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:
- I was working in hotel management but I did part time stand-up too, so I’d do my nine-to-six and then go for shows. I did it for three years, and by this time last year I was already generating enough income, almost as much as my salary.
- When I was a kid, I couldn’t stop reciting funny lines from movies. I’d be going up to my friends and say “Hey, have you seen this movie? No? Nevermind, I do it for you!” But stand-up is the craft of being funny, it’s no longer just about being funny. You have to iron the creases a bit, polish off the edges.
- In the beginning, I just went up there and (did) whatever comes to mind, even if it’s an Internet joke. I’d tell the audience I saw this joke on the Internet which was really funny and everyone would laugh. You’re not allowed to do that in stand-up. You have to write original stuff, and that’s one of the things that got me going, “Oh, this is a lot more harder than I thought.” But I could still do it.
- I had to do some weird gigs... (Once) I had to do my own intro. I had to go up there and say, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your stand-up comedy segment. Please welcome, Rizal Van Gayzel!”, and I had to drop the mic, go off, and then put on a hat and go on again, because they didn’t know I needed an intro. But that was five years ago... the culture is catching on, the scene is growing.
- The worst (experience) would have to be if I got arrested or somebody threw a knife at me. That hasn’t happened yet. But I’ve had bad rooms with a silent audience. I’ve done one o’clock shows after a golfing tournament!
- After these guys play 18 holes of golf, they sit down and have lunch and then have their award presentation for the game, but the thing is they put me on before the awards when everyone is just waiting for the results. I only had five people in the front who were listening to me and laughing, the rest of them were just eating and wanting to talk about their putts and their strokes.
- Obviously I have to be biased and say the best gigs are here, this (Crackhouse) is the most conducive room for stand-up you can ever find in Malaysia right now. But the best gigs as I say... are corporate shows. Some of them (comics) will outright say corporate gigs is where you sell your soul. I don’t quite agree. I think when you do a corporate show, it really puts your craft to the test. Yes, you have to be clean, you have to edit and all that, but it’s only because when you do a corporate show, 90 per cent of the people there have never heard stand-up.
- My biggest peeve... don’t look at your phone lah. It’s very distracting. Sometimes I’m like, “What are you doing? I cannot keep my jokes under 140 characters lah.” And just like other comics, don’t heckle, don’t tweet or FB while we’re on stage. You can (take pictures), but why? I’m selling my jokes, not my face. Hear the joke, it’s funny, after that take picture. Don’t miss out on the moments. You go to a show now, they’re not watching the show anymore. They’re watching the iPad.
- Don’t think, just do. A lot of them (who want to start doing stand-up) say, “Ya, I’ll write (some jokes) and come back.” No. Just say you are going to do it and then confirm a date. Once they confirm, they will go home and they will not stop thinking about it. It will fuel them.
- It’s a good practice for somebody like me who procrastinates a lot. I procrastinate like nobody’s business. “Tomorrow lah, tomorrow, tomorrow.” But when you confirm a slot on stand-up, you cannot say tomorrow. You better prepare, because otherwise you’re gonna go up there and be blank in front of 50 people and they are all going to just look at you. You want to avoid that. Just do it, like Nike.
