Francois van As
Francois Van As started his journey by becoming part of the Afrikaans comedy group called ‘Die Gemengde Vrugte’ which also featured Kobus Galloway (creator of the popular ‘Idees vol Vrees’) and fellow comedian, Schalk Bezuidenhout based in South Africa too.
After playing in a number of rock bands in his early years, he decided to go solo and try his hand at Afrikaans stand-up comedy as it hadalways been a passion of his.
In 2013 Francois released a digital EP featuring 6 of his comical songs alongside a video for ‘Die Geskenk’. YouTube views for this music video rocketed well past 10,000 almost overnight.
2 years into the Afrikaans comedy scene and after having performed at a variety of venues and festivals, including Vryfees, Aardklop, and Kknk, Francois started his transition to English and Bilingual comedy.
This opened up a myriad of new doors for him and he soon became a regular support act at venues such as Cape Town Comedy Club, The Box, Parkers Comedy & Jive and Park Acoustics.
He describes his comedic material and performance as being deadpan, self-deprecating and beautifully whimsical. His dry jokes and sense of humour are accompanied by his staggering (and often surprising) musical talent and vocal abilities.
He recently won Comedy Central’s Grab the Mic competition in 2016 and the future looks very promising for this rising artist.