1 SANTOSH SANTOSH 2 GO: LIVE AT GRIND-CON! to Run at Toronto Fringe Festival
Srutika Sabu performs her solo show at Sweet Action Theatre, developed through Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist Srutika Sabu will bring her original solo show 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go: Live at Grind-Con! to the 2026 Toronto Fringe Festival from July 3 to July 12 at Sweet Action Theatre (180 Shaw St). Blending clown, drag king performance, satire, physical comedy and absurdist storytelling, the production follows self-proclaimed tech visionary and podcast bro Santosh Santosh, also known as TOSH, as he publicly unravels during a live appearance at his favourite LinkedIn influencer conference.
Developed through Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's Emerging Creators Unit in 2025, the show offers a sharp and timely commentary on hustle culture, online identity, Silicon Valley evangelism and South Asian masculinity. Through clown, drag and satire, 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go: Live at Grind-Con! examines the pressures of modern success culture and what happens when a carefully curated online persona begins to crack in public.
Hustle! Grind! Mindset! Standing at “5'9 with the ambition of 7'2,” Santosh Santosh is the host of the almost award-winning podcast Second-Hand Success, a proud second-hand Tesla owner and a relentless seeker of validation through LinkedIn thought leadership. Armed with 37 endorsements and one coveted heart reaction from a fan account of Sundar Pichai, Santosh is convinced he is on the brink of greatness until his carefully curated persona begins to crack in real time on stage.
Audiences can expect outrageous physical comedy montages set to Tamil music and Jpop, cringe-inducing motivational speaker energy, surreal ad breaks from a techno-feudalist future and surprisingly vulnerable moments beneath Santosh's bravado. At its core, the show follows a man confronting the realization that the idols he worships, including Elon Musk, may be false gods, and that his emotional attachment to his second-hand Tesla might not be the healthiest relationship in his life.
“Santosh is someone who has internalized model minority expectations and immigrant guilt so deeply that he's transformed himself into this hyper-online podcast bro completely obsessed with hustle culture, self-optimization and the idea of success at all costs,” says Srutika Sabu. “On the surface, the show is absurd, chaotic and deeply comedic, filled with clowning, awkward motivational speaker energy and ridiculous tech-bro jargon. But underneath it is someone desperately trying to feel worthy in a world constantly telling us we need to be more successful, productive and marketable versions of ourselves. I hope audiences laugh, cringe and maybe even recognize parts of themselves in Santosh's need for validation and performance of success.”
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