THE buzz around town is Sugar Sammy and his new show Down with the Brown at iZulu Theatre, Sibaya.

And you couldn't ignore it, even if you tried: his posters are everywhere and a sound byte from his show is played repeatedly on a popular radio station.

Sugar Sammy is noted as one of the hottest comedians on the international circuit. He has performed all over Canada, the US, England and Holland. He was also voted top comedy act for three years running by The Montreal Mirror.

I recently caught up with Sugar Sammy at the Royal Grill at Sibaya. This is his second visit to South Africa; he performed at the Cape Town Comedy Festival last September and was a hit with the audience.

He tells me he knew he wanted to do stand-up at the age of nine.

"My mum used to drag me along to go and rent Bollywood movies at this rundown, kind of ghetto rental store where all the movies were pirated.

"We never had a membership to a Hollywood movie store and when I saw a pirated version of Eddy Murphy Delirious, the only English movie at the store, I bugged my mum to rent it. It was the filthiest thing I ever saw; I was laughing till my stomach hurt. And that day, I realised that that was what I wanted to do - make people laugh the way I was laughing."

Sammy had his first public performance in high school when his friends from the African Student Society decided to put on a comedy show to raise funds.

"They couldn't afford comedians and, because they knew me as the 'funny guy', asked me if I wanted to do the show. I was like cool, we'll raise funds that way. We expected to get 100 people and 400 showed up.

"I was nervous as hell and freaking out. The society made a good amount of money and was set for three years. I made the front page of the school paper and the guidance counsellor introduced me to one of the comedy club owners in town. And it just took off from there."

There is no great story behind the name Sugar Sammy. It was the name of his promotion/production company that was started to supplement his income while he tried to make it on the comedy circuit.

Sammy says understanding the audience is key to relating to them.

"You just adapt. Lots of observing, reading the papers etc. Most of my material comes from being around people," he laughs.

Performances are on Tuesday to Fridays at 8pm and on Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm and Sundays at 3pm until March 4. Booking is through Computicket or the Sibaya box office at 031 580 5555.

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