There’s no such thing as an overnight success. And yet, Hannan Azlan sure has come a long way rather quickly. From her first tentative steps in 2015, to winning the Hong Kong International Comedy Competition a year later (becoming both the youngest, and first female winner), and appearing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (again), the Malaysian comic is a singing, uke-wielding wunderkind.
“Usually on a Sunday I’d be recovering from a weekend show, but this is different,” Azlan says. “I’m about to go to Singapore and I’ve just remembered it’s tomorrow and I haven’t packed. And then I’m going to Melbourne in a week. And I just finished a different kind of project, where I composed a musical for an art NGO. It was my first time creating so much material that I didn’t perform myself, or wasn’t involved in the performance. Just the composition. That’s a new thing.”
There have been many new things for Azlan – international touring, encountering hecklers for the first time (thanks, drunk Aussies.) – which isn’t that surprising given this is still a recent success. And while further forays into musical theatre may develop, there is still a whole world of traditional stand-up to explore.
“I think with comedy, it’s similar to musical theatre. It was never a goal. It was never even really an option. I was never interested in doing stand-up until my friend said I should try it. When I started, I did straight, regular stand-up. I think about it sometimes. What if I never brought along the uke? What if I never tried songs? Maybe I would have turned into someone just like everyone else. So now I analyse my onstage persona. But it’s tough. I think the beauty of stand-up is that a lot of it is about intention, what you’re trying to say with your work, as opposed to just laugh-a-minute things. I haven’t been doing this long, so I’m still working that out.”
Azlan will return to Melbourne as part of the Comedy Zone Asia showcase, and while previously she has floated her willingness to represent Asian people in entertainment, she is also much more than a nationality.
“When I first started, I was just so nervous,” she says. “There’s so many people in front of you and you have to make them laugh. I was deadpan. I never paused. I wasn’t relaxed on stage, and that’s what made it funny. This girl would just sing this song, and move straight on to the next. She doesn’t give a fuck. But the Asian thing, it’s not like I want to go on stage and go, ‘OK, I’m Asian, and this is what it means for me to be Asian, this is my experience being Asian.’ That’s not really what I do. I’m a version of myself that’s just being dumb and gross on stage. And, I’m Asian. Comedy and music is more a form that I just happened to stumble upon.”
