If you love a good belly laugh then you should already be familiar with the name Stephen K Amos. Stephen has been a regular on the world comedy circuit for years now and this year alone he visited Australia three times. He shared a few cups of tea with Same Same’s Jade Starr.

Since 2001 Stephen has on some of the biggest comedy festival stages around the world. In addition to his appearances on prime time TV he has been a regular performer at The Edinburgh Comedy Festival, London’s Comedy Store and Melbourne’s Comedy Festival. His brand of humour has won him a swag of awards and even a chance to meet the Queen. He was also recently nominated as Stonewall Entertainer of the year in London.

In a world driven by labels, openly gay Amos simply describes himself as “6’2, tall, dark and handsome with a good sense of humour.”

“I always knew I was a bit different,” says Stephen of being gay. “I did all the stereotypical things like playing with the girls… I never actually had a realisation; I just knew it.”

He believes that being openly gay has not had a positive or negative effect on his life or career. “Honesty is the best policy. If I started doing homophobic jokes and it came out later I was gay it would look bad.” Stephen believes his honesty has definitely worked in his favour.

“Obviously there are people out there who disagree with other people’s life choices; I just don’t have the time or energy to waste to worry about what other people think about my choices. There are so many bigger things to worry about in this world than sexual preference, like starvation, politicians lying to us and racism.”

Stephen says that the beauty of life is that we are all different and instead of hating each other we should be educating ourselves on our unique differences.

“I can’t stand judgmental, righteous or preachy people. That is why I have a problem in general with most organised religions as they say many good things and many contradictory things which come down to where a person is born in the world. So many things come down to chance.”

When asked about his stage debut, Stephen recalls his very first performance being quite good because his friends were in the audience. “It was my second gig that was quite awful as those friends weren’t there!” he laughs. “It was then I realised I had to really work at it. You can’t just stand up there and think you are funny. You have to win the crowd over.” And win them over he did.

As Stephen tours the world making other people laugh, I can’t help but wonder who makes him laugh.

“Some people say the funniest and most outrageous things! The innocence of young people who have not yet had their minds poisoned with other peoples ideologies make me laugh. I was with my nephew recently and he was laughing. When I asked him what was funny he replied ‘I don’t know’ and that was beautiful. And who was I to challenge him? If an adult replied with the same answer we would think they were mad.”

The title of Stephen’s new DVD Find The Funny states that you can find the funny in anything. Comedians have always been doing this and Stephen thinks that these days comedy walks the edge like never before. “In my opinion I believe you can find the funny in anything. You may not find it in the moment but it is possible. Many things happen to us in our lives that are hurtful and damaging and in that moment they are not funny, but looking back years later the humour becomes apparent.”

A woman approached Stephen at a recent DVD signing and spoke of her brother dying from cancer and how much pain he is in from laughing. “She stated that her brother would love the DVD and began to well up. I suggested she grab the DVD and take it to him, if it hurts him while he laughs well at least he’s laughing. So she bought something that would hurt him and relieve him at the same time which is so cathartic.

“It’s hard when there are things that are tragic and very painful but if you try to put a positive spin on it then you can find the funny.” Laughter is powerful. Stephen describes the gift of humour and entertainment as “absolutely amazing, no wonder many performers say it’s like a drug.”

On stage Stephen has a tendency to slam his microphone into his face which really grabs your attention.

“Sometimes I have drawn blood and can’t even remember why I started doing it. You just get lost in the moment. I also have suffered from the microphone mesh shape on my face which looked like a facial rash.”

Every comedian endures a blowout show from time to time. Stephen recalls a violent show back in the UK where words were exchanged between himself and a gentleman who continuously kept going to the bathroom. A short time after another audience member got involved and the room became an all in brawl. “It’s not often this kind of thing happens but from time to time it does – luckily it’s rare.”

Away from comedy Stephen enjoys the simple pleasures – spending nights at home, watching TV, and hanging out with close friends and family. His family at first didn’t understand his love of comedy but have slowly warmed to the idea. “They are so getting it now! They have seen me on TV and with the Queen. They don’t come to see me all that often but are very proud.”

Earlier this year Stephen sold out shows at Melbourne’s Comedy Festival and he is due to return again later this year. He is a regular on Good News Week and now has his new DVD. Obviously he loves Australia which prompted me to ask if he was reincarnated as an Aussie which state would be want to be born? “I think it depends on which year more to the point.” After a few laughs and a long thing he chose Victoria.

I asked Stephen about his thoughts on racism in our country. “I don’t think Australia is heavily racist but there is definitely a lot of ignorance which is not country specific. People have said the most outrageous things to me here but at the end of the day Australia should not be racist, and if you had a brain you would know that there’s a history of people here who have been dispossessed. People need to look through the history books and ask themselves where they came from before judging others.”

So will we be seeing Stephen at next year’s Mardi Gras festival? “Sadly every year it falls while I’m performing elsewhere,” he says.

Stephen said he was asked to go on television to talk about the ‘black face skit’ incident on Hey Hey It’s Saturday and he kindly refused. “Every single country suffers from this kind of ignorance and it seems easy for people to blame groups of people when it’s just not that simple.”

Stephen K Amos returns to Australia next year for shows all over the country – “well maybe not Coober Pedy”. His DVD Find The Funny is available in stores now.