British-Kurdish comedian Kae Kurd announces UK 2020 tour
The announcement comes after his first performance on the famous BBC stand-up comedy show “Live at the Apollo” was aired on Tuesday.
Kae is the UK’s only professional stand-up comedian who comes from a Kurdish background. He started performing in 2011.
His stage name is derived from a time when his fellow students in school could not pronounce his given name, Korang Abdulla, and instead would say, “K, he’s a Kurd.” He eventually made the name his own, appropriating it as “Kae Kurd.”
Kurdistan 24 spoke to the comedian in July, following the release of his first-ever comedy special “Kurd Your Enthusiasm.”
He tells a variety of jokes which range from the Kurdish fight against the so-called Islamic State, the general refugee crisis, Brexit, and pop-culture.
Read More: British-Kurdish comedian wants to break boundaries after release of first stand-up special
Kae’s parents were born and raised in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province. He told Kurdistan 24 that his father, Jaza, and uncles, Halo and Barzan, were Peshmerga who fought for Kurdish rights against the former Iraqi regime under dictator Saddam Hussein.
In 1988, his family fled to the city of Saqqez in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) when his father suffered mustard gas poisoning in battle. When his parents heard that the UK was accepting refugees in 1990, they got on a plane with Kae and moved there, where his father received proper treatment for his lungs.
Kae told Kurdistan 24 in a previous interview that he is aiming even higher for the future—to have his own TV show.
“I want to act; I want to be global, but all in good time.”
