Day 2 of the Under 25 SUMMIT, 2019 turned out to be a clincher with a wide spectrum of discussions on topics of love, social media platforms, music, photography along with some serious deliberations on questions of life and mental health too!
One of the most awaited panels was, of course, of Abish Mathew, JordIndian and Srishti Dixit on the topic of ‘Indian Comedy vs. The World’. The panel discussion, moderated by Anto Philip, was a crowd-pleaser with punches coming from the panel left, right and center. The tongue-in-cheek humor and impromptu titbits of the unconventional pairing of Abish Mathew and Vineet Kumar (the Indian of JordIndian!) kept the audience in splits for the entire session.
When the panel was asked about the different platforms of comedy, Abish conceded that he loved doing stand-ups when compared to comedy sketches as he loves the feeling of going back onto the stage. There was also discussion on the use of music in comedy sketches, while Abish thought that he creates the visuals first and then thinks about the song, JordIndian process involved getting the feel of the music initially and then working on the visuals and the video.
When the moderator put forth the question about the comedy space in India in comparison of the world. Abish pointed out the myopic scope American comedy being referenced as world comedy. However, he did concede that America has had greater time for a cultural shift and hence has a better comedy space compared to India which in contrast has been independent for only 70 odd years. The panel agreed on the fact that it was incorrect to compare Indian comedy and the International comedy, when most Indians relate to American Shows like ‘FRIENDS’, ‘HIMYM’ as reference points for comedies. However, the panel reiterated that the Indian comedy space was in good hands and the future certainly looked bright.
However, the best part of the discussion was at the last, when the panel was asked for an impromptu gig of rap and beat-boxing by the audience. The ever-effusive Abish joined Vineet Kumar complimented by Vineet Vincent to create an array of beats while the other panelists rapped! The session ended with a southern rendition of beats! When in South, be a Southerner!