Hartley Pool on the comedy scene in Malaysia

At a nightclub in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Tyneside-educated local Kavin Jay jokes about his size and improvises well with a crowd of 350, lapsing in and out of English, Malay and Manglish (a bastardised, often humorous, mixture of both languages) as the mood hits him. While some of his routines and banter fit the Western idea of what stand-up comedy is, a lot of the material is unapologetically racist.

And the audience – mostly Malaysian, but with a scattering of white faces - absolutely love it.

Kavin is not alone in his approach; many acts here mine the same seam of racial stereotyping: Chinese men have small penises, Chinese women dress like prostitutes, Indians like to get drunk and Africans are constantly starving.

After living here for six months, the reasons for the heavy emphasis on race is clear. Malaysia is a mixing bowl of different nationalities and religions, with the government talking so frequently and so emphatically about ‘one united Malaysia’ that you just know there’s a problem.

For many years journalists were not even allowed to mention the names of those involved in certain incidents, as that would make it very clear what nationality they were, potentially causing problems between and stereotyping of the races living here. That is no longer the case, but any overt talk of racial disharmony is still very much frowned upon.

A comedy night clearly allows a certain release of this tension, with at least some of the laughter coming from the sheer chutzpah of the performer on stage and the recognition that - racist or not – this is what many of the people watching are thinking/saying in private anyway.

It was not so long ago that comedians here had to submit scripts to the government before putting on a performance, and so this relatively new-found freedom to comment on the absurdities and culture clashes of everyday life is still something of a thrill for comedians and audience alike.

Mind you, as Kavin admitted when I caught up with him at a recent show, everyone knew no one in the government offices could speak much English, and so they just used to send in photocopies of pantomime scripts.

The racism in the scene here becomes even more obvious with Augustine Dennis, an African comedian who has been developing his act here for the last year. With a strong accent and a tendency to speak slowly, enunciating every word, he barely needs to do more than open his mouth to have everyone on the floor clutching their stomachs.

I’m not sure whether this is down to some innate Tommy Cooper-ish physical genius on his part, or the fact the audience find Africans humorous. In any case, his opening line the first time I saw him six months ago had such an effect on the crowd that I’m sure some are still chuckling to themselves now:

“Christians and Muslims… leave me the f*** alone!”

Don’t get me wrong, I was laughing too.

The only sure-fire way of getting a bigger laugh from the young crowds that turn up in their droves at gigs here is to trash Singapore in some way, pandering to the intense rivalry between the two countries.

Singaporean Jinx, who gigs in Kuala Lumpur regularly, uses this to good effect by constantly belittling himself and trash-talking his hometown. Jinx’s hangdog expression as he bemoans his regulation-hungry compatriots strikes just the right chord with the audience.

Canadian Steve Northcott – one of a handful of foreigners who grace the scene – even has a song, I Hate Singapore, which doesn’t need to do much more than repeat the title to score big laughs.

And perhaps it’s all good. Perhaps if tension can be dissipated in this way, if what many people are thinking or feeling can be brought out into the open and laughed at then people leave feeling happier about their life. Or… is it hiding a darker truth?

At a recent gig here, Phil Nichol narrowly avoided a glass to the face from an outraged homophobe who clearly wasn’t familiar with Phil’s oeuvre (and would possibly not have appreciated his oeuvre even further had he been witness to Mr Nichol’s naked show) and maybe that’s all part of the same thing.

Here is Kavan Jay’s showreel:

And Augustine Dennis on Muslims:

• Hartley Pool gigs regularly at Time Out Kuala Lumpur Comedy Thursday and is the author of the comic novel Stranger in Taiwan, which is available on Amazon.

Published: 21 Feb 2012