A good starting point for comedy is the 'funny drunk' archetype. You can have a morose, no nonsense businessman of a character who, upon drinking, becomes a clumsy oaf who is more likely to put a foot in their mouth than on the ground. I do this with Weaver, who drinks to cope with stress.
As for evil, try not making them directly evil. Try for a neutral or even good person who has a very unpopular motive and work from there. Perhaps he robs people to sustain ailing family, or believes submitting to the Garleans will be less devastating than resistance. (Doma anybody?) A villain with depth tends to have arguably defensible goals.
As for myself, I cannot play non-human/hyur characters. Races in most settings tend to be very restricted in lore and character direction.