my name is my name is Prakash Daniel but
my full name is Prakash Daniel go play
Christian guns come out upon the pitch
money yes I know we Indians the long
names but other things also long I don’t
know what you’re thinking but I’m
talking about my beard ah yeah I mean
they are Africans in the room so I’m not
going to compete with them so um I’ve
been I’ve been doing comedy for for the
past four years now but before I was I
double into comedy I was I make sure a
photographer by day
i-i-i-i’ve photograph all kinds of
things i’m i specialize in portraits
though i especially some portraits i
shoot music events and stuff like that
so that’s a bit about myself I live in
KL I live with my parents
I have a sister was married and I have
two cats so yeah any cat lovers in the
house yeah yeah next up so sometimes
when you talk about tomorrow like it
usually talks about the future am i
right right like you know like sometimes
the reason why you guys are here is
because you guys want to study you want
to get a degree you wanna have a better
tomorrow right that’s how it for me the
tomorrow that I know was was from this
movies how many guys know back to back
to the future make some noise well this
this is the tomorrow that I want to
leave later I know like jet packs and
like self-lacing shoes and like and
stuff like that you know but um how the
world portrays the future is very
different it’s very like futuristic
flying cars and stuff like that and we
don’t know sometimes are we gonna
achieve this but the tomorrow the future
that I’m still living in is this is my
house
so so and I love it right I know because
I think I think being being in in in the
present is something that will make you
who you are in the future right and and
that’s the whole idea I’m gonna talk
about today so like I said I photograph
in and then I do I do a bit of comedy I
let me just talk about comedy because I
got into comedy because I like to make
people laugh and I think like you know
how people we see like a Prakash you’re
funny in the no mama maybe can tell some
jokes it doesn’t work that way okay
sometimes your friends ready trihard I
used to go watch law
shoes like a lot of shoes then I became
friends with comedians and what happened
was one of the comedians say like hey
you’ve been watching a lot of shows why
not you come and try open mic for five
minutes and I’m like okay I’m not gonna
come and try open mic i love watching
comedy and he told me like all you have
to do is just come into for five minutes
if you like it
I know even if you don’t like it it’s
fine I did it for five minutes and I’ll
be doing it for four years now so uh a
bit about about photography as well one
of the reasons why I love photography in
comedy and I talked the one thing about
about doing comedy is you always must
learn to make fun of yourself as humans
as people we always tend to to recognize
who we are you know sometimes sometimes
as people we are like oh my god I got
this like or this stretch my be flabby
you know I know I wear this I’ll be you
know sometimes we tend to forget about
this kind things the moment you
recognize who you are you know it will
actually translate how your life is
gonna be and that’s how it works for
comedy as well and I usually have a
goatee back in the day like like a
because we thought this facial hair I
look like a baby so it’s like it’s
really weird like you know it’s it’s
like yeah it’s like like a chicken’s
backside or something that you know it’s
just weird right like I have a goatee
and then I stop buying razors because
it’s too expensive and then the beard
started growing and that’s how I started
and started having a beer and and then
what happened was from this because for
my love of photography I love shooting
portraits and this is how it feels to
have a beard actually even just not
someone I came up to me like is it real
ah I say no no I shave in the morning it
grows by evening it happens all right
like how many beautiful oak at that
beard at the back there oh my god Wow
look at her amazing beard it’s nice I
can see it from here
you know you our beard my beard and your
beard – it’s like the Avatar movie like
onyx like it’s nice right
so because the love of photography and
one of my friends came up to me and say
like can you take a portrait of me so I
started photographing my friends with
beards right it was like a fun fashion
slash you know those Instagram kind of
thing portraits that I used to do so
what I did was I asked
taking more pictures of people with
beards and and and the moment I started
taking pictures of people beard it kind
of grew and then I kind I started
reading about beards like it’s like
different cultures have different
connotations and stuff like that in
Islam
you know beard this part of the Sunnah
right for for for the Hindus beard is
very very it’s a very religious symbol
for the Chinese y’all have to try hard a
lot so uh yeah it comes out like my
friend he came up through the apricots
look at this one year is like four
strains day I’m like like wow you know
it and what happened was I got this idea
because yeah you guys know who humans
from New York right you guys heard of
humans from New York so I started taking
pictures of my friends but this the the
the the the thing developed and I
started taking place so this is
Hollywood my friend right
I was like video from fashion shoot and
then I started meeting more interesting
people I so I used to go to KL for the
like I’ve been going to care for the
past one year where it’s heavily
concentrated with immigrant workers like
people from different countries like
Burma Bangladesh Pakistan India and what
I do is the moment I take pictures of
people with beards and I actually ask
their stories why are they here and kale
and in some of the stories that you hear
and any know how the condition of this
country is because they’re specially the
immigration laws and stuff like that
it’s very interesting right look at this
guy that’s pretty glorious yeah so this
guy is like a 65 year old bodybuilder
who said interpreter and like and like
and he was really nice and he gave me
some ideas for this stuff
oh this this particular portrait is very
very personal to me I was in Central
Market in Kuala Lumpur and I finished I
usually go on weekends take photos
around KL I do lot of street photography
as well so I was hanging out there I
looked at this man is name is his name
is uncle JAMA I still see him every time
I go to care I’ll meet up with him and
it was so interesting because I actually
asked him say can I take a photo of you
and he was like yeah yeah sure you can
take a photo of me and and and I say
