Niles Abston Wants to Level Up with His Sci-Fi Comedy 98 Honda

Comedian Niles Abston is no stranger to making his own opportunities. The LA-based stand-up put out his debut comedy special, Girls Don’t Twerk to Jokes, himself on his YouTube channel. Abston did the same with his hilarious sophomore hour household name, which was recently rereleased by 800 Pound Gorilla, as well as his short film Notice to Quit. His excellent DIY output got him recognized by Vulture, which listed Abston as a comedian to watch in 2022.

And so, when he felt himself stuck in a rut career-wise, Abston knew what to do.

“I just realized that I was not going to go to the next level unless I did it myself,” Abston tells me over Zoom, later clarifying, “As a Black comedian, that’s very much the world we live in, where [studio executives] don’t really understand why you’re funny, or how you’re funny. They just see the numbers, so they don’t really know where to put you. So you could get an opportunity here and there, but it’s not gonna really truly be fulfilling or what you want to do, because they just don’t really understand us. And so I was just like, if I’m going to star in a movie that I like, I’m probably gonna have to write it.”

The result is 98 Honda, a genre movie blending sci-fi and horror that is “a comedy at its core.” Abston’s script follows drug dealer Michael Pope (played by Abston himself) as he takes his girlfriend’s little cousin Shawn (Amir Carr) to see Spider-Man 2—although there’s more monsters at work than just the ones on the silver screen.

The feature length of 98 Honda has yet to be made, but director Christian Banda suggested they make a 15-minute proof of concept short to shop around and show at screenings. The Daily Show‘s Roy Wood Jr. (who Abston has opened for in the past) and Ronny Chieng are both attached as executive producers. Abston and the team he’s working with plan to submit the short to festivals with the aim of getting a production company attached so the full film can come to fruition. 

Hearing Abston speak about the project, his excitement is palpable. This isn’t his first creature feature foray; the opening animation for household name features a massive, bloodthirsty blue bird feasting on flesh and a TV-headed man fighting cartoon Abston against a fiery landscape. However, 98 Honda also takes inspiration from an unexpected source: Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age film Lady Bird. That movie, set in 2002 and 2003, opened Abston up to the idea of writing an early noughties period piece. 

98 Honda takes place in 2004, which Abston describes as one of his “favorite years” thanks to cultural moments like Kanye West’s The College Dropout and Spider-Man 2 (of course). Abston was only nine in 2004, and so Shawn is in a way a narrative counterpart to young Niles. 

“I want to make 98 Honda for the kids that sneak to go see movies like this, and they actually get scared,” Abston explains. He recounts seeing the 2005 King Kong in theaters with his dad and “this one shot where it’s on King Kong’s eyes, and it’s the scariest shit in the world if you’re a kid.”

Abston sings the praises of Amir Carr, the effervescent young actor they cast as Shawn. Carr appeared in Oscar-nominated film Rustin, and Abston says that “He’s the best actor in [98 Honda].”

“I really feel blessed to say I was able to work with him. I think he’s gonna be special,” Abston shares. Carr’s presence also meant that the short really did feel like a period piece, since life in 2004 felt pretty far away to the kid. 

“We were cracking up on set with [Carr’s] mom about how all the references and things in this film, he doesn’t even know what they mean,” Abston recalls. Later he adds, “And we would just start laughing because it’s like, oh, yeah, like, you always have an iPad in your hands and shit. You don’t know what it was like to just sit in the back of a car with nothing to do as a child.”

The rest of the cast includes Kelsey Fonise as Michael’s girlfriend, and a whole slew of Abston’s comedian friends: Corey Young, Darryl Reese, Khairy Creek, and Otto Fernandez. He enlisted Banda, who’d previously been a producer on The Daily Show, as director after the two had beers with Fernandez in New York, talking about their ambitions and desire to try something different. This is Banda’s first time directing, but that didn’t throw Abston.

“I saw this interview Issa Rae did where she said, like, instead of trying to go get people that have already done stuff and they’re big time, work laterally. Work with people who are excited to do it. And so my thing now is just like, if someone’s excited to do something, or they show an interest in it, I’m probably going to work with you, and then we’ll figure it out. Like skill issues, we can figure that out… One thing I can’t teach somebody is how to care about the project and how to want to be there and have the right attitude,” Abston explains. 

Besides 98 Honda, Abston is also looking forward to headlining at the Netflix Is A Joke Festival this May. 

“That was actually one of my goals this year. And that doesn’t really happen much when you write that you want something and it actually happens. So I’m trying to really be appreciative of it and cherish that,” Abston says. He’s excited about how many of his peers—he refers to them as “our class” who started out in the Los Angeles comedy scene around 2015 to 2017—are featured in the festival line-up as well, like Cooper Lyden. The festival is just the first stop for Abston, who has plans to go to Denver, possibly Chicago, and eventually New York to tape his third stand-up special. 

Needless to say, there’s no stopping Abston. He aspires to be like Adam Sandler or Jordan Peele, the type of creator who gets to work with their friends and whose cinematic style is instantly recognizable. The industry may be hostile to what he refers to as “hard comedy” movies at the moment, but Abston has a history of forging a path where there is none.