Jonathan Atherton

Tonight we’re joined by a highly regarded man who had a big hand in shaping the local comedy scene for both Malaysia and Singapore, Jonathan Atherton! This Australian had one heck of a life where his travels since young from the US, Asia, Australia, Central and East Africa.

 

Jonathan hails from Brisbane, Australia but he grew up in a United Nations housing areas at Queens, New York City while his dad was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. He was exposed to a world where he’d meet other kids who spoke a multitude of languages from Spanish to Swahili and that grew his want to learn languages and travel.

 

He studied Linguistic, Anthropology and Religion at the University of Queensland, Australia. From his travels, he lived in Africa for a good two years, where he worked as a safari tour guide, an English teacher, became a salvage diver and a bit of acting work. Jonathan’s acting work has brought him to places as well.

 

In 1977, he had his film debut in the film, The Mango Tree. He’s highlight was meeting Robin Williams in 1986 whilst being an extra in the film, Good Morning Vietnam. He talked about entering comedy with Robin where he received that the all-good-thumbs-up from him and proceeded to dive into the comedic world.

30 years later, Jonathan Atherton has been in the forefront in pushing comedy in the South East Asia scene with being one of the co-founders of The Crackhouse Comedy Club with Rizal van Geyzel and Shanktar Santhiram. The club now known as “the number one comedy destination of Taman Tun.”

 

For the record, Jonathan scored 6!

If you've liked what you've heard from the podcast, catch more about Jonathan via the website here! That Time Of Night