Nacer Zorgani

Nacer Zorgani is a French stand-up comedian who performs under the nickname l'Handicapable. He was born in Algiers, Algeria, and moved to France with his family at the age of six, growing up in the Belle de Mai neighborhood of Marseille. Diagnosed at seventeen with a progressive retinal degeneration, he was legally blind by his twenties. Zorgani earned a degree in international financial management and worked for companies including Canal Plus and Thales before choosing in 2016 to pursue stand-up comedy. He built a solo act drawing on his everyday experience of blindness, using self deprecating humor to challenge stereotypes about disability, and became known as one of the few blind performers on the French club circuit, associated with the Barres de Rire collective linked to the Jamel Comedy Club scene. Alongside comedy, Zorgani is an ambassador for the charity Handicap International and, in 2017, became the first amateur boxer with a visual impairment. He is also an accomplished para judoka, competing in the visually impaired J2 category at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, and gained wider recognition as the public address announcer for Olympic boxing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a role inspired by ring announcer Michael Buffer. Nicknamed Zatoichi, after the fictional blind swordsman, and affectionately called la Tornade by those around him, he continues to combine his stand-up comedy career with competitive sport and disability advocacy.