Dilruk Jayasinha Is Tackling Islamophobia And Homophobia - In Between Being A Dick

As a kid, Melbourne-based, Sri Lankan-born comedian Dilruk Jayasinha's father spent a lot of time overseas. That meant grabbing his attention while he was in town. "He was always the funny guy with his mates and I had this subconscious seed in my brain saying, 'Ok, so I need Dad's attention, I need to be funny.'" Continuing on the topic of his upbringing, Jayasinha says, "I have an interesting background where my dad is a Buddhist, my mum is a Muslim and I went to a Catholic school. This should be confusing, but I actually took a lot of good stuff from it, how you can appreciate someone else's faith without necessarily having to believe it yourself."

Obsessively watching Eddie Murphy, and also Jim Carrey's eyebrows, on TV, it wasn't just his dad Jayasinha was out to impress. "My brother's five years older than me, and whenever I'd make him laugh he'd go and ask for Mum's handbag and pay me five-to-ten rupees. If it was a really good joke, I'd get 20, so that's when I knew I nailed it."

"Normally I'm the fat guy who talks about being drunk, but don't worry, there's still plenty of jokes and me being an absolute dickhead."

This early flare for stand-up got side-tracked, setting out for the University of Melbourne at 19 years old in order to study accountancy and finance. It wasn't until he was let go from his first big accountancy firm that the passion saw him regularly trek to North Melbourne's Comic's Lounge to brave his first open mic appearance in 2010.

Things have only improved since waving goodbye to his comedy-supportive accountancy gig last year to embrace comedy full-time, with TV spots on Sammy J & Randy In Ricketts Lane and Have You Been Paying Attention?. His latest show to grace the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The Art Of The Dil, is his most ambitious yet. Hot button topics in the media right now, The Art Of The Dil addresses the homophobia wrapped up in his religious upbringing and also Islamophobia explaining a worrying survey last year suggesting half of all Australians approve banning Muslim immigration.

"I still haven't figured out my pitch for telling people about the show because on paper it sounds very serious and unlike me, because normally I'm the fat guy who talks about being drunk, but don't worry, there's still plenty of jokes and me being an absolute dickhead," he insists cheerfully.

It's hard to imagine otherwise with Jayasinha's pervasively optimistic outlook. "I kind of want anyone who is Islamophobic to know, 'Hey, you're not a bad person, you've just been told the wrong things.' It's hard for me to believe that 50% of Australians are bad people because this is a country that welcomed me with such open arms, made me pursue this dream job of mine and feel Australian within two weeks. My default setting is that Australians are great and accepting."

Is his brother still feeding him rupees for gags? "I actually owe him a fair bit of money because there was a time between accounting jobs I had to borrow from him, and it's not rupees this time, it's euros."