ALYN ADAMS

Alyn Adams

Former Durban actor and comedy man extraordinaire Alyn Adams writes a weekly newspaper column for KZN’s Sunday Tribune called Headspace.

Now based in Johannesburg, he has been cracking up crowds with his quirky, thoughtful stand-up since 1994. He started in improvised ensemble comedy, but quickly found his feet as a solo comic and later became a founder comedian at the Civic Theatre's Punchline Pub, a stand-up comedy venture launched in 1995. He was also a regular, from 1996 to 1998, at Hysterix in the (then) Randburg Waterfront, Joburg’s first full-time stand-up club.

His routines include observational comedy with a surreal twist, surprising tales from history, a acappella song parodies and emergency jokes; the common thread running through all his humour is bizarre mental gymnastics.

In 1996 and 1997, he performed in Durban, Johannesburg and Grahamstown with the smash-hit Durban Poison Comedy Roadshow (revived in 2006), and was also invited to work on the Smirnoff International Comedy Festival in Cape Town (1996/1997) and Durban (1997). In 1998 and 1999, he presented his solo 90-minute stand-up show, Rant Boy, at theatres in Johannesburg, Durban and Grahamstown. It was subsequently nominated for a Vita Award.

Alyn is a popular act on the Gauteng club circuit but is equally at home doing a set or MC-ing the evening. He also appears at the occasional rock festival, having been the band BOO!’s intro-comic-of-choice for more than a decade. In 2009, he won Acapella Productions’ “Easiest Comic to Work With” Award.

Alyn has been a member of the Joburg Comedy Cartel since it launched with a successful tour to Durban in October 2010. In April 2011, he performed with his fellow-JCC members in the Hooters Comedy Tent at the Splashy Fen Music Festival, to unanimous crowd acclaim. For more information on Comedy Cartel visit http://comedycartel.co.za/