KUCHING: Harith Iskander is living up to his reputation as the Godfather of Malaysia stand-up comedy and Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World 2016 when he performed to a packed audience at Pullman Hotel here on Wednesday night.
About 1,000 people attended the event which was part of his Celcom Harith Iskander’s #KitaOK Live Comedy Tour 2018.
Prior to Harith’s live comedy show, the audience were entertained by two comedians, Muzakir and Prakash Daniel.
Harith’s tour started in Kuala Lumpur and he went on to Johor, Melaka, Penang and Kuching before moving on to Kota Kinabalu and Labuan.
The tickets to the live comedy show were sold at RM58, RM98, RM198 and RM258.
Speaking at a press conference before the show, Harith said that the tickets for all four venues were all sold out. For the first show in Kuala Lumpur, there were 1,200 people, Johor another 1,000 people, Melaka about 800 people and Penang another 1,200 people.
“So far the response has been really good,” he added.
Harith revealed that he has been performing overseas and most people or a lot of people did not know much about Malaysia.
He added that for this tour, he wanted to make everyone in one room laugh together.
“There must be something that connects us all despite having different requirements, needs and ideas about who we are, so the show is basically about everyone.
“My inspiration is basically about Malaysians laughing together and unite through that,” he said.
Harith added that Sarawak has its own distinctiveness and is a huge state and he wished that he could go to every place and other big cities in Sarawak to perform.
He said that by being Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World 2016, it was an opportunity for him to promote Malaysia.
“Most Americans or even Asians don’t know much about Malaysia. So, this is a chance to highlight the country to those people out there,” he added.
On the growth of stand-up comedy in the country, Harith stated that the number of young comedians has been rising.
“When I started 26 or 27 years ago, I was alone but 10 or 11 years ago, a new batch of comedians have started to come up.
“Since then, especially in Kuala Lumpur, there are a lot of young comedians trying to come up.
“In Kuching, I don’t think you have that many stand-up comedy shows and I hope that will change by bringing up more stand-up comedians,” he said.
He also revealed that he would be starting a stand-up comedian club in Kuala Lumpur in April and hoped to extend it to East Malaysia once it became successful.
He advised young stand-up comedians to not be restricted to performing in one place in one city and go out to explore the differences not just in the country but also other countries so that the audience would know the authenticity of the performance.
“If you pretend to be someone else, no matter how funny your jokes are, they will not enjoy it. So stand-up comedy is about authenticity,” he emphasised, adding that they should not give up and continue to try.
Harith said that from the response so far, he might try to do the tour at least once a year with different topics and moods.
He revealed that contrary to his performance on stage, it was his children who made him laugh at home.
“My kids do not enjoy the stand-up comedy that I do on stage. At home it is all about them and they make me laugh. My little girl is very tomboy and yet she wears pink skirts and she likes to tie her hair but she is very good at fighting. And my youngest son says funny things all the time. So they make me laugh. And at home I don’t make them laugh. They don’t think I am very funny,” he said.
