Omid Djalili is not in a laughing mood when he picks up the phone from his London home. Presented by Real Concerts and Comedy Central, the actor and stand-up comedian will bring his brand of comedy to Joburg then Cape Town at the end of this month.
But when I phone him, he’s had a rather eventful previous night.
“I’ve been warming up for coming to South Africa by going to comedy clubs and trying to get back on the stand-up trail,” he tells me, “but last night was really interesting because it was comedy night at this theatre, and there were these people in wheelchairs making a lot of noise in the front row…”
Uh oh.
“So I’m thinking that these are people with a physical disability not a learning one, so why are they being so disruptive?” he asks rhetorically.
“And I had to deal with it in a comedic way. Someone told me that those two guys were actually having the time of their lives, but some people felt offended on their behalf so I had to put out a lot of fires, especially on Twitter.”
Then Djalili laughs, finally, signalling that he’s probably not the kind of person who walks around feeling gloomy for long. A good trait to have if you are in the business of entertaining people.
He originally wanted to be “a serious actor like De Niro or Pacino – an actor with gravitas – but I just didn’t have it,” said Djalili.
As a child, Djalili didn’t think of himself as particularly funny, but today, the award-winning British-Iranian who has starred in The Mummy, the Whoopi series that aired on SABC1 for a spell and Pirates Of the Caribbean III has a fan base that would peg him as a very funny person.
He’s known for his penchant for putting on accents and suffering from a condition he calls “Nigerianitis” – randomly breaking out into a Nigerian accent at inopportune times. He insists that the Nigerians he has come across around the globe have not taken issue with his impressions.
“Actually,” he says, “when Nigerians come to the show and I don’t do it, they get very upset and say, ‘I won my monee buck.’ [I want my money back] or bring me back onto the stage to do the accent.”
