Remember that time when every comedian had a podcast? Every other day we would see someone on our feeds talking into a mic asking us to go check out the full episode. Then there was the era of crowd work, the reason why front rows at comedy shows are mostly deserted. “What do you do sir?” “Where do you live, maam?” It’s not like either of these have stopped completely. But there’s a new girl in town who every comic is courting and her name is format shows.
The latest comedian to enter the ring is Mohammed Hussain with One Minute Please. The comedian has been heavily inspired by the college game Just A Minute. For the uninitiated, it’s an impromptu, one-minute speaking competition. You get a topic and you’ve gotta wax eloquent for 60 seconds without a stutter, fumble or repetition. It was fun when we played it. It can only get better when comedians are at it.
Hussain has recorded one episode of the show earlier this year and is gearing up for round two on 31 January at Mumbai’s Khar Comedy Club. Why get into format shows? What’s the most challenging part about putting one together? Read on to know more.
Let’s start with the basics. What is the show about, and what can people expect from the format?
So the concept is very very not loosely based on this college game that I used to play growing up called JAM—Just A Minute. If you’ve participated in college festivals or things like that, you probably know what it is.
The only variation I’ve done is that, JAM in colleges is more innuendos and such. Here I’m trying to make it a little more fun with some depth. Also, in college it was all about winning objections and fighting with each other, which is great for a live audience but doesn’t really make great TV. So I’ve reduced the number of objections that participants can do so people have the space to actually speak for 10–15 seconds. If you’ve played JAM properly, very rarely does anyone speak for more than five or six seconds because you fumble, you stutter, you say something wrong. Here, the idea is to make it a little more fun.
You recorded an episode on 10 January. How did that go?
The panel was Sufi Motiwala, Zervaan Bunshah, Joel D’Souza and Sumaira Shaikh. It was a great panel, dude. Everyone had a great time. Zervaan had played this game properly in school and college, so it was a little unfair because the others were completely new. In fact, I feel like as the show went on, he started taking it a little less seriously because he realised the skill level was significantly different. That’s how the game works, to be honest. If you’re very good and the others don’t really know what they’re doing, it can very easily get one-sided. But overall the episode went really well, the audience had a great time, and the participants enjoyed it.
How often are you planning to release episodes online?
Right now, the plan is to shoot five episodes. I’m shooting the second one this weekend, and by mid-February we’ll start releasing. And as I release them I’ll be simultaneously recording more. By April I think I should be done. I’m thinking of it as a once-in-two-weeks type of schedule. There’ll obviously be a lot of cutdowns on Shorts and Reels, so it’ll live across platforms.
So are you treating this as a seasonal show?
Honestly, the reason I’m doing this is very simple—mere paas paisa nahi hai.
So, I’m investing in shooting five episodes and then I’ll see what happens. If someone bites, if someone comes on board who can help me shoot more content and increase the production value, great. If it’s just too much fun, then I’ll only keep investing and shoot five more or something. So we’ll see.
Right now, the first five episodes are me giving it my best shot and seeing if this thing has legs and potential to grow so I can do more episodes, put together interesting panels.
You’re already doing standup, scripted content on Instagram and working as a writer. Why add format show to the mix?
It’s all about trying honestly. Obviously, standup is my bread and butter. I work on other content. Living In Love is a series I’m really enjoying working on. I’ve wanted to do a panel show for a while. Sometime mid-last year, I was just like, I’ve been thinking about this for so long, I might as well do it. I’d rather do it and fail than never try. I don’t care about the result as much as giving it my best shot. It’s also a game I played a lot in college and I really loved. So it comes from there too. It’s too lovely for so few people to know about it.
Did all the things you do prior to this help you in being a better host and showrunner?
Absolutely. Writing for shows, events, standup, short form content…all that experience helps me with this show. It translates. It helps me understand the flow. It also helps that I’ve hosted a lot of things in college and as a comic. So the hosting aspect comes to me naturally.
Also, because the game is so spontaneous, there isn’t too much prep that can go into it. I obviously work on the topics for the rounds and write a couple of jokes for each panel member. I can’t just say, “And next we have the very funny Joel D’Souza,”—I have to say something. Even if it’s stupid.
Just to give you a quick understanding of the show flow—once the panel is introduced, we do a quick explainer of the game and a trial round. Then the show gets going. After that, the panel exits while we calculate scores, and I play a quick round with audience members. The idea is to show that this isn’t a game only for extremely funny people—it’s about whether you can speak coherently on a dime, and more importantly, how well you listen.
With all these aspects of the show considered, all my previous work definitely helps me. And this only makes me sharper as well on stage.
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
The biggest challenge honestly is to get four people to show up at the same time.
The first episode had some cancellations. People moved dates. Panels kept changing. I actually wanted to do like a couples episode. Two couples on the panel and me and Mariyam, who is also involved in the show. She’s keeping score and helping out in general. She gives her inputs. But [Gursimran] Khamba and Ismeet [Kohli] weren’t available, Viraj’s [Ghelani] wife wasn’t available. So I just got Vineeth [Srinivasan].
It’s important when you do a panel show to have a set of four friends who you can bank on to show up whenever. For me those people are Vineeth, Urjita [Wani] and [Mohammed] Anas. So if you see them on the panel, you should know that someone has cancelled. I actually want to do a panel with just my friends too. But I haven’t thought so far ahead.
Currently I have a little interest from a few very interesting people. But let’s see where it goes.
A few years ago, crowd work was all the rage. Now everyone has a format show. Why do you think that shift is happening?
Creating good quality standup at the scale that algorithms require is too difficult. It’s not sustainable. I know we’re standup comics but we’re competing with content creators. We can’t produce standup at the scale of content creators. So format shows are a happy medium. It allows us to create more content, collaborate, and stay visible.
This is my take, I haven’t discussed this with anyone, but what happens is content creators can collaborate with each other. It’s very difficult for comedians to do that because it’s such an individualistic art form. So format shows serve as a medium for us to come together and see where we can take things. We have to please the algorithm, but in a way that still makes sense for us.
Are there any format shows you’re personally enjoying right now?
I really like Madhur Model. It’s a little out there every time. Khamba’s new show (The Nation Wants To Guess) is also really fun to watch. Shout out to Rohan Desai and Aman Jotwani who write the show—incredible writers. I love that they’re also part of the show and bring that extra flavour. Rohan’s a good friend, I love his work. So it’s really nice to see him get more face time online.
Get your tickets for One Minute Please here.
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