'It's not supposed to be easy'

The advertising poster for Basic Training conveys pretty well the initial impact of Kahlil Ashanti.

As he pulls a precise military salute, the stocky Afro-American looks out at the viewer with such a fierce stare one almost fears his eyes might tumble out of their sockets.

Only, in real life his stare can get a bit more frightening.

In fact, most sentences tend to end with him leaning slightly forward, momentarily lowering his voice and stretching them into unnerving ping-pong balls ideally suited for a zombie flick.

That, though, is the only scary thing about him. Which is actually quite odd.

Few of us have as much right as this 32-year-old actor to shlep a sizeable excess in emotional baggage.

"It was every day. I'd come to school with bruises, but you cover it up. You don't want the children to think you're weird," he says of the physical abuse he sustained throughout his childhood.

His success in coming to terms with this provides the plot of his one-man show - the core message of which, he opines after momentary consideration, being "it's not supposed to be easy - whatever it is".

Hammerblow revelation

In his case, further complication was added at age 18 by a hammer-blow revelation as he leaves home to join the US Air Force.

"The show starts off with me telling the audience that the night before I left for basic training my mother told me that the man who had abused me my whole life wasn't my real dad," he says.

The hard road to self-acceptance and self-realisation continues with his four-year military stint.

Having signed up in the expectation of being trained as an architect, he initially finds himself posted as mailman ("the recruiter said you can be anything you want to be - you can even be white if you want to").

But standup skills developed in open mic session back in Iowa helps him land a place among the select entertainers of the "Tops in Blue".

For 3 years he travelled the world performing for troops - often in a bulletproof vest - in whichever of the world's ghastliest troublespots they were stationed.

No cakewalk

The Tops in Blue was no cakewalk - half of each year's intake of only 30 recruits apparently has to be shipped home.

Still the experience clearly honed the skills Ashanti employs in his show.

This has already played to soldout audience in Los Angeles and Edinburgh.

After Dubai, he is headed for off-Broadway in New York. A film, TV show and book are in the pipeline.

Ashanti also hopes it will lead him to his desired career in film.

Still, it is clearly more than a calculated career move. "The only thing that's not true about this show is the time-frame," he says. "You have to squeeze things here and there and combine characters."

Indeed, he approaches the show - in which he plays 23 characters - with the dedication and conviction of a revivalist preacher.

"Every show I do I like to shake hands with everybody in the audience as they leave," he says. "I find it hard for me to get on stage and act. I have to live it on stage or else it won't come across."

Why basic training?

"I call it basic training because in the military it is where you go from being a kid to being a productive adult.

Everybody has a basic training," he says.

"It's easier if you see the show," he adds. "Otherwise you might think I'm being goofy. You think, 'oh, the guy's funny'. But it's a real story. It hits you."