The 5er: Comedian Naz Osmanoglu

Comedian Naz Osmanoglu

Worst advice: "Yes, you should definitely wear that funny hat onstage."

 As y'all know, I have a slight sick sense of humour, which means I have a huge affection towards british humour.  I even spelled "humour" like they do.  So, when I was introduced to funnyman Naz Osmanoglu (yes, that's his real name), I was intrigued and that was just the beginning.  He's half English, half Turkish and well, a prince as wikipedia reports, "Prince Şehzade Nazım Ziyaeddin Nazım Osmanoğlu, Imperial Prince of the Ottoman Empire more commonly known as Naz Osmanoglu."  I'm suddenly feeling so inadequate and not worthy. 

Nonetheless, "The 5er" jumps the pond this week to chat it up with the comedian to find out what or rather whom inspired him to jump onto the comedy bandwagon, how maybe a "born again" experience on stage can help one become a better performer and who he name drops as his one-night stand dream girl.  You never know, Naz, your dream may come true here in Hollywood with Ms. Cattrall!

Tell me a little about your comedic background and why you think you're funny.

Well, it all started when I saw Richard Ayoade (Director of "Submarine" & ex Cambridge Footlights (comedy troupe)) do a twenty minute stand up set at my school when I was about 14. It was amazing and I didn't really understand what was happening, I just knew I wanted to do that thing that he was doing. Then I watched Eddie Murphy's "Delirious" and worried that I would never be able to so easily make stuff up like that on the cuff and got quite disheartened...but after a few years I realised it was a craft and it wasn't actually all improvised there on the spot and so I decided to give it a go at university with my mates who now are my colleagues - we write sketches for TV as WitTank and I also do stand up.

Why am I funny? Because I was a MASSIVE loser as a kid. Big time social reject. Short, podgy, scared of people (especially girls) and terrible at sport. Slowly, I realised if I could make people laugh, they forgot to bully me about all the other stuff...

 Richard Ayoade - Comedian/Director/Writer

I'm obsessed with British TV.  Ask our friend Ed as I constantly ask him for suggestions on what the latest brit shows I should watch. Do you have any fave shows? Do tell!
My favourite British TV shows: "Peep Show" (amazing but not for the faint hearted, it's not a feel good show), "The Thick of It" (Malcolm Tucker is amazing), Garth Marenghi's "Darkplace Illumination" (Richard Ayoade is in this - it is a spoof horror doc and it's probably the best one ever). If you like sketch shows, the best one in my opinion is "Big Train" (Simon Pegg, Mark Heap - consistently hilarious)....

Many people think - "How hard can it be to get up on stage and tell a joke or two?!?"  I know that' s not the case.  So, what's one of the biggest challenges that you never realized existed in your journey to becoming a successful comedian? 
Well, the most difficult part of stand-up is being consistently good. It takes literally years to learn how to play all the different rooms, how to unify all the different crowds, how to deal with different types of people... and that is a slog, especially when dying onstage is part of the learning process. You have to die in order to learn and when you first start out, that can be particularly challenging. Worst death I've ever had was my first ever 20 min set in front of more than 100 people. No one laughed for 17 minutes then there was some coughing. I was quite sweaty after.

Also heckling is sometimes hard, although I tend to enjoy them now. Worst heckle I ever had was: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?  

What's the best advice you've ever received? And the worst advice?
Best advice: "Keep going, keep writing, keep gigging". I'ts the only way to get better, by constantly pushing yourself.

Worst advice: "Yes, you should definitely wear that funny hat onstage."

If you could have a one night stand with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Kim Cattrall. She had it "Mannequin", she had it in "Sex And The City" (and yes I have watched it all) and she still has it now. I don't know why, but I really think we would just get on...

Check out these fresh clips of Naz's work.  This here bit is of his character "Antonio".



And here's a sketch he did for WitTank called "The Break Up".