Akmal comedy out of this world

Packing all of his belongings and moving from busy Cairo in Egypt to Sydney, comedian Akmal Saleh quickly adapted to the Australian way of life.

At just 11 years of age, Saleh's family packed "17 suitcases and grandma" and set off for an adventure - landing 24 hours later in what seemed like another planet, their new home.

"We went from one of the most populated cities in the world at the time to probably the least populated city in the world - Sydney - on a Sunday," he said.

"It seemed to me that the place was closed. You know, shut - closed for renovation."

Saleh has made a name for himself as a successful comedian, television personality and radio presenter, and does voiceovers for many popular children's television show characters, such as Blinky Bill.

He was always interested in comedy from a young age, learning all the Monty Python records by heart while his peers were busy studying hard.

After school - where he said he didn't do well as "he couldn't concentrate" - he tried many jobs before finding the comedy industry worked best for him.

"I was getting a lot of jobs but I was losing them because I would sleep in and forget to go, so I'm in the perfect job," Saleh said.

"In my job there are lots of nights when you think, 'Maybe I should have been a doctor like my mother wanted me to'.

"No matter how well I do - and I have done pretty well - my parents, my family have never accepted it. Even up until recently, I would say, 'Mum, look - I am on TV', and she would say, 'Yeah, very good but you know, if you kept your job at Telstra, you would have been manager by now'. That's the attitude you get - it's not a real job. And to some extent it's not - it's kind of a pretend job, really."

Saleh's loose and spontaneous style will "hopefully be funny" for the audience of his one-man show on June 25 at Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre.