Abish Mathew: Bringing comedy back to live space an uphill battle, let the climb begin

New Delhi, Sep 18 One of the most recognised faces of Indian comedy, and the mind behind talk show 'Son of Abish', Abish Mathew says that COVID-19 forced a lot of creators to go completely digital and it will be difficult for the comedy industry to come back to the live space.

"Just like a pendulum, we went from a completely live experience to completely digital, doing web series, sketches and shows. Once again, live stand-up was appreciated more than the YouTube stand-up. After the COVID-19 hit, everyone took to the digital space. Coming back to the live arena is going to be different. What that means is, this pandemic will blend the digital and live in a hybrid space," Abish, who has hosted Amazon Prime Video's 'Comicstaan', told life.

Speaking about the impact of the ongoing pandemic on the comedy industry, he shared over the phone: "Before COVID-19, we were justifying ourselves by saying industry standards don't apply to us because we're artists. As soon as COVID-19 hit, we would see that immediately, everyone evolved. Nobody cribbed, nobody complained. A lot of people were forced to evolve into digital creation, and they have adapted to it really well. That's when I realised we're an industry."

Luckily, Abish's talk show had been going on for the last six years, and was easy to plug into the digital port because hundreds of viewers were anyway watching the edited version online. "The setback in the live industry was a lot, but thanks to Zoom or video conference platforms, it is recovering very slowly as well. It's like being back in 2009."

 

The show's seventh season, which was completely home-made, features Shruti Haasan, Kalki Koechlin, Asif Ali, Flying Beast aka Gaurav Taneja, Tanmay Bhat, Kanan Gill and Rahul Subramanian as guests in some of its episodes. Boman Irani and Anubhav Singh Bassi are upcoming guests on the show. While the content proves to be an engaging crowd-puller just like before, the setting of the show has transformed from a set to a video conferencing call.

On making of the seventh season, he says: "Pandemic had set in uncertainty about 'what we are going to do', and it has started growing. We were discussing possibilities and, I said, wait, why don't we do 'Son of Abish' ? And my friends and others were like, 'That's not a good idea'. I agreed. But, then they said, hold on, 'It's your show, you can do what you want. What's the worst that could happen? I would not get views.' I'd show people this was done at home, if it doesn't work. This time around it was a bunch of people, who had this attitude which can be summarised in five words: F*** it, let's do it."

"Everyone was doing this entire season for the first time, so there were no expectations, thus no stress. The only deadline was Friday 8 P.M. We, as artists, what we do is we keep editing, editing, adding, adding, colour correcting. You put that effort in movies. Here, the effort was to put out the best version you can. Otherwise, you keep working, and people don't like it, and your emotion is connected to it. 'Son of Abish' is my therapy."

 

The hit talk-show, has previously featured stars like Irrfan Khan, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Badshah, Vicky Kaushal, Abhay Deol, Radhika Apte, Vishal Dadlani, Vir Das, Jim Sarbh, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Kunal Kamra.

"'Son Of Abish' Picks is where we bring new talent and it is an explosive hit. The comments are overwhelmingly about them and a lot of artists are being recognised because of this. Bringing in international artists has expanded the reach of the show. Bringing a huge Pakistani Creator

 

( With inputs from IANS )