They say to master a craft one has to practise 10 thousand hours focused on said craft.

Akmal has been doing stand-up since 1990. In his words, he has seen every “sh*t hole” in this country performing his various routines.

Trial and Error is his latest manifestation of his ADHD mind- again his admission; and what a brilliant piece of humorous narrative it is.

With that 10 thousand hours on stage behind him, as an audience member, you felt comfortable in his ability to take the collective on a journey of not only belly-aching laughter, but to a place where you could reflect on his observations of life.

From the get go, he heckled an audience member to stop filming him because he wanted that punter to “be in the moment“. That set the scene for the rest of the intelligent and anecdote-filled observational humour we were treated to.

There were two major themes to his show. The performance was a dress rehearsal for another show. He was trialling material. Some jokes did fall a little flat but he managed to extricate himself from every pitfall through genius ad-lib, such is the experience of the man.

The second theme was how we gullible humans get scammed. His hilarious take on crystals, religion, Middle Eastern politics, watching too much bad news on commercial channels, smoking and gambling had the audience in raptures- and also agreeing with him.

Good comedy simply makes you laugh; exceptional comedy makes you laugh and think. This was a master class of comedy. If the sold-out audience’s reaction was anything to go by, I suggest you book your tickets immediately.