Comedian Abish Mathew comes up with home-made avatar of 'Son of Abish'

He added that “currently one thing that is common around the world is everyone has a lot of time in hand. No travel, everyone’s mostly home. So, this time we thought instead of reaching out to people who are geographically blocked because in previous seasons we were getting people who were in proximity to the studio. But now we tell people we need an hour and a half of your time.”

In the seventh season, expect guests like Indian-American rapper Utkarsh who was also a part of Hollywood venture Pitch Perfect and rapper Raftaar.

“We spoke to Utkarsh on how they are not considered fully American there and fully Indian here and the struggle they face. With Raftaar, we spoke about influencers of HipHop which is different for Utkarsh. So, Indian HipHop is energetic and upbeat because we are not jaded with HipHop but in America people are jaded with HipHop. So, artistes are trying to breakthrough,” he said.

While the guest list seems interesting, what about the production process which had to be done remotely this time?

According to Mathew, work from home and producing the show remotely has been both economical and productive.

“This (remote production) is way better. I don’t need to get them (the team) in a same room and think of ideas. It is exhausting to think of ideas. Ideas come to you when you are doing the dishes, showering and when you are not on the phone. This has been way more productive,” he said.

But managing audience looked like a challenge in the beginning which Mathew and his team have overcome.

“I didn’t want to do the show without the live audience. But managing 50 people online was a challenge. So, we did episode zero and the guests were friends of mine. After the five tapings, I think it was a good gamble,” he added.

For comedians, time is tough as live events industry has been hit hard due to the pandemic. But there is no stopping them as many comics have taken the virtual route to reconnect with their audience.

“Right now, everyone is in a recreating space. Before the outbreak, we (artistes) were thinking of new ventures but this has brought us back to rebuilding everything again. And we are rebuilding faster,” said Mathew.

Calling the current time as corona live, he said that “artistes have gone smarter and they are back on social media because our third wave is going to be social media where you will see breakout artiste, shows, formats coming up because streaming is picking up, live shows are picking up.”

A YouTube hit, Son of Abish was also picked up by Disney+Hotstar. However, Mathew thinks that “OTT which has been a game changer for comedy genre and did a good job in setting the comedy industry stronger, currently holds less value because we know production will take time depending on the government mandate.”

On YouTube, the first season of Son of Abish had 71,017 views which increased to 1.42 lakh views in the second season. And by season three, the views had more than doubled to 1.95 lakh.

Talking about the idea behind the show and how everything started, Mathew said that he wanted to perform every day. “So, I was recording, editing and putting up the content on YouTube. Then I was thinking of how to market a show.”

Here, OML, an Indian artiste and event management company played a role in scaling up the show.

“OML comes in to help monetize the show in multiple ways. Every year Abish has a larger vision for the show and we make sure that we can monetize it to a scale so that we can achieve Abish's vision. Over the years, we've had platforms pick up seasons, we've had multiple sponsors participate in some of the seasons and we've also syndicated past seasons of Son of Abish onto various OTT platforms,” said Dhruv Sheth, COO, OML.

For season seven, Sheth said that they are in advanced talks with sponsors.

“We've had various brands like FastTrack, 5 Star and so on in previous seasons coming on board. We have also had one season done as a Hotstar (now Disney+Hotstar) exclusive show. The show has an established and growing fan base since it began. It fills the void of a late-night style talk show and Abish's personality on the show brings out conversations from guests that are hard to find anywhere else,” added Sheth.

While the comedy space is growing, it is not easy being a comedian in India with all the social media backlash and intolerance for a lot of their content. But Mathew seems confident even in this aspect.

“My body of work is parental approved but it is not parentally liked. So, it is approved by parents but my parents would not necessarily like it because it is edgy or they don’t get the references. So, there is very little that one can put me in trouble for. Before comedy I was doing radio. In fact, three years of live radio so I get sensitivity and things we need to stay away from.”

With Son of Abish, Mathew has his hands full especially with the reinvention strategy.

“I have a policy for this season. After every four episodes, we will reinvent and add few things remove few things. While, Son of Abish has been an 8-episode season, currently it can become anything as our ambitions are high,” he said.

Even in his busy schedule, the comedian leaves no chance of cathing up with what his peers are doing and suggested an interesting show. “Grin revolution. It is a concept show by Rohan Desai and Shreemayee Das who are the producers. It is a low scale live show with 25-30 people. Incredible concept. Comedians can be themselves on this show. If there is time, I am excited to do this show. I will squeeze in time to do this show,” he said.