like then he’s like do you know back in
the British time you had to pay taxes to
have a beard I’m like okay but can I
just take a picture no sir I can I’m
like okay I was very nice because then I
got to know about his life how he used
to work
the government and like you know how you
say she used to write like all these
formal letters and things like that you
know you get to know a lot of people
story right this is another friend and
this photo recently won the Kuala Lumpur
for awards for the poetry category this
I shot this at comic-con and I really
like this photo because it really talks
about the relationship between the
father and the son and and it’s how he
started but and and how the beard
actually works with comedies because
some of my friends you know sometimes I
like how I said like you know how you
make fun of yourself it’s very
interesting like one of my friends came
up to me see like hey Prakash you your
beard is pre glorious you look like Zach
Galifianakis from the hangover movie and
I’m like no no I’m Indian my name is
Lisette gala final in and if I did a
movie called a hangover you only call
and that’s how I relate back my story is
back to back the comedy right and and
how how like like and it really is so
interesting because like one of the
stories that I wanted to tell you guys
it’s like sometimes like when how taking
photos house with my County like when I
meet so many different types of people
like they always ask like really random
questions it’s like you know is your
beard real like how long you take to
grow mostly guys I don’t know why like
no girls come and touch my beard so far
about if any of y’all welcome no problem
I’ll be waiting outside later it helps
it helps because the way I I interact
with people it’s it’s all these are like
life experiences that I learned that I
usually use it in comedy because comedy
is all about all about being yourself on
stage because the moment you can
actually make fun of yourself you can be
whoever you are because a lot of people
tend to forget like we always tend to
forget to make fun of herself you do we
do recognize for who yeah like I said
earlier and this is how it actually
helps me with my comedy right number
number one rule of comedy like a lot of
people ask is this condon from going
down do I have five minutes only left
right really only five minutes left
Wow cool the number-one rule of comedy
is like always people are like what is
there’s no formula just be funny right
you know but sometimes when you be funny
in this country it’s
a bit weird because sometimes comedians
suggest people and sometimes made me say
the wrong thing like I was at my friend
having a drink and and and he he wanted
a he wanted order an alcoholic beverage
and he’s just out there like 1mdb I’m
like oh boo you can’t see that well you
guys say you can’t see that no no what
do you mean I can see like bro I see you
cannot say that but I’m just asking but
one more drunk beer what you know it
stirs 1mdb you know it works you know
says one more drop you okay sometimes
and you say this wrong thing it just
becomes really weird and what happened
was recently one of my friends from
Singapore comedian
I don’t know you guys heard about this
you guys heard about this right he said
he made a joke yeah which which kind of
pointed at someone very powerful in our
country and right now he’s kind of
so-called blacklisted so so sometimes
it’s like you know jokes are just jokes
in some ways you must need to know how
far you can move and push yourself but
you must be really smart about it and
that’s how you do comedy right and how
we make the best of both worlds I only
have four minutes left is what I’m gonna
do is I’m gonna I’m gonna do one of my
bits which I use the guitar you guys you
guys cool with that you guys cool with
that I’m gonna show how I incorporate
like my love for comedy and music and
also like you know photography at the
same time you guys you guys give me a
second hold on a clap clap aid this is
called the so this one of the comedy
routines that I do and I talk about I
talk about love songs in in experiences
in something you know how in Malaysia
sometimes we have three different races
we have my friends my Malaysian
textbooks don’t like I have three
friends Ali at song and Gopal’s so yeah
right and and every time
Ali falls in love you know and my male
friends when they learn to play guitar
you know two songs two songs when they
learn to play the they won’t meet the
girl like how to say la Bonita Bali the
first song every money guy was thing is
so in they are lucky that’s only the
second song is very moving
is always the same song right the second
song is always like for Chinese guys
Chinese guys Chinese guys go old-school
one old-school they’ll go like me when
I’m me and then I cut it cut it cut it
cut all right
Indian people don’t laugh you also got
songs are y’all sing songs like huniepop
depend on let’s check a China China
China they start travelling everywhere
on the world right I can’t do my whole
thing but this is been so awesome I’ll
leave you guys with this it’s doing
comedy and photography what has taught
me is one of the things that my my
lecturer name is Ruslan a lot I used to
be with TB 3 for 25 years and I’m
actually a mass comm and film and TV
graduate and and one of the things that
she told me is whatever you do in life
doesn’t matter in law and especially how
you look at the way you pave your future
and like how this now one of our
speakers was talking about like no
unstable Atene stuff are there we always
tend to forget the small things in life
right you know sometimes like small
things can be your friends your family
your like you know people just around
you and I was just having a talk with
Deborah just now behind behind I know
sometimes even the people that you go to
the mama with you know like you know the
people who serve you right you know
sometimes you don’t appreciate these
kind of people and sometimes and and the
more this a simple gesture by just
saying thank you would actually really
really help and and this is what I’ve
actually always practiced in my life
that I’ve actually applied both in
photography and comedy right and I have
never gone away astray from this because
being working in a cop level for five
years and doing this now for the past
four years and a freelancer left my
corporate world and it’s been crazy but
I know for a fact that if you learn to
appreciate all this all this I was
spoken about earlier is this all BIOS
balls not the one thing which is just
appreciate the small things in life
because then you’ll have a better
tomorrow right thank you guys my name is Prakash Daniel have a good night