Gajen Nad to keep things funny with comedy special

Referred to as the cleanest and most corporate-friendly comedian around, Gajen Nad will be making people laugh in Penang and Petaling Jaya this month with his new stand-up comedy special, ‘Professional Mixed Breed’.

Produced by Laugh Labs Entertainment Sdn Bhd (founded by comedian and actor Phoon Chi Ho and Chrisy Wu), this show is something that Gajen’s fans have been waiting for.

Before the Covid-19 lockdown, Gajen was a familiar face at stand-up comedy shows and corporate events.

However, he was forced to reinvent himself during lockdowns by putting up content he had created on social media. The effort paid off as he now has millions of fans following him on social media. Gajen is also a TikTok star in his own right.

The stand-up comedy scene took a huge hit recently, beginning with the actions of an individual during an open-mic session at a popular stand-up comedy club in Kuala Lumpur called Crackhouse Comedy Club.

Since then, the matter just kept escalating. The club’s owner, Rizal Van Geyzel, came under scrutiny recently and was slapped with three charges under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) over videos of his comedic performance.

However, the show, as they say, must go on and after all the brouhaha, Gajen’s shows might just provide us with the laughs we badly need.

Penang-born Gajen, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, has been doing stand-up comedy and hosting events part-time since he was in university.

For six years, he worked in the corporate sector by day and did comedy shows at night. Later, Gajen decided to pursue stand-up comedy and hosting full time.

“When the pandemic hit, I pivoted to virtual gigs, whether it’s hosting virtual events, performing virtual ‘stand-up’, or even becoming a virtual motivational speaker. Those food delivery fees ain’t going to pay for themselves,” Gajen said in a press release.

In an interview with Malaysiakini, Gajen shared: “Initially, it was tough as we didn't know how to do virtual comedy. We did a lot of trial and error and eventually found a recipe that works where folks are muted and they laugh via emojis and chatbox. Sounds weird but it works.

“We naturally moved the topic to what took place at Crackhouse. At the end of the day, it's a platform for stand-up comedians to test jokes and perform polished jokes.”

Asked if this made stand-up comedians more cautious, Gajen said,” Oh yes. Stand-up comedians need to be smarter with their joke topics and contexts.

“I think with the recent incident, most stand-up comedians scan through their current set list just to be safer.”

He admitted that it has affected the comedy scene as comedians are expected to perform cleaner material, compared to what they used to do before.

“Well, my stand-up comedy is clean as I don’t use vulgarity, religious, sexual and political jokes. So, I guess, I just have the don’ts. The only ‘do’ in my comedy is to make my audience happy. That's it,” said Gajen.

The industry will be watching Gajen and his shows closely as this would be the first major stand-up comedy tour in the country after the Crackhouse fiasco.

“I don't feel any pressure from the incident as my material has always been clean. In fact, I feel motivated as this is my first stand-up comedy special!”

Gajen is a big fan of Trevor Noah, the host of "The Daily Show", because of his skills as a stand-up comedian, live event host and also a late-night TV show host.

His next big dream is to be featured in a comedy special on Netflix or Comedy Central. So he is inviting fans of comedy to show up and catch ‘Professional Mixed Breed’.

The shows in the Petaling Jaya Performing Arts Centre (PJPAC) will be recorded and he hoped they would be picked up by streaming services.

“Who knows, you might be on camera!”

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