Budapest’s Hot Paprika Comedy team stages English-language stand-up fundraiser for Ukraine

“The comedy scene in Budapest is totally multicultural,” says Rupert Slade, a fiftysomething former UK ad exec and long-term Budapest resident now putting all his energy into Hot Paprika.

The Stand-Up Comedy Fundraiser for Ukraine takes place from 7.30pm tomorrow night, Friday 11 March, at the Manyi – Kulturális Műhely on the Buda side of Margaret Bridge. The suggested donation is 1,500 forints, cash-only.

“This event is only possible thanks to the co-operation of everybody on the local comedy scene, the kind folk at Manyi, our photographers and our amazing volunteers,” says the other half of Hot Paprika, Tauseef Parvez, a young Economics student from Bangladesh.

“Comedy has brought us all together to collectively make this event possible. Humour smashes barriers and our nights bring the most diverse groups of people together. Rupert and I come from completely different worlds, but that is what is so great about Hot Paprika. We share more than what divides us.”

Since forming in January, and with Budapest now buzzing after the pandemic, Hot Paprika have put on six comedy nights a month, four at Australian bar Down Under and two at the EASY Art Space on Széll Kálmán tér.

Rupert is keen to point out that theirs is a grass-roots operation, aimed at raising the level of English-language comedy across the board in Budapest:

Rupert describes stand-up as an “adventure sport for the ego”. He himself is going back to his roots, having done performance poetry in London in the 1980s before moving into advertising: “I started off not being very good, then learned how to survive on most stages. The good get very good very quickly, the not so good tend to disappear".

Rupert estimates that there are probably around 100,000 people in Budapest who live and work in English, including the many students such as Tauseef.


“Everyone is in the same boat and keen to find entertainment in a common language. Humour unites.”

His partner-in-comedy Tauseef is equally enthusiastic, underlining the importance of Friday night’s event: “I didn’t expect that a hobby would turn into a project I am deeply passionate about. Being comparatively newer to the comedy scene, I never imagined being able to pull off something of this scale”.

Uppermost in everyone’s minds, of course, is Ukraine.

“Coming from a third-world country, I know what hardship looks like,” says Tauseef. “No one deserves to suffer through no fault of their own. It is an honour to be able to have the opportunity to do something good for the brave Ukrainian people.”