As a kid, Abish Mathew loved to perform on stage; making people laugh came naturally to him. On Friday evening, he did precisely that at the Mini Cooper event in front of an enthusiastic crowd. He cracked people up with anecdotes on politics, cricket and his experiences of living in Mumbai and Delhi.
Talking about his first performance in Hyderabad, he says, “The first time I performed in Hyderabad was for a bunch of these young guys who wanted to get comedians and booked an open air venue and we came and performed. It was super fun but the electricity went in the middle of the show. So I made the audience take out their cell phones and hold it up like flashlights and it lit up the entire stage. It started off as a joke and then the audiences went like ‘Wow, how did you think of this? And I was like ‘Now I need to play the smart card’.”
Abish also talked fondly about the National Fisheries Development Board building “Every time I cross the fish building on the airport highway, I take a photo with it. It’s an amazing building; if this was in Switzerland, people would be raving about it. In India, it becomes a joke. I think it’s iconic.”
Speaking about the difference in the audience reactions between North and South, he says, “There is a huge difference. A lot of people have set ups in English and some references in Hindi, that works well in North. But for example, in Chennai and Cochin, those references won’t work well, because though they get Hindi, but maybe won’t understand it so well.”
Talking about his YouTube fame and the revenue model, he says, “As far as YouTube is concerned, it particularly won’t pay you as much to keep you afloat, because you earn on per clicks ratio. But if you look at it as a marketing engine, then certain brands will come to you and say, ‘Hey we want to associate with you’. So it helps you make money like that.”
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