SLID flies in Jeff Mirza, ‘Best Comedian’ award winner at BT Emma Awards

Friday, 21 November 2014 01:58 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Jeff Mirza, an award winning British comedian and actor, will fly into Sri Lanka to perform stand-up comedy at the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) Comedy Dinner Theatre on 27 November at the Oak Room of the Cinnamon Grand Colombo. SLID, in contrast to the usual corporate training programs, invites you to laugh out loud with Jeff Mirza and relax and enjoy an evening of light entertainment amidst a distinguished gathering. Commencing with cocktails at 7 p.m., the evening will extend to wining and dining at an exquisite six course sit down meal with orchestral music from Friends in Harmony, and a special performance by Natasha Ratnayake. Jeff, the talented comedian, will ensure a night of amusement and laugh out fun! He graduated from the University of London with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering and worked as a structural engineer. Having won the Hackney Empire East West Quest in his early years, he went solo into stand-up. Since that initial success he gave up his engineering career to follow his passion to become a full time comedian. He has come a long way since, and was a finalist in the BBC Open Mic awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which is the largest annual arts festival in the world. Jeff was the winner at the ‘Best Comedian’ award in the BT Emma Awards in 2001, and in 2003 he was the winner of the Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Comedy award in London. Jeff has performed stand up to sell out audiences all over the UK and internationally in the USA, Holland, Dubai, and is happy to return here to Sri Lanka since his last visit in 2006. Jeff’s career has not been short of controversy and has at times landed him on the front cover of the newspapers, but most of Jeff’s material is about his world-view, cultural issues, identity, and family life. He has written pieces for magazines and is well known on the London comedy circuit. More recently he has been involved with interfaith dialogue between different religions and communities and often called in to lighten-up and moderate contentious debates between multi-faith conservatives. The Guardian commented that “Jeff’s warm, incisive, wit-strewn comedy celebrates the absurd” and also described him as “Europe’s Top Asian Comedian”. Time Out described him as “The sharpest Asian stand up on the alternative comedy circuit but also Britain’s best loved Asian comedian”. Jeff’s acting career includes ‘Bend It Like Beckham,’ ‘Tomb Raider,’ ‘It Was an Accident’ and ‘Desi Boyz’. He is presently developing a television sitcom and writing new material for a world tour. This evening of fun and entertainment will be sponsored by KBSL information Technologies Ltd., IWS Holdings Ltd. and IWS Aviation Ltd., Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and Continental Insurance Lanka Ltd. and will be partnered by SriLankan Airlines, Daily Mirror and Daily FT, Gold FM, Leo Burnett, AGXA (an AG International company), and Coca Cola. This fund raiser will help further SLID’s endeavor in taking the message of corporate governance to the provinces. More information could be obtained on telephone numbers 2301646/8 and by email to [email protected]. The institute’s website is www.slid.lk.