Dilruk Jayasinha: Sri Wanka

‘It has to be about enjoying the process rather than the results.’ Anthony Piovesan speaks to Dilruk Jayasinha ahead of his show Sri Wanka at the 2016 Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Sri-Lankan born comedian Dilruk Jayasinha will return to the stand-up scene at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival, performing his new show Sri Wanka. But, it is his journey from the chaotic streets of Sri Lanka to Melbourne’s most renowned comedy scene that is of equal telling.

Arriving in Australia at age 19, Dilruk began studying accounting and finance at the University of Melbourne. Quickly falling in love with the city of Melbourne, his disdain towards his career choice began rising.

Finding a job with one of the Big Four accounting firms may seem like a dream come true. It was a “crisis”, as Dilruk points out. Uninspired by his job and uncertain about the future, he was seeing the money come in, but his happiness was slowly dissipating.

‘It has to be about enjoying the process rather than the results,’ said Dilruk. ‘It was a weird realisation, it was a crisis because in Sri Lanka all I knew what to do well was to study. It was purely for money so I thought if I had all the money in the world what would I do?’

Comedy was the answer. Inspired by Eddie Murphy’s stand-up comedy television special Delirious as a child, Dilruk wanted to follow a similar route and now finds himself fronting his dream career. The Sri-Lankan born comedian’s first gig was in 2010. Five years later, he has been awarded the 2015 comic of the year by Melbourne’s popular comedy room, Spleen. He performed Sri Wanka at the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival and it was a wide success, generating hype among his fellow comedians and sparking a huge interest in the crowd. Dilruk was surprised by the reaction.

‘It didn’t have much direction, I tried to keep it as low key as possible. It was just a collection of funny stories about me.’

Now viewers can expect more of the same. Calling it an introverted style of humor, Dilruk recounts the stories of his past and comments on his journey to the stand-up scene today.

‘The show will be a lot about my inability to deal with my issues before they become problems. Most times, in a fight or flight response sort of situation, I’ll opt for the flight, which always makes an interesting story.’

Sri Wanka
Victoria Hotel, Acacia Room, 215 Little Collins Street
Every Tuesday-Sunday from March 24 – April 17, 8:30pm and 7:30pm (Sunday)
comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/sri-wanka-dilruk-jayasinha