Introducing audiences to Zarna Garg’s comedy via two streaming specials, an NY Times best-selling memoir, a podcast, social media, and more.
“My whole life, people have been saying you’re funny,” recalled Zarna Garg. “But if you are an Indian person, what do you do with that? That means nothing to us. For instance, if you are good at math, you become an accountant. What do you do with funny?”
Lucky for audiences, Zarna figured it out and has become one of comedy’s hottest acts. On this episode, Zarna and her daughter Zoya chat with Karen Finerman about Zarna’s ascent in comedy and their plans to build a business around her hilarious persona.
Zarna Garg’s Journey: An Upbringing in India
Growing up as the youngest child in Mumbai, Zarna was opinionated. She recalls, “My entire childhood, my mom was like, ‘Please don’t talk. Please don’t talk’ because she was so nervous that everything I said was going to get me in trouble.”
Her father had opinions about young Zarna as well. She said, “My own dad, my whole life was like, ‘you should be this way. You should be that way…You know how many times my dad told me, ‘you should be taller,’ as if I had a hand in the matter!?”
Zarna’s mother passed away when she was 14, and shortly afterwards, her father was ready to set her up with an arranged marriage. Zarna ran away, bouncing between friends’ homes and navigating homelessness. Her older sister, then living in the United States, offered her a place to stay, but that would require a visa. Zarna applied for one, and she waited.
After a few years, her situation became untenable. So, Zarna returned to her father’s house and agreed to an arranged marriage. Remarkably, the very next day, a telegram arrived informing Zarna she had been granted a visa. Without telling her father, she left and immigrated to the United States.
From Stay-At-Home Mom to the Comedy Stage
Once stateside, Zarna studied law, but she was lonely. In her early 20s, she put an ad online for a husband, which read in part:
“I am on a mission to build a very successful life,
And you must be ready to go with me.
Only contact me if you want to get married.
(NO FRIENDS!)
Kindly include your most recent tax returns and medical records.”
It worked. Zarna and Shalabh Garg were married in 1998, moved to New York City, and have three children: Zoya, their oldest, and sons Brij and Veer. She stopped working in law (describing herself in her first comedy special as the “worst defense attorney ever”) and focused on raising her kids.
Zoya recalls, “I was her first project… And I say that with so much respect, but genuinely, there was no part of me that was accidental.”
Zarna also became a serial entrepreneur, launching several businesses, including selling vegan chili and even matchmaking.
“I don’t recommend that business to anybody,” Zarna says of matchmaking. The whole business is basically giving therapy to everybody. It’s like, ‘it’s not too late. It’s not too late.’ It’s too late! Sometimes it’s too late!”
But it took her then-16-year-old daughter Zoya to convince Zarna to take her self-described “nosey, overbearing Indian auntie” personality and give standup comedy a try.
When Zarna Garg took the microphone at her first open mic night in New York City, she had no prepared material. Instead, she simply began ranting about her mother-in-law. The handful of people in the audience were “falling off their chairs,” and Zoya remembers thinking: “There’s a business here.”
Zarna & Zoya: Building An Empire Together
Zoya was first hired by her mom to manage the pre-sale for her memoir: “This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir,” during her senior year at Stanford. Since graduating, she has worked full-time with her mom as co-founder of ZG Productions.
Now, Zoya handles everything from the family podcast to their word game “Grades with the Gargs.” Yet despite two comedy specials, a New York Times bestselling book, and a podcast, neither mother nor daughter is resting on their laurels. “If you knew the levels of stress,” Zoya says, “I feel like I wake up every morning, I’m like, ‘we’ve done nothing. We’ve done nothing!’”
Plus, Zoya says Zarna keeps moving the goalpost. “Every week I’m like, ‘Oh my God, we hit the number.’ Wait, no, no, no. We changed the number,” Zoya reports with exasperation.
But for Zarna, her business aspirations and work ethic are rooted in her experience as a teen dealing with homelessness. “A person who has lived with that type of financial insecurity, it never leaves you,” she says. She never thinks “I’ve made it,” but rather “what more can I do to learn one more skill?”
Zarna’s vision is audacious: she believes they’re building “a multi-billion-dollar business,” and she is up to the challenge.
“This is the most riveting phase of my life.” She adds, “I think the world is in such a scary spot right now that if you can wake up and add to the positivity and joy and the productivity of it, there’s just no bigger goal in my eyes.”
link