The Malaysian underground stand-up comedy scene got a boost ever since The Crackhouse Comedy Club opened its doors to comedy aficionados on May 2014. Before this, Malaysian stand-up acts were performing at night club spaces or corporate events such as at Zouk KL in which weekly comedy nights were held for those already in the scene.
New and budding stand-up comedians had limited venues to practice their craft as they did not have a go-to-place to congregate and perform at open mics for practice and to test new material. That was until local comedian Rizal Van Geyzel , corporate guru Shankar Santhiram and some former partners got together and created the Crackhouse to develop and nurture the burgeoning underground Malaysian stand-up comedy scene.
The Crackhouse features live entertainment and has held nightly shows featuring the best local and international comics with the likes of Douglas Lim, Paul Ogata, Gina Yashere, Shazia Mirza, Jocelyn Chia, Joanne Kam, Mad Sabah and more big names in the international and local scene.
Several local acts have used the Crackhouse as a training ground for material and later ended up on international tours or streaming platforms such as Netflix and Comedy Central Asia.
However, since the pandemic, co-founder Rizal Van Geyzel says they have been heavily affected, as live shows were restricted. He decided to focus on his second passion next to comedy, which was food, having studied to be a chef in the States during his college years.
Rizal spent three months personally designing a brand new pizza menu, with every ingredient used prepared freshly in the recently-refurbished kitchen. Now with limited capacity due to the SOPs, the club can keep its doors open by offering a full dine-in menu to customers.
Staying true to its comedy flagship, every order comes with a QR code containing a 1-min comedy clip provided by past International headliners, showing solidarity with the club as well as providing laughter during the lockdown.
The menu itself exemplifies the spirit of the club – daring its customers to try something new while maintaining the club’s Malaysian roots. The new menu includes crowd favourites such as the “ayam what I am” chicken and pesto pizza, and the “sambal, yet effective” locally-inspired beef pizza in addition to the “sarong party chicks” western/local style chicken wings, and “The underground cookie”, meant as a cheeky British-inspired version to the Subway cookie, but made more delicious with the addition of burnt butter.
For deliveries, order directly from their website, and organise your pick up from their kitchen in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI). However, if you live around the vicinity of TTDI and Damansara, you can benefit from the low delivery costs and order from Grab, Air Asia food, and Beep delivery.
