First and foremost, 25 years on the scene for comedian Akmal Saleh is an exciting anniversary: “Yeah, a quarter of a century without a job!” Akmal jokes.
“That’s what comedy is – avoiding real work. That's a joke in itself but there’s a lot of truth in it!”
It took Akmal years before it became a living. In his words, when you start off as a comedian, there's not much money to be made even if you’re doing it all the time. “It’s so competitive,” says Akmal, “so everyone’s happy to do it for nothing.”
“When I was starting out, if you didn’t get on a TV show, you didn’t get in on any level. Now with things on YouTube, you can pull a crowd, avoiding ten years of apprenticeship. That’s the thing, people pull huge crowds through YouTube but they haven’t done that apprenticeship, they haven’t done the stage time.
“Don’t mistake popularity on YouTube for learning the craft – it’s a different thing.”
“I didn’t think I would last this long,” Akmal admits. “Every comedian has thought every day could be their last, and that’s what keeps you passionate about it.”
It’s reminiscent tidbits like that that Akmal will be addressing in his new show, 'The Best Of Akmal'. A set that pulls together some of Akmal’s best material from over his tenure and reminds comedy-lovers why he’s one of the best in the biz. “When I say 'a best of', I wanted it to be different to last year’s show,” Akmal begins. “There are two types of comedians; there are writers, and there are performers.
“The performers, like myself, need to be on stage to generate new material. Even after all these years, I’ve no idea if something’s funny until I’m doing it, refining it on stage.
“The best way for someone like me to write material is to be on stage for three months every night. By the end of those three months, I guarantee you I’ll have a good hour!”
Akmal builds up and up, hard as he says it is to get up there “to die”, as he puts it, to lose his legs and not be funny and maintain discipline, but once he’s got that momentum, his shows are ready, formulated and rehearsed. “This year, I didn’t want to do a show because I didn’t have new material, but I was encouraged to do old material. It’s a bit of a cop out, if you know what I mean.”
Cop out or no, Akmal is a strong enough practical performer that he’s managed to stay away from a pen and paper, relying on his memory to deliver his best material at his forthcoming shows. “I forget stuff all the time and fans will remind me. For some reason, things evaporate from my brain!
“Sometimes it comes really easy but it’s rare! Ideas are there from beginning to end, really well framed, but it’s really rare. If it happened every day, I’d be a millionaire.”
As the saying goes, 'laughter is the best medicine', and for Akmal, the key tonic that keeps him doing this, is not to be greedy. “I’ve never done it for the money,” he says firmly and candidly. “I’ve always done it because I’m addicted to it, it’s an addictive thing.
“It’s very challenging work. When it goes well it’s very satisfying work. When it goes badly, it’s the most painful thing. It’s the thing that I do, that I feel is my only thing – it’s my only skill!
“You’re always striving to have that elusive show and even after all those years, there’s a real buzz when you walk off stage and you’ve done well. It’s very satisfying when you get that hit of laughs. I need those laughs to justify my existence!”
Akmal plays The Concourse 7 May and Comedy Store 13-14 May, for Sydney Comedy Festival.
