PETALING JAYA: Comedian Prakash Daniel is excited about the inaugural PJ Comedy Fest at DeStage @ Jaya One from July 29 to Aug 2.
The five-day multilingual comedy festival is presented by DeStage in collaboration with Kam Productions.
Prakash is one-third of the comedy trio The Good, The Bad & The Funny, alongside Brian Tan and Keren Bala Devan. The trio will perform on July 31 at 8.30pm.
“It’s good to have a festival like this because it helps people understand what comedy is. From an exposure point of view, it’s very important,” said Prakash.
“The tickets are also affordable, so younger audiences can come. Just as happened with the independent music scene, festivals like this give emerging performers a platform. Instead of performing only in comedy clubs, newer comedians can perform here as well.”
By “here”, Prakash was referring to the newly refurbished DeStage @ Jaya One, formerly known as The Square.
Tan said that although stand-up comedy has been around in Malaysia for almost two decades, it has yet to break into the mainstream.
“Any effort like this festival can only help the scene grow,” he said.
He added that the festival would expose audiences to a wider range of comedic styles.
“This festival gives everyone a chance to experience different types of comedy. It’s not just stand-up. If stand-up isn’t your thing, you might enjoy improv or another form of comedy instead. It opens people’s eyes to what’s available.”
The festival’s headline attraction is the Comedy Gala, featuring Joanne Kam, Shamaine Othman, Kavin Jay, Andrew Netto, Papi Zak, Fattah Azeem, Ruoh Peng and Mad Sabah on Aug 1 at 8.30pm.
Keren said Malaysia needed more affordable venues to support live performers by offering reasonable rental rates.
“That applies not only to stand-up comedy, but also to music, theatre and other live performances. We need venues to be affordable enough for us to perform regularly. That’s very important,” he said.
Prakash agreed, saying the lack of suitable venues remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
“There are very few proper places for us to perform,” he said.
Keren said venue availability and rental costs remain the main obstacles.
“If everyone involved can work together to make venues more affordable and create a better ecosystem for live performances, the industry will grow, and everyone will benefit.”
Prakash said venue operators should offer more competitive rental rates, while the authorities could also consider providing incentives or financial support.
“Most comedy clubs are quite small, so it’s difficult to make money. If a venue seats 450 people, like DeStage @ Jaya One, performers have a better chance of making a living.”
The PJ Comedy Fest brings together performances in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Tamil, reflecting Malaysia’s multilingual identity.
Papi Zak, Farid and Kam promoting Farid’s bilingual stand-up performance about his late father.
Another performer, Farid Azmeir, who will take the stage on July 30 at 8.30pm, said he was looking forward to bringing a distinctly Malaysian perspective to the festival.
“My show will be in Bahasa Melayu, and it is about my late father, who was blind,” he said.
“I’m excited to be part of the festival because it has a unique Malaysian flavour.”
The PJ Comedy Fest concludes with a family-friendly production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by EM Drama, rounding off a festival that aims to celebrate comedy, creativity and the diversity of Malaysia’s performing arts scene.
For more information and to purchase tickets for the PJ Comedy Fest, click here.
Main image: From left: Papi Zak, Prakash, Tan, Keren and Kam talking about The Good, The Bad and The Funny.
