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Riaad Moosa in Dubai for stand-up show

by Zahid Jadwat

Riaad Moosa will deliver to an audience at the Mall of Emirates this weekend. [Image: Northglen News]

 

South African comedian Riaad Moosa is in Dubai this weekend, where he will present a stand-up comedy show in front of an Emirati audience. This comes on the back of his South African tour, which kicked off in Durban, KZN, and will wrap up in Johannesburg, GP.

Moosa will go live at The Theatre, Mall of the Emirates, at 8pm local time on Saturday (October 1). The stand-up show will be followed by a two-hour screening of New Material which is the sequel to his hit movie Material.

Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia ahead of his departure to the United Arab Emirates, Moosa said he was looking forward to a successful event. The observational comedian said he was confident he could set off laughter in Dubai just as he had done on local shores.

“The way in which I do my stand-up is more personal, so most people should be able to get the jokes [and] subject matter. Like how we can watch American comedians [and] English comedians because we know the culture.”

 

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Adaptation

Although he felt confident ahead of the show, Riaad Moosa said he was wary that cultural differences and preexisting notions might get in the way. But he said he would likely be able to adapt to the demands of the moment.

“The main problem is acting, which can be a difficult thing if people don’t know how to box me. When I do these international shows, I walk on stage and I have this accent and then people don’t know how to box me.

Moosa said he would bring out his South African-nature and allow the audience to experience what life is like as a South African. He added that universal themes, such as family, marriage and parenting, were all relatable regardless of the audience.

“They don’t understand where I come from so I actually got to spend a lot of time answering questions that they have before I actually go into any other material, but I do it in a funny way,” he said.

 

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Life on stage

Moosa began his stand-up comedy journey in his fourth year at the University of Cape Town (UCT) while training in medicine. He rose to prominence with his Strictly Halaal show which ran between 2006 and 2007. He said each show was a representation of a different time in his life.

“All those shows have a theme and a certain narrative. It’s a snapshot of my life at a particular point in time and if you watch the material over a period of time you see how it matures,” he said.

He said the current tour, likely to be filmed and published under the title Voices In My Head, was meant to get underway before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, due to various restrictions in place, it had to be postponed.

The series will focus on serious themes – “right and wrong”, as he explained. He will return from Dubai to present more comedy at several locations in South Africa. He will be in Klerksdorp, NW (October 7); Lenasia, GP (October 29); Newcastle, KZN (November 11); Pietermaritzburg, KZN (November 12) before wrapping up in Johannesburg, GP (December 10).

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