Cape Town - Alfred Adriaan became a household name in just under two years after his online fame spread to on-stage success which led to him hosting sold-out shows in cities across the world.
The Eastern Cape-born comedian always dreamt of taking his comedy on a worldwide tour and this was made possible by his success online.
“I always wanted to tour and hoped that my humour would translate in other countries,” he said.
“Social media helped me access expatriates living in other countries that haven’t been home in more than two years.”
He recently hosted an independent show in London after participating in a comedy festival in Perth, Australia.
Adriaan said the highlight of performing to an international audience was being able to connect with many different people.
“It’s been a wonderful thing to see how people respond to me and my family. They have been so kind to us,” he said.
“There are people from all walks of life approaching us and the love has always been tangible.”
In 2020, Adriaan took to Facebook and TikTok to document his life and his online audiences soon fell in love.
Today, he has a following of more than 124 000 people on Facebook and 85 000 TikTok followers with his content amassing 993 000 likes on the app.
The 39-year-old comedian said he was still in awe of the positive response he had received online.
“Now that we are out of lockdown, I’m able to sell bigger shows than I ever was able to before,” he said.
“Before this I struggled to sell even 100 tickets for a show, but now that people know who I am, it makes it much easier for me to sell out shows.”
Adriaan said the past two years were a big breakthrough for his career.
“I’ve always been a comedian. I’ve always loved expressing myself on video and being on camera but no one was watching the videos I made,” he said.
“Lockdown came and suddenly people had the time to view the content I was making. One video led to the next and people became hooked.”
He later included his wife, Natalie, in his videos, which viewers loved. What will surprise his audience is that he never asked his wife to be in the videos.
“I would film videos telling stories and include her in the frame to see if I could get a response out of her,” he said.
He added: “Women started connecting to the husband-and-wife dynamic and what we shared online was organic.”
Although comedy has been a big part of his life for the past 10 years, Adriaan spent a lot of time doing corporate work to remain afloat.
“I needed corporate money to feed my family. Now, I am less dependent on corporate money. It came at the perfect time as corporations don’t have that money to spend anymore,” he said.
Natalie is from Cape Town, where most of Adriaan’s fans live, he said. In sharing content online, he has also let viewers in on some of their moments as a couple and with their son, Ethan.
A trip to the city of love, Paris, with his wife, was another bucket list item the comedian said he wanted to tick off.
“I always wanted to make it happen, even if it wasn’t immediately. I’m very optimistic about life and with the support of my wife and both our families, the optimism continued to develop,” he said.
Before the year ends, Adriaan plans to host live shows in Dubai, Namibia and New Zealand, among others.
He is working on his next show, “Unfit and 40”, which will start touring in December.
Comedian Mario Paul Campbell opened two shows for Adriaan in Cape Town this past week and said it was an honour to share the stage with him.
“Alfred is (very) knowledgeable and professional when it comes to comedy. You can open for anyone but to open for a comic that’s touring the world has been a big experience,” Campbell said.
“We know everyone is there to see Alfred, but it’s still quite a responsibility to open (a show) for him.”