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Richelieu Beaunoir shares his top tips for upcoming comedians

Johannesburg – Dozens of SA’s best comedians battled it out for the title of Comedy Central Roast Battle champion, but there could only be one winner.

Durban-born, Richelieu Beaunoir came out fighting in the finale of the show which aired on Monday 20 February, walking away as the champ. Speaking to The Juice, Richelieu says it was a nerve wrecking experience. 

“When I was going through the motions, it’s nerve wrecking. Nothing can prepare you. I like teasing people, it’s like what I do. But when you’re there on the stage and everybody’s looking at you, it’s difficult.” 

And in case you were wondering, the Funnyman also confirmed that Richelieu is indeed his real name. “For the record my real name is Richelieu Beaunoir. My father is a very creative person obviously be cause he, I think, read the Three Musketeers and one of the cardinals is actually Richelieu. That’s what I’ve heard, but I don’t know.” 

Now that he’s taken his position as one of SA’s best, we asked Richelieu to share his top 5 tips for upcoming comedians. 

Here’s what he had to say: 

1. Start watching comedy 

For an upcoming comedian, I would say the first thing you need to do is go and watch comedy. If you want to get into comedy the first thing you should go and do is watch it. Cause there are guys who try and get into it but they don’t actually know.

2. Get writing 

The second I would say is, write material.

3. Get advice 

Once you’ve written your material, the next thing I would say is get advice. Cause I see a lot of guys, what they do is, once they’ve got their material you bounce it off your mother or you bounce it off your friends and they laugh because they like you and they’re used to you. But when you're playing in front of a crowd they don’t know you. Get advice from comedians cause they will be able to teach you things like [comedic] timing. 

4. Get on stage 

Once you have your material, once you’ve practised, once you feel that you’re ready to perform then I would say get on stage.

5. Keep going 

After that it’s just perform, perform, perform. Get on as many stages as you can.


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