strained relationship with her father and lost both her parents early in life, which she realised is a shared common experience for a lot of people in her audience.
“We have to bring humour into the moment, because you have to be able to laugh at hard things,” Zarna said. “Otherwise, life gets very heavy very fast.”
This grounded perspective extends to her motivations for the tour, which is to connect with her fans face-to-face.
Having launched her professional comedy career in 2020, the comedienne’s rise to fame can be attributed to her well-established online presence.
“Many people know me from social media, and I know them. The same people will comment or write in, so there’s a little bit of a social relationship,” Zarna said. “And I’m excited to meet them in person.”
Her three children will also be present for the Singapore shows to meet and mingle with the audience. “We create a show that feels like a family affair, because to us, it is,” she added.
