INTERVIEW WITH STAND-UP COMEDIAN DRAGOS GIUGULA

One of the most popular stand-up comedians came yesterday to Zagreb and performed in History Club in Tkalčićeva ulica. He is Dragos Giugula, a 32-year-old Romanian known as a famous Continental Europe stand-up comedian who lives in Berlin in Germany. His comedy is named ‘Dark but cute’ and it is based on culture and everyday life. He produced, promoted, and performed a stand-up comedy tour in Europe in over 30 countries. He set up over 100 shows in one year.

I heard you started your career in Singapore. Can you tell me when and how it started?

I was working in Singapore in 2016. I was looking for an IT company where I can do sales. And what happened was one of my friends was doing stand-up comedy and said to me: ‘Hey buddy it’s pretty funny you should check it out’. I was like ‘Yeah, it is pretty funny, why wouldn’t I try?’ and I went, did a couple of jokes and it started pretty shitty but then I did jokes about Romania and the first joke was trying to express Romania to people in Singapore and I tried to do some comparisons between Malaysia and Europe, and they loved it. Everybody was laughing because they understood that they have some similarities with Europe. I started doing stand-up in Malaysia two or three shows a week but there was a lot of money in Singapore and there were so many comedians from New York. They asked me if I wanted to do openers with some small jokes and I thought: ‘Oh, maybe I have a future in this.

You have so many fans around Europe and Asia. How do you react when you see people do not understand some of your jokes?

I have to make sure my comedy is simple and easy to understand. I cannot go too complicated. If I talk about something, I’ll explain it a little bit. I call it the educational part. For example, people in Singapore did not know anything about Romania so I had to do some explanations to them and give them some elements. I tried to explain tradition, maybe even culture so I had a little educational and introductional part. People do not know too much about the world, they know very little.

You have several stand-up accomplishments. Can you name some of them?

I think the biggest one is being able to tour around Europe, to over 30 countries and 80 cities. And I actually think I’m the only comedian that has done this so far. Stand-up comedy in Europe is not that big and I’m a Romanian who performs, not only in my native country, but all over Europe in English which is my second language, and I am proud of myself. I’m doing stand-up comedies for the Europeans as a European and it makes me happy to see other people’s smiles.

You have a pretty good connection with your audience. Did anyone ever have complaints about your sense of humour?

I don’t really have because I’m trying not to be too offensive in my comedy. I talk very light level stereotypes and jokes about it, but we all know it is true and there is no need to be insulted.  Although, I hear sometimes people saying I am emphasising too many negative things about Romania and I am like: ‘C’mon man, it’s not me’. But it is chill, not many people get offended. People nowadays start coming to my show and they know what they are coming for.

How are you feeling about tonight’s show? Did the audience fulfil your expectations?

Yeah, yeah it was great.  The show was amazing. The second show was insane, you know. The energy was good, and this is one of the most important things why I am doing this in this part of the world. People appreciate what happens in suburbia and most comedy comes from the United States, and it is well known that people there do not know shit about people in Europe so most of the time we are disconnected from them. They just stand and do not move. They talk about the weather and stuff. It is kind of funny, and the audience loves it but the feeling is like: ‘Eh’. So, when I do comedy, I am into it. I move, I jump. I am not standing on the stage doing nothing. Also, I educate people and talk about culture and life. People love it and I love it too.

When can we expect to see you again in Croatia?

Well, I think I’ll come back maybe like once or twice a year. Challenge is always finding new material. So, I think maybe in September, maybe even December. We’ll figure out the time we can come.

Fotografije: Lira Kefelja, privatna arhiva