Sam Moult: the stand-up comedian

To start with, tell us your favourite joke.

How about a one-liner? I work for myself taking photos. I’m selfie-employed.

Making people laugh for a living must be pretty cool: how did you get into it?

How would you describe yourself as a comedian? What are your influences?

What have your favourite gigs been?

I’ve done all sorts – so many and so different too! From a massive crowd of 1,500 Filipino masseurs and beauticians at a corporate conference to three people in a café who didn’t seem that interested. In between, I’ve performed in every single emirate and for crowd members who have ranged in age from two to 92 – although I don’t claim the two-year-old got all my jokes. My favourite, though, has to be the regular Mix Tape student shows that Dubomedy puts on every few months. Those nights are a real blend of professional stand-up sets, improv games and audience participation; and the crowd is always supportive and up for a good laugh.

Any nightmare gigs you’d rather forget?

Oh yes. But what you have to understand is that for every night you bomb – as we call it in the trade – you can learn something about yourself and about the art of performance. What have I learnt so far? To be prepared, and not to pick on regular guests – because, it turns out, they might not like you laughing at their horribly hite trousers.

Apart from those two, what other skills do you need to be a successful stand-up?

Well, the key is having self-belief and confidence. Timing always helps, of course, but that can be taught; and experience is important – so you have something to draw jokes from. It’s a cliché but hard work and discipline to write and stick to your material is vital, as are honest friends who can tell you if a joke isn’t good – because you’ll probably write a lot of those to start with. Oh, and it always helps to be funny looking too. I think I have that one naturally, fortunately.

You also do stage presentation work – what does that involve?

Well, a lot of marketing departments want a different dimension to a product launch these days and laughter sells: if you can make someone laugh they’ll associate that positive experience with the product and will be more inclined to buy it. It’s totally a science. So, they ask me along to launches and such things to add some humour to the whole thing.

What’s the comedy scene like in the UAE?

It went through a period over the past couple of years where there were shows literally every week, which was amazing to be a part of, but that seems to have dipped slightly for the moment. That said, I think it’s going through a bit of a renaissance where the frequency of shows might be less but the quality of the production and, more importantly, of the acts – both local and visiting – is getting better and better all the time. The standard has certainly grown beyond anything you could have imagined possible when I started back in 2011.

Anyone or any nights in particular you’d recommend?

Apart from myself, of course? The guys at The Courtyard Playhouse theatre, near Times Square, put on a really sweet selection of shows for all walks of life. Well worth going along to.

Finally, tell us another one-liner?

OK, my friend was depressed so I bought him a Wii, a PlayStation and an Xbox. He needed consoling.