“Even though I was a ‘third culture kid’ – raised everywhere except Malaysia, I’d call myself a Malaysian first.

“Even though I was a ‘third culture kid’ – raised everywhere except Malaysia, I’d call myself a Malaysian first. I was also the black sheep of the family, so of course, my family were not happy when I told them I would change jobs from being a producer, to be a standup comedian.

I’m Papi Zak, I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for about 10 years now. If you don’t know what stand up comedy is, it’s when a person stands up in front of a group of people, and share their personal life stories, views and opinions.

The difference between the guy speaking on the stage, and the guy sitting as the audience – is that this person can make a person laugh by telling jokes (he better!).

I studied in the US, so my first exposure to stand-up comedy was when I watched Eddie Murphy’s live comedy show – he is my inspiration.

I always knew him as an actor, but when I saw him on stage, he was such a great comedian and made the whole ninety minutes of the show feel like it passed by in minutes. The way he engages with the audience, the way the audience was wrapped around his stories – that amazed me.

I was also shocked when I realized there’s a stand-up comedy scene in Malaysia. I mean, Harith Iskandar is actually a standup comedian, and in 2013 when I met him, he recommended me to give it a try by performing at an Open Mic show.

And stand-up comedy is the hardest thing to do in the world. It was never about being famous, it was that feeling, that people really want to hear of my stories.

When people laugh at my jokes, it’s the most gratifying feeling ever. It’s like a drug, and you want to keep that laugh going and going. Stand up comedy helped me build my confidence.

And biasalah, my family thought stand-up comedy as my full-time job was a joke. They were the traditional Asian parents, so when I changed to work in comedy, from being in TV production and as a radio host, they weren’t happy either.

For them, the importance of my job was stability. But now that I have more gigs to do, they’re more okay.

I’m not as famous as Harith Iskandar or as big as Jen Han, but I’ve come to understand comedy is what you make of it. No matter how poor or rich you are, as long as people know that you’re genuine, they’ll buy into it.

And let me tell you – it is the greatest feeling in the world when the audience laughs at, and with you”.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Check out Papi Zak‘s page for his latest shows!

Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa