LAUGHTER may be the best medicine, but no one ever told you what to do if you laugh so much that your belly hurts and your cheeks ache.

For that was what most patrons at the Comedy Club Kuala Lumpur (CCKL) were "complaining" about after the preview show last month at Velvet, Zouk KL.

That night, the trio of stand-up comedians Jonathan Atherton, Terry "The Real TJ" Johnson and local guy Andrew Netto had the crowd in stitches, laughing, giggling, chuckling, sniggering, and rolling in the aisles.

First up was Netto, who had the crowd going from the start with his quintessentially Malaysian jokes.

Then came TJ, a former producer of American comedy show In Living Color, which launched the careers of Jamie Foxx, the Wayan Brothers and Jim Carrey. TJ cracked up the crowd with stories about his life in America and Singapore.

Last, but definitely not least, Atherton rounded up a rip-roaring night of laughter with a 45-minute set about his travels around the world, complete with different languages, accents and impressions.

Just a couple of hours before that, I arrived early at the venue for the press conference to find the three funny men already there.

Netto was nonchalantly milling around chatting to random people, TJ was "studying" his jokes for the night, and Atherton, founder of the Comedy Club Asia in Singapore and one of the driving forces behind CCKL, was preparing the venue for the show.

They all seemed so normal, with such different personalities, but with one common trait: they love to talk.

Put a microphone in their hands, and these guys can't help but crack jokes or make fun of one another.

They don't even need a microphone to be funny. Off stage, all three can't stop talking. As soon as Atherton sits down for the interview, he was firing off joke after joke; and even when he got "serious" he still couldn't help interjecting with quips mid-sentence.

For Atherton, comedy is serious business. "Comedy is also about enunciating the dark thoughts we all have as human beings, and examining ourselves. There may be a joke that you don't like, but you have to ask yourself why you don't like that," he said.

"Irreverence, that's what comedy is about. We break rules; we talk about things that may be inappropriate when grandma is there."

Don't be fooled by the sombreness of those statements, though. He may be serious about being funny, but he is also seriously funny.

A former actor and television presenter for Lonely Planet and Globetrekker travel series, he first got hooked on stand-up comedy in 1993 when still recuperating from a serious accident (he was run over by a truck in Thailand) and was coaxed onstage by a cabaret singer who said his stories were funnier than most professional comedians she saw at her club.

After moving to Singapore from Australia 18 months ago, Atherton started the Comedy Club Asia there, which brings in the world's best comedians not just to entertain, but to help build up the budding stand-up comedy scene in the country.

"What we're doing in Singapore is bringing in the best of the world and also making it a nurturing ground for local talent," said Atherton.

That is exactly what they are trying to do in Malaysia as well, but the main objective is to educate Malaysians in stand-up comedy as entertainment.

Organised by Laugh Out Loud Events, the Comedy Club KL is due to run two days each month, depending on the availability of the comics.

Laugh Out Loud managing director Rizal Kamal said a show like this is long overdue in Kuala Lumpur.

"KL is lapar komedi(hungry for comedy)! People responded really well at the preview night, maybe too well. I've never seen such a response from the audience in any of the Singapore shows.

"I've always loved stand-up comedy. But we don't really have that kind of scene in KL. Then when I was introduced to Jonathan, I jumped at the chance to do it in KL."

Netto, for one, is ecstatic at the potential of CCKL. "It's a great thing they have going on here. We have a good base for comedy in KL, but this is the first time we're getting international talent," said Netto, who has been doing stand-up for four years and was taken under the wing of Harith Iskandar.

Ideally, each CCKL show is due to be on every third week of the month, because the Singapore shows are usually in the middle of the month. But according to Atherton, it is a very flexible schedule, which very much depends on the availability of the acts they want.

"The good comics we want to get are booked five nights a week until next year, so it can be very hard to get them down here," he said.

"Also, the kinds of comedians we are looking for are those interested in culture. They may not make as much money coming here as they do at home but they want to learn."

Ultimately, Atherton reckons that stand-up is a much rawer form of comedy compared with music, dancing or movies, as it is just about words and ideas, which according to him, are the scariest things in the world.

"Ideas are what we are all about, but of course, a lot of it is just silliness and having a lot of fun," he said.

The Star/ANN