Louis Zezeran (AUS)

Louis Zezeran

Australian Louis Zezeran is a well known entertainer and presenter in Estonia. He is regarded as the godfather of Estonian Stand Up comedy, having founded the group “Comedy Estonia” in 2010 and growing it to be the most recognised entertainment brands in the country.

Growing up in coastal small town NSW in Australia, Louis has a background in IT with a first class honors degree in Computer Science. He has previously worked as a IT consultant and trainer, focusing on enterprise integration. He was involved in the early days of the Estonian state’s “X-Road” project which now underpins their e-Governance system.

Since arriving in Estonia more than a decade and a half ago, Louis took the shift from tech to entertainment. Back in 2010 stand-up comedy had not arrived in Estonia, so he and a few friends took the opportunity to produce and perform in the first shows. At first they literally stood on a coffee table at the now legendary “English Comedy Night” at Drink Bar in Tallinn.

It was soon clear there was a demand for this art-form in Estonia and after not too long the majority of events moved to the Estonian language with the addition of young local comedians. This marked a key point where stand-up started to be accepted as a real cultural phenomenon and Comedy Estonia as an event and talent agency was born.

Currently Louis uses his public speaking and communication skills to lead tech & business focused conferences, combining both his broad technical and entertainment skills to provide a larger than life presence on stage.

After leading Comedy Estonia for over 13 years, Louis is enthusiastic about teaching the topic leadership. He believes the solution to all business problems revolve around leadership and when we study this topic, we begin to see a framework for how we can better conduct ourselves and our business activities. Louis currently teaches a course entitled “Leadership Lessons from Comedy Estonia” in which he discusses how he was able to apply these principles to a creative group.

Portfolio

IT / Business

• sTARTUp Day Main Host 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 & 2023
• Latitude 59 2020
• JCI European Conference 2018, Riga
• SHIFT Business Festival Turku, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020
• PowerUp Country Finals Estonia 2017, 2018 & 2019
• X-Road Community Event 2019 (Helsinki) & 2020 (Hybrid)
• Industry 4.0 In Practise, Tallinn 2019
• FinTech Inn, Vilnius 2019
• Tallinn Digital Summit (TDS) Open Lecture “AI: from margins to mainstream”, Mektory Tallinn 2019
• Microsoft TechDay Baltics
• Nordic Baltic Security Summit 2018, 2020, 2021 & 2022
• REFRESH 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
• Moontec 2017, 2018
• Robotex 2018, 2021 & 2022
• Swedbank Baltic Card Payment Forum 2017 Vilnius
• Brave2Bloom Tallinn 2023

Government

• Enterprise Estonia Online Demo Day May 2020
• European Commission ISA² Mid-Term conference 2018, Brussels
• European Commission ISA² Sharing and Reuse of IT solutions 2019, Bucharest
• Estonian E-Riigi Akadeemia 2018
• Enterprise Estonia Go Awards 2022
• Estonian e-Governance Conference 2018 & 2022
• Unicorn 59 2021 & 2022

Private Parties

• Tallink Grupp 2017 & 2018 Awards Gala
• Taekwondo European Championships Opening Ceremony 2018 & 2021
• Olybet End of Year 2022
• Bondora End of Year 2022
• Thermory 25
• EstBAN10
• Bigbank WOW Gala 2022
• Paxful New Years Party 2022
• Bolt Summer Summit 2022
• Nordic Investment Bank 2022
• JA Eesti #GEN_E Award Ceremony
• Scoro Summer Days 2022
• Ridango Summer Days 2022
• European Design Awards 2021 & 2022
• Many summer days and private dinners

Event Host

• Extensive experience moderating large conferences throughout Europe
• 10+ year startup CEO with IT background
• Getting shy and reserved Estonian audiences genuinely engaged without being over the top
• Running Q&A sessions with the live audience
• Experienced stage manager able to prepare next speakers and work independently
• Focus on keeping events running to schedule

Public Speaking Topics

Life as a foreigner in Estonia. This could be more light hearted with jokes or could be a more serious look at integrating into a new society. I could also reflect on the growth of Stand Up comedy in Estonia and how it came to be that I am a foreigner but I run a company full of Estonan artists and indeed I do not understand their performances. I have given several talks for International companies about how we developed this multi language working environment.

Developing artists. One of my main roles with Comedy Estonia is artist manager, I guide the careers of our comedians like Sander Õigus and Ari Matti Mustonen. I am passionate about the role of the manager in an artist life and I have significant experience in helping mentor and grow artists. Part of my podcast is devoted to speaking to interesting people in the artist field and breaking down how they do their thing.

Leadership Lessons from Comedy Estonia. After leading Comedy Estonia for over 13 years, Louis is enthusiastic about teaching the topic leadership. He believes the solution to all business problems revolve around leadership and when we study this topic, we begin to see a framework for how we can better conduct ourselves and our business activities. Louis currently teaches a course entitled “Leadership Lessons from Comedy Estonia” in which he discusses how he was able to apply these principles to a creative group.

All of these talks can be given in person or online. Feedback or chat Q&A sessions are encouraged to reinforce the material.

Podcast “Comedy Guy with Louis Zezeran”

You can gain a greater understanding of Louis’ style by listening to his podcast “Comedy Guy with Louis Zezeran”. It focused on one on one conversations with interesting people in Estonia. There is a running thread through the episodes of looking at the business side of the entertainment industry. Louis has a way of reflecting his experiences in running Comedy Estonia against the experiences of those in other fields of entertainment.

Some of the episodes are conversations meant for information and some are just silly fun.

There is also video of many episodes on the YouTube channel

Photos

Videos

I was co-host of the main day conference of “Badgers on Board” for Bolt in 22