KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — Once dubbed “the future of Malaysian comedy”, Rizal Van Geyzel is now living the dream, earning a living doing what he loves doing the most — making people laugh.

He had been dabbling in stand-up comedy, having done corporate gigs, as well as local and overseas shows before the self-anointed slacker took the plunge a year ago and became a full-time stand-up comic.

Most recently, he teamed up with laugh guru and veteran Australian comic Jonathan Atherton and friend Shanker Santhiram to open the Crackhouse Comedy Club, possibly the first-ever venue in Southeast Asia meant exclusively for stand-up comedy.

And though he repeatedly claims that he tries to sleep in till noon as often as he can, Rizal has been quite the jet setter, having covered the gamut of English stand-up comedy in the region over the past four years.

If he isn’t running a show at the Crackhouse, or other comedy events in his home city, the funny man will probably be sharing his Malaysian brand of humour in other regional cities, having performed at the Singapore Comedy Fringe 2014, the United in Laughter show in the Philippines last year and the 2012 TakeOut Comedy in Hong Kong, to name a few.

Rizal talks about how he got started in the comedy business.

In his own words: