Comedian mixes chemistry and comedy

He’s the country’s youngest professional comedian and he studies…chemistry?

Eighteen year-old Lewis Dean may be a green banana in the tight-knit fruit basket of New Zealand comedy, but with Seven Days’ Ben Hurley as a mentor and a steady stream of gigs, it’s difficult to see how he fits in any time for beakers or Bunsen burners.

Mr Dean credits Ben Hurley for breaking him into the scene back in 2009 at a Class Comedians workshop series held by the New Zealand Comedy Festival.

In 2010 he opened for one of Hurley’s shows and has performed professionally ever since.

“My granddad was a magician, so Mum reckons that’s where the stage presence comes from.”

The Waikato University student this year also became the first person ever to earn a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship for comedy.

The prestigious award is handed out each year to students who demonstrate excellence academically as well as in either a sport or a performing art.

“It took quite a bit of convincing, actually. There’s kind of an expectation that your degree will supplement your art…but as a comedian, what degree do you do?”

Dean says his age isn’t usually an issue as a comic, though admits he can’t get away with some of the less “family-friendly” material many others can, and he still remembers the first joke he ever told on stage.

“It was about my ears. I have quite big ears, and I used to get bullied. I’d come home crying and my mum would try and cheer me up. She’d hug me and look me in the eyes and say I don’t have big ears…I just have a really small head.”

For information on Dean’s upcoming gigs, check out www.comedy.co.nz