AFTER a two-year break from stand-up comedy, popular funnyman Afzal Khan (pictured) returns to the local stage in The Indian Comedy Kings this week.
Tonight caught up with the comedian and actor to find out what he’s been up to and found it has largely been TV and film projects that have kept him off the stage for a while – his last stand-up gig being his one-man show, Who’s Your Mamoo?, in 2010.
Khan said last year he was mainly busy shooting films.
His most recently released films were For Better For Worse and 31 Million Reasons. In 2011 he was kept on his toes with the SABC 1 series Fallen (which was repeated on SABC 3 last year).
“I have been planning for some time to bring back my one-man show Who’s Your Mamoo?. And stand-up comedy is my forte, so when I was asked to do The Indian Comedy Kings I said ‘yes’. I’m looking forward to being on the comedy stage again,” said Khan.
And with so much on the go, in his life and in general, Khan said the audience could expect some fresh material from him.
“I will talk a bit about the Africa Cup of Nations that is going on; then of course the world was supposed to end last year, so I have something to say about that. I also became a granddad and have a lot to share about that,” he smiled.
Having being involved in stand-up for so many years, and now appearing on The Indian Comedy Kings platform, we asked Khan about his thoughts on why comedy was such a popular and sustained genre in in the Indian community.
He said he didn’t think the love of comedy in the Indian community would ever hit a lull.
“But while niche comedy has its market, it is also important for comedians to aim to always be versatile in their material.”
Khan said he was looking forward to doing a lot more stand-up while he is in Durban.
Also featured in The Indian Comedy Kings line-up are popular comedy brothers Muthu and Sagie Murugan, who’ve been keeping audiences laughing for 30 years, and funnyman Neville Pillay.
• The Indian Comedy Kings takes place at Durban City Hall on Saturday at 8pm. Tickets: R100 from Computicket or Shoprite.