David Kau

Funnyman Kau

Photo courtesy www.mariegreyspeakers.com

David Kau was born and raised in Kroonstad in the Free State by his mother who was a single parent and worked as a prison warder.

David battled to decide on a suitable career – his childhood ambition while in primary school was to become a doctor. He had a change of heart in high school and decided he wanted to be an engineer. After completing his Grade 12 and obtaining a Senior Certificate, he enrolled for an electrical engineering diploma at the then Pretoria Technikon, which is now called the Tshwane University of Technology. A year into the course, he realised he would not survive in a career that required overalls and so he quit and headed to the University of Cape Town, enrolled for a speech and drama diploma and graduated in 1998.

Less than a year into the course, he wrote and then performed The Rainbow Nation Tour at the annual Grahamstown National Arts Festival. He nicknamed himself Previous Lee Disadvantaged.

Soon after being discovered and realising that that he could make people laugh, David left the Mother City for Johannesburg, in pursuit of fame and fortune and relying on his passion to want to make people laugh.
He performed in the Heavyweight Comedy Jams at Emperors Palace from 2000 and the Smirnoff Comedy Blackout from 2002 to 2004. The line-up included the then budding comedians Kagiso Lediga, Tshepo Mogale and Roni Modimola.

In 2001, David was featured on The Phat Joe Show on television as Little Brown Kau, which helped him carve a niche in the market as a black comedian. Then with Lediga, he went on to co-create and produce The Pure Monate Show television series.

He was selected to represent South Africa at the 2001 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montréal, Canada. He also performed alongside comedians from New Zealand , Australia , Europe and Canada.