Imran Yusuf: "My dream is to be bigger than Chris Rock"

Imran Yusuf has been working in comedy for years, but his career exploded last year when his free show, as part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival, was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award. Audiences queued round the block to get into his shows and since then, he’s appeared everywhere, including BBC3’s Edinburgh Comedy Fest and the Michael McIntyre Road Show. The BBC described Yusuf as the hardest working comedian and he tells me he had 322 gigs last year. 101 of these were in Edinburgh in August. A practising Muslim, he was also fasting for Ramadan at the time. How did he not die?

"I came pretty close on stage a couple of times," he says. "There were moments where I felt myself about to collapse, but the professional side of me said, 'Don’t fall over, you’ll look stupid.' It was quite punishing but I love what I do. I’ve wanted to be a comedian since I was very young. I love the craft. Comedy is a brilliant platform to explore ideas."

A lot of these ideas he explores onstage are to do with his life and upbringing. Throughout this, he seems to resist the idea of putting himself or anyone else into neat little boxes, which is a real breath of fresh air. Does this represent a pushing back against the current fearful climate?

"I wouldn’t say necessarily pushing against; it’s been a natural evolution of intense introspection. When I went away to the Middle East for my religious pilgrimage, I really questioned the validity of my faith and why it meant so much to me. What were the mechanisms in my head which made it such an issue." Born in Kenya, schooled in the US and now resident in Britain, he spent a lot of time considering what makes up our identity.  Whilst he thinks that the sense of belonging that we get from being part of a group or community is comforting, ultimately it’s a manufactured  construct that can be as divisive as it is uniting. "All that binds us, the only thing that matters, is how we actively choose to behave from moment to moment in our daily lives amongst the people around us. That’s our true identity. I realised I didn’t have to participate with a group to feel as though I was more or less significant than anyone else."

He describes his pilgrimage as the most difficult thing he’s ever done. "It tested my faith and made me see that there's a greater purpose than a manufactured life with a nice car and television. There is a greater wisdom to embrace and a better quality of life to achieve. There is something more beautiful in this life than this daily grind of ticking boxes."

It is perhaps this drive towards beauty that sustains his reputation as such a hard worker. "A lot of creative people are like that, people who want to communicate their ideas, they enjoy working hard.” Since the nomination and flurry of adoring press, Yusuf’s career has really gathered speed, with work flowing in from all quarters. Never one to rest on his laurels, he acknowledge that this is where he really has to prove himself: “I have to prove I’m not a gimmick; that I love my craft and want to go the distance. I want to be the best comedian I can become and reach the echelons of greatness and respect that my heroes have. I always tell people whenever I go into a meeting that my dream is to be bigger than Chris Rock."

He tells me he thinks that sounds crazy, but with his combination of drive and talent, I don’t think it sounds crazy at all.