'Queen' Kumar battling Malaysian comedy 'king' – no sex jokes included

It’s a battle of the regional comedic giants as Singapore’s Kumar takes on Malaysia’s Douglas Lim in a show called King Vs Queen. Set to take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday (Aug 23) and Saturday (Aug 24), the two funnymen will be fighting over who can make the audience laugh louder with their brand of comedy. The first night is already sold out.

This is the second time Kumar and Lim will be going against each other; the last time was in 2015 in the hit show, Laugh Die You. When asked how the upcoming show would differ from the previous one, Kumar told CNA Lifestyle, “It’s going to be very different because last time, it was just about sex – a lot of below-the-belt jokes and jokes about relationships.”

Now, he'll be focusing more on observational humour. “I turned 50 last year so I’ll talk a lot about that. Age – and all the problems that come with it – is a very universal theme. For example, you can’t drink you way you used to drink. You can’t sit too long. You can’t stand too long. And you can’t roll over because the next day, here aches, there aches,” he said.

And while his “opponent” Lim had told the Malay Mail that he would be making observations about the country’s last general elections and its unexpected results, Kumar told the paper that he would be staying away from politics altogether. “I don’t want to be deported back to Singapore, so let’s stay out of that,” he quipped.

The comedian said the move to this new style of comedy comes from having to evolve and differentiate himself from younger comedians on the scene. “You can’t be complacent so I moved to observational comedy that the younger ones can’t do.”

He revealed that the audience has taken to his new jokes well. “They relate better because half of the audience would be the same age, while the younger ones can try to understand the older generation.”

Asked whether he felt there was a difference between Singaporean and Malaysian audiences, the 51-year-old shared that while both audiences come to these comedy shows to have a laugh, Singaporeans only “laugh at what they want to laugh at” and sometimes, that may be the wrong thing.

“You walk into a horror movie in Singapore and people are laughing,” he said. “Singaporeans have a weird sense of humour, they laugh at the wrong things. I think they laugh when they get uncomfortable.”