We spoke to comedian (and former accountant!) Dilruk Jayasinha about the upcoming Multicultural Comedy Gala, touring and how he can now laugh about his heart attack

Words Kate O’Mealley

You are coming to the Speigeltent in June. But it’s not your first visit to Wollongong…

I can't wait. I was in Wollongong back in 2018 for the Comedy Roadshow - I remember Wollongong had one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever eaten at!

Tell us about your current show Heart Stopper…

It's definitely a challenging show for me because it's talking about a heart attack I had last year. I was a bit hesitant because I don’t know if I'd fully mentally processed it yet, but I'm glad I pushed myself.

It was all I was thinking about when I was trying to write a new show and thought ‘why am I going to pretend like this is not what's on my mind?’ It's constantly on your mind once you have a heart attack! I'm glad I found a way to make it funny.

You’ve taken up running in the past few years. How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle when you are on tour?

I try my best to do something every day, even if it ends up being a walk, I'll try to get that in. What helps is in the morning, as soon as I get up, I get into the active wear. There's less reasons to skip out on it! <laughs>

What do you enjoy about touring with other comedians, compared to a solo tour?

I'll be honest with you, being a standup is my dream. And I love it and I hope I can do it until I literally drop dead on stage. But it can be a very lonely place because it's such a solo operation and you get very much caught in your own world and it's quite insular.

When you are with a team like the Multicultural Gala, I can't quite explain how wonderful it is to be with like-minded people. There's no pecking order, there's no hierarchy and everyone becomes family. It is a privilege to travel around the country with some of the funniest people in Australia.

“I’ll be honest with you, being a standup is my dream. And I love it, and I hope I can do it until I literally drop dead on stage.”

You are known for your panel appearances, such as Have You Been Paying Attention? Who are some of your favourite comedians to bounce off?

Dave Thornton is someone I do a lot of work with. We do have split bills and tour our shows together and things like that.

Ivan Aristeguieta is one of my best friends in comedy. He's the type of person who I would hang out with even if neither of us were still in comedy. We have different backgrounds, but we also have very similar feelings as immigrants who came to Australia later in life. Tahir is easily the kindest person in comedy and just getting to work with him is great.

You have been on Utopia, Celebrity MasterChef and I’m A Celebrity, do you have plans to write your own TV show?

I know, right? <laughs> I love that there is potential for me to do something, but I’d rather do it when I have an idea that I'm excited about rather than just doing something for the sake of it.

I left accounting to do something I'm passionate about. I always try to make sure that whatever I put my time into is something of quality and not so I can tick a box. If a good idea comes to me, I might. If not, it's fine.

I hope to do more acting work and radio – but that’s all a bonus to what I really wanted to do, which was to live off telling jokes. If something else comes in like MasterChef, of course I'll give it a go!

Last question for you, Dilruk. Do you still do your own tax return?

Funnily enough, my tax accountant is my ex-boss - I get to tell him what work to do for me now! <laughs> It's so good. We have a good relationship… and I still get invited to the Christmas party.

Catch Dilruk perform at the Multicultural Comedy Gala on Saturday, 17 June as part of the Spiegeltent Wollongong season.

Book tickets at spiegeltentwollongong.com