‘You know Huis-genoot, right? Yeah, the other day I picked up a Huis-genoot and thought: ‘tjo, this is so YOU’.”
That is the kind of humour that makes Yaseen Barnes, who keeps a straight face throughout his stand-up comedy routines, literally LOL.
The up-and-coming comedian will perform before Deep Fried Man, Oliver Booth and MC, Mel Jones, at the Cape Town Comedy Club until Sunday. Expect to hear jokes like the one above as well as much shorter ones from Barnes who has been labelled a future king of the one-liner.
“The simplicity of a joke is the beauty of it,” he shares, “that’s what gets me. That’s why I do comedy.”
Barnes first discovered that he had a penchant for witty one-liners in school when he would tack a sentence onto a peer’s longwinded story.
“They’d call me ‘Bad Jokes Yaseen’,” he explains, “but I’ve got a simple mind. Writing short jokes is easy for me because I think in short bits.”
That’s why Barnes can describe Twitter as finding a “home” for his material because one must be succinct on the social network.
With the likes of Roni Modimola locally and even Jimmy Carr internationally, flying the flag of short, dry humour, this style definitely has a market.
“It’s basically just my thoughts,” says Barnes. “I’m sharing with the world all the stupid thoughts. One-liners are the shortest form of jokes that I choose to tell. You have to let the joke speak for itself, without any running around on stage or even emotion.”
This is the same style that has seen Barnes named a joint winner of the Good Hope FM Last Laugh. Barnes and fellow comedian, Stuart Barnes, drove to the competition together and were pleasantly surprised when they were both named winners last year.
“Everyone who was in my round was someone I have worked with so I had to beat my friends,” he laughs.
“The prize was to perform at the Jive Funny Festival which is one of the biggest stages,” Barnes excitedly says, “so for me to perform alongside people like Marc Lottering was amazing. And for them to say they like some of my stuff was cool. I fan-girled every night!”
Now that he is a frequently-booked comedian, he might get to fan-girl more often. But he insists that comedy lovers should be checking for the unknown artists as well.
“South Africa must go and watch local comedy,” he says. “Sometimes there will be people you don’t know on the line-up who are amazing. And the Cape Comedy Club is amazing because there’s only one big headliner and other guys who may not be as well known, but hilarious. We just want to make people laugh.”
l Catch Yaseen Barnes at the Cape Town Comedy Club at The Pumphouse, V&A Waterfront from tonight until Sunday. Tickets are priced from R95.