Jan Lamb Hoi-fung has seemingly done it all in a decades-long entertainment career. One of the most versatile figures in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry, Lamb is known today as a stand-up comedian and one half of the comedic Cantonese rap duo Softhard. But he has also been an actor, emcee, radio host and art director – and he was a graphic designer before entering show business.

Born in 1967 in Hong Kong, he had a fairly typical Hong Kong childhood. He attended St Joseph’s College – the city’s oldest Catholic boys’ secondary school – and after graduating, enrolled in a design diploma course at the Caritas Bianchi College of Careers. In 1988, Lamb was recommended by his sister Sandy Lamb San-san, a radio DJ at the time, for a job as a graphic designer at Commercial Radio Hong Kong.

Within months, his quick wit and comedic talent had been discovered by Winnie Yu Tsang, then general manager and now deputy chairwoman of the broadcaster. Tsang got Lamb and Kot, by then also a designer for Commercial Radio, to host a show together – easily done, as they were already good friends and had great chemistry. The name Softhard is a play on a Cantonese expression that loosely translates as “an iron hand in a velvet glove”.

She wanted the two to complement each other, with Kot representing the “soft”, good cop in audience participation games and Lamb the opposite. As Softhard, they started out as guest hosts and steadily gained popularity among Hong Kong radio li